Page 110 of Assassin's Obsession

"You're his family too. Things happened to you that should not have happened because he did not watch over you like a father should watch over his daughter."

I can't deny that. "Those things led me to mom and I wouldn't give her or Cookie up for anything."

"Why do you call her Cookie when her name is Diamond?" He spritzes another section of my hair.

"That's my fault. Mommy never used her given name and she called me her Candi girl when I was little. So, when I started dancing, I used Candi as my stage name."

"Everyone calls you Candi now."

"I ask them to. Candi feels more like me than Kathleen, or even Kath." For a while, Bianca called me Kath because she thought I wanted her to, but I don't. "Cookie wanted to be like me, so she asked us to call her Cookie. It stuck."

"Because of the nickname your mom gave you?" he asks, working on another big tangle.

I grimace. "And because Kathleen is the name of my sperm donor's grandmother."

Mommy probably thought naming me after her would make Stefano more likely to show an interest in me. If that was her plan, it failed.

"Asshole," Angelo mutters, like he knows what I'm thinking. Then he cinches it by saying, "I promise you, Candi, I will never abandon you or our children."

"Now we're having children?" I can't help it, there's a thread of panic in my voice.

Everything about this thing with Angelo has gone fast, but kids? I'm not ready for that.

"We don't have to talk about having them right now. We should wait a couple of years anyway. Relationships benefit from time alone as a couple before bringing children into the mix."

He's quoting the book on relationships again, I bet. But I happen to agree with that nugget of wisdom.

"I never really thought about having kids." Before Angelo, I didn't think about having a relationship either.

My life was consumed with caring for mom and Cookie.

"But you'll be such a good mom."

"You think so?" I tease, wondering what kind of dad Angelo will be.

If he's anything like he is with me, my sister and mom, he'll be an amazing dad.

"Loving comes naturally to you." He meets my eyes in the mirror. "You'll never abandon your children."

"No, if I ever have children, the only thing that would take me from them is death."

"Like your mom."

"Mommy never would have abandoned me if she had a choice." I know that the same way I know deep down that I'm Candi, not Kathleen.

Angelo goes back to brushing my hair. The tangles are pretty much gone now, and his long, smooth strokes are hypnotic. "I notice that you call Mira mom and refer to your biological mother as mommy."

"Yes. Mommy preferred to be called that. I was ten when she died, but I never called her anything else." It's my way of keeping her alive in my heart.

"My mother is alive, but she's got no place in my heart," he says grimly.

"She abandoned you."

Angelo nods and shrugs. "Living with nonno and nonna was a huge improvement over life with her and dad. And that's when I met Severu, Miceli and Salvatore."

"How?"

"We went to the same school."

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