Page 37 of Claimed By the Don

I read it six times before I agree. There’s no way in hell I’ll get a wink of sleep. My mood swings from shock that my dad is dead and that I have a secret child to absolute rage that she cheated me out of my son’s entire life up to this point, that she only told me because she wanted my help. He’s a Falconari from head to toe, and he was so brave sitting small and pale on that Facetime call, running past total strangers to get to his mom after the day he'd had.

I wonder if he’ll need counseling. I make a note in my phone to set up an appointment with my old counselor because I’m going to need it. Too much happened today for me to process it on my own. I’m going to need help coming to terms with the loss of my dad and now a brand-new son along with a ton of complicated feelings about it.

I pace the floor, knowing I can’t close my eyes till I know everything. I message Daisy to see if she’s still up. She is, and I drive to her mom’s house. She meets me on the porch.

She’s barefoot, and her hair is wet. She’s in sleep shorts and a tank top. I go hard at the sight of her like that, and I kind of hate myself for it. It’s inevitable, the way my body responds to her. Even now, knowing how she betrayed me, everything she took from me callously, selfishly, I still want to yank her shorts down and back her up against the house, make her sob my name and confess that she’s mine.

“Where do you want me to start?” she asks.

I scrub my hands over my face and sit down on the old porch swing. She takes a seat beside me but not too close. I have good memories of this swing, kissing her here, whispering about our future together, fingering her until she squirmed and I had tokiss her to swallow her cries. Those memories have no place here though.

“The beginning, I guess,” I say.

“I found out I was pregnant; I was scared, and I left town. I drove as far as I could. I was in a panic and I just wanted to hide out, never be found. I left everyone I knew behind. I thought I was doing the right thing at the time, but I was wrong, and my reasons—look, if I was too afraid to be with a guy in the Mob, I shouldn’t have been with you to start with. A pregnancy didn’t make it a more dangerous lifestyle, it just made it permanent to me in a way I couldn’t face. Before that I knew I could walk away. But once there was a baby, that tied me to you for the rest of my life. And we were kids. We had a great time, lots of fighting and making up and it was like the roller coaster on Coney Island in a lot of ways. Ups and downs, exciting and a little danger just for fun.”

She sighs, and I know she’s trying not to make excuses, not to justify what she did. I appreciate it, but the truth is, everything she says just makes me mad at this point.

“I wouldn’t even let my mom have a picture of him in a frame because what if someone came over and saw it and knew. Because all you have to do is look at him for one second and you know he’s Benny Falconari’s kid.” She had a rueful lopsided grin at that. “He’s so amazing, Benny. You won’t even believe it. He’s sweet and smart and funny. He’s the best parts of us and none of the bad. I’m so sorry I did this to you and to him. I don’t have a right to ask you to forgive me for such a huge betrayal,” she stops and sniffs, trying not to cry.

I don’t say anything for a while. I just look down at the ground and sit there, weighing what to say next.

“Remember the nights I used to sneak you out your window?” I say finally. She looks surprised and nods.

“Yeah, we’d drive around in your truck, lay out under the stars.”

“Wanna go for a ride?” I ask her. She bites her lip and nods.

“Let me go tell my mom and grab some shoes.”

I get in my truck and I’m almost surprised when she dashes back out of the house and runs to the passenger side.

She climbs in my truck and shuts the door.

“Where to?” she says.

27

DAISY

“I’m sorry about all of this. And about your dad. You didn’t deserve any of it. I’ve cost you so much time.”

“Stop,” he tells me.

“I can’t. There’s more.”

He cuts his eyes to me at a stop light.

“I’ll wait till you’re parked. I don’t want to say it while you’re driving.”

“Holy shit, Daze,” he says, “how bad is it?”

“It’s not bad. It’s just surprising and it might make you madder at me than you already are.”

Benny drives a long time before he parks out by the water. I stare at the moon and its reflection both and wait for him to say something.

“Okay,” he says almost reluctantly. “What else do I need to know? Is he a twin?”

I roll my eyes at that, “I guess I deserved that but no. Just the one. And one on the way,” I falter, and meet his eyes expectantly.

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