Page 12 of Divine Obsession

“Your mother… She didn’t want to be a part of my world. However, when I finally had to step up and marry someone else in order to take over the family business, she lost it. She developed mental issues… And ran away with you. I spent weeks searching for both of you. When I found her in some rundown apartment in the Bronx, she was dead. Overdose. I spent years searching for you, Natalia, but with your mother gone, there were no leads–”

“I understand.”

Dead. Overdose.

I’d be lying if I said there hadn’t been a part of me that still imagined I’d one day reunite with my mother. The things I would say to her. Would I be mad? Would I cry? I guess now I’d never know.

Maria had been right this entire time. She really was never coming back for me.

“What was she like?”

“You look just like her.”

Something bloomed inside me. “Really?”

He nodded.

“Can I ask you something else?”

“Of course.”

I took a deep breath through the tears. “When is my birthday?”

Maria and I had decided a long time ago to simply celebrate my birthday on hers: March twenty-eighth. The only reason she knew hers was because CPS had gotten hold of some of her paperwork. No one ever found mine.

He smiled sadly again. “February fourteenth. Saint Valentine’s Day.” He gave my hands a squeeze. “I’m sure you have many other questions. I’m more than happy to answer them over lunch.”

“Lunch?”

Everything was happening so fast, I couldn’t breathe. Feeling the blood pumping in my veins and the throbbing in my temples; hearing every single gasp of air entering my chest; feeling the hot tears run down my face and neck.

I couldn’t have been in the room for longer than five minutes and my whole life was flipped upside down.

“Yes, sweetheart. The others are already waiting.”

“Others?”

“My wife, Ines, and your siblings.” He squeezed my shoulder. “Your family.”

Family.

The word punctured me right in the heart, and twisted its way into my chest, entangling its roots into the deepest parts of my soul.

Family.

Something I’d wished, prayed and begged for as a child every night before I went to sleep in one bed out of the hundreds in that orphanage.

Something I’d craved, missed and envied as a teenager navigating the world with nobody by my side to guide or comfort me.

Family.

Something dark and selfish took over my eyes – something a lot like greed that allowed me to relax for the very first time in my life.

Salvatore Moretti – billionaire, philanthropist, elitist of high society – wasmy father.

I couldn’t help but feel like I’d just won the lottery.

My eyes were still red when Salvatore and I exited the elevator on a lower floor of Moretti Enterprises. At the end of the hallway was a waiter holding menus, while a girl stood behind a small desk with a tablet. They both smiled, greeting us, though they didn’t stop or show us where to go.

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