Page 122 of Beautiful Desire

Fabi and I sit on either side of Frankie in the back while Marco jumps into the driver’s seat. Starting the car, he then types the address into the navigation on the dashboard and follows the route to Nero’s house.

Silence falls over the car. Adrenaline courses through my body when the reality of meeting my daughter for the first time settles in my gut. My knee bounces up and down as I try to inhale a calming breath.

Frankie sits rigid between Fabi and I as he starts babbling on. “I swear, I tried telling him not to do it, but he wouldn’t listen. He kept going on how it washisright. I’m telling you, the guy was crazy.”

Ignoring his words, I keep my focus trained on the headrest in front of me. I don’t care what Frankie did or didn’t try to get Nero to do. It doesn’t matter, because he went ahead with it anyway.

“Are you going to call Elle and let her know?” Fabi asks, leaning forward to get my attention.

“I’ll wait until we get there. I need to have her in my arms and know she’s safe before I tell her we’re coming home.”

He nods slowly at my reply.

I can feel Fabi staring at the side of my head. I’m not in the mood to talk right now, but I can’t stand his eyes on me like this.

“What?” I bark at him.

When he doesn’t answer right away, I turn my head to look at him. His elbows rest on his knees as he lets out a breath, speaking loud enough that I can hear him.

“We didn’t know, man. If I had known, there’s no way I wouldn’t have told you before now. All she ever told Gia and I was that she had a drunken one-night stand and didn’t even know the guy’s name.”

The memory of walking out of her room and out of her life that morning hits me like a sledgehammer. As I closed the door behind me, I knew I was making a huge mistake, but I had to. It wasn’t safe there. I didn’t want to put her in danger, and yet here I am on my way to retrieve her daughter –our daughter– after she was kidnapped becauseofme.

Closing my eyes, I lean my head back on the headrest and make a silent vow that from this day forward I will do anything and everything to protect Lily and Elle until my dying breath.

The rest of the drive is made in silence, but I don’t want to talk to anyone. Too many thoughts are running through my head; I’m trying to push them all away and focus on what’s about to happen. I feel the car come to a stop and open my eyes to look out the window.

The four of us exit the car and make our way up to the steps to the house. I walk ahead of them, almost running, trying to get to my baby girl as fast as I can.

I’m coming, sweetheart.

We all freeze momentarily, watching the front door open to reveal a man who I’m guessing is around his mid-twenties standing on the other side.

“Leo, prendi la bambina. E finite,” Frankie says, giving the young man a tired look.Leo, get the baby. It’s over.

His eyes look over the four of us before he turns and walks into the house. I quickly move to follow him when Fabi grabs my arm.

“Maybe we should just wait here. We don’t know who else is in there.”

I pull my arm out of his grasp and, without saying another word, quickly make my way through the house, following Leo.

“Fuck’s sake,” I hear Fabi mutter under his breath.

Leo leads me into a small room at the back where a young girl, no older than eighteen, sits crossed-legged on a bed. Beside her is a small white crib. Leo stands in front of the door, holding it open with his head down and eyes trained on his feet. I brush past him and into the room. The young girl jumps from the bed with a look of shock and fear written all over her face as I approach.

I quickly make my way over to the crib. Relief floods my body and a feeling I’ve never experienced before washes over me as I look inside to see a peaceful, beautiful baby girl sleeping away.

My daughter.

While she sleeps, I take her all in. She has her mother’s golden blonde hair and two chubby little cheeks with a small, round chin. She looks so much like Elle – a true beauty. The small purple pacifier moves in and out of her mouth as she sucks contently in her sleep.

Taking my hand, I place my pointer finger into her opened palm as it rests beside her head. As my finger settles in her hand, I feel her tiny fist wrap tightly around me. My heart contracts and begins to race, feeling like it’s about to burst through my chest. I can’t take it anymore. I remove my finger from her grip and scoop her up into my arms, fixing the white blanket she had draped over her and wrapping it around her little body.

Emotion overwhelms me and tears build in the back of my eyes, while a feeling I can’t describe settles in my gut. Her little eyes blink open as I’ve disturbed her sleep, and a scowl crosses her brows. I let out a little laugh to myself as I observe another similarity between her and Elle. She looks just like her when she’s angry. A pair of the biggest and brightest blue eyes, almost identical to my own, look back at me as I smile down at her, soaking in every second of this feeling.

Standing here in the room, I forget about everyone and everything around me. Time stands completely still as take in this time with my daughter. Her eyes stay on me as I continue to look down at her as an overwhelming amount of love fills me.

“Is she okay?” Fabi asks, breaking the silence and ending our little moment.

---