Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
“Messed up doesn’t even begin to describe it!” she snapped. “You left us for twenty years! I raised that girl on my own because you decided we weren’t worth staying–”
“That wasn’t it!” Sal bit out, giving her a firm glare. “I didn’t leave because I wanted to, Amanda. I got into trouble. That part was on me, but I only left to protect you two. I couldn’t let them find you and hurt you just to get to me. It was wrong of me to leave but I had good intentions.”
“Good intentions?” she growled.
I stepped forward, shifting Elio’s weight to lay a hand on her arm. She glanced at me, her eyes swimming with indignation. I was relieved to see she wasn’t in any pain.
Even if I wanted to give him a second chance, that meant nothing if it hurt my mom. I never wanted to see her broken like she was when I was a kid.
But she had been right. She had spent twenty years getting over him and she had my stepfather now. Her wounds were healed up and buried in the past where they belonged. She was angry for me, for Elio, and for having him here to ruin the party.
“It’s all right, Mom,” I told her with a smile. “Thanks for protecting us, but I can handle this, okay?”
Surprise and pride swam in her eyes and she smiled at me, cupping my cheek before she nodded.
“I’ll lay Elio down for a nap.” Mom nodded, and I passed over my son into her arms. He stirred only the slightest, letting out a loud snore. I laughed as she and my stepfather fled into the other room.
I turned back to Sal, giving him a scrutinizing look. I still didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do about this situation, but if what he was saying was the truth, then at the very least, I could hear him out.
But not now, not in the middle of my son’s birthday party. This was his day, and no one was going to ruin it.
“I don’t want Elio’s birthday ruined,” I told him firmly. “So I’d appreciate it if we could talk about all of this later. We can figure out everything soon, but not right now.”
His face fell, looking like a puppy who’d been kicked into a river of mud. “Livi–”
“Olivia,” I said sharply. “Only my mom can call me Livi. We may be related, but I’ve never met you before in my life, Salvatore. If you’re being honest and you want to be in my life, you’ll have to prove to me you can be trusted. Being a father isn’t just about DNA. Twenty years aren’t going to be fixed with an apology.”
Sal nodded, taking a step back with a glum look. “I know, and I’ll be happy to prove that to you. But for what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I know I have no right to be here after being absent for so many years. You should hate me for leaving you, no matter what my reasons were.”
He gazed at me, a small smile curling on his lips. “But you grew up beautifully, Olivia, even without me. Your mom did a great job. I don’t want to do anything to make you uncomfortable. I just want a chance to know my daughter again in whatever way I can.”
The sincerity in his eyes was difficult to fake but not impossible. I frowned, still unsure if I could trust him but I nodded, taking a deep breath.
“We still have a party to finish, so I’ll let you know when we can speak again, okay?” I said firmly.
He took the hint, nodding to himself. “You have my number, so just give me a call when you’re ready. Sorry to ruin the party.”
He shuffled backward, sending me pitiful glances, but I held firm on this. My son came first. Eventually, Sal sighed, giving in as he turned around and left. The door shut behind him and I breathed a sigh of relief, slumping into Gio’s arms.
“You okay?” He rubbed my shoulders, whispering into my ear so the guests wouldn’t hear. I nodded quietly, leaning my head on his chest before I turned to the remaining guests.
I turned to the guests with a wide smile. “Thank you so much for coming to Elio’s birthday party. Please, take some cake and party favors before you go.”
I gestured to the table lined up to the side with a bunch of bags filled with party favors we had left. A lot of them were now missing and luckily, the three or four parents still remaining got the hint.
It didn’t take long for the party to end, the guests fleeing and thanking us as they passed by. A few of the moms gave me encouraging smiles, but I could see a few who had latched onto the new gossip. Most likely it would be everywhere by tomorrow.
I sighed once we were alone and the maids began to clean up. I left them to their work, heading straight for our room to get my head together. The sheer relief I felt as I collapsed onto our bed face-first, groaning from the chaotic event, was mind-numbing.
No matter how well I had planned, not even Gio could’ve known my long-lost father would’ve shown up. I was glad to have an answer as to why he had been missing all my life; as a child, I had always assumed it was my fault, but I still couldn’t be happy about all this.
A part of me wished he had just stayed a shadow, a figure I never knew and never would. But the other part, some kind of broken part of me that I’d had since I was a little girl, wanted to know him, to understand what it was like to have a Dad like Dahlia did, to know who he was and where he came from and if he had any family I didn’t know about. I had so few blood relatives but one had literally just shown up on my doorstep, offering a relationship.
“If he really is my father,” I said quietly, listening to the sounds of Gio moving around, “I want to get to know him.”
I glanced at him, gauging his opinion, and from the way his jaw was set, he did not like the idea at all.
Well, that was too bad.
“Just be careful.” Gio sighed. “People are capable of anything, carina. Even if he is your father, he left you for twenty years and never came back until now? And he could’ve told your mother why he was leaving before he did, and could have gotten into contact with her one way or another, but he never did. Just… don’t get your hopes up too high, okay? People can disappoint you.”
As I listened to him, I could tell he was speaking from experience, but I didn’t pry. I turned my eyes to the ceiling, pondering the existence of a father I had never known before.
Curiosity burned inside of me and if I was a cat, I would’ve been worried.
Who is that man? Is he really my father, I wondered.
*Olivia*
*Two weeks later*
I stared down at the envelope sitting innocently on top of the coffee table. Elio’s giggles as he played in his little baby-proofed corner of the living room reached my ears, mixing with the sound of the cartoon playing in the background.
I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to feel exactly. The unopened letter was like a huge neon sign screaming at me to open it and reveal the results of what I wanted to know so badly.
But I just couldn’t. Every time I reached for it, my chest squeezed until I couldn’t breathe, and I had to move away from the letter. Maybe it was possessed, I thought, a bit hysterically as the third hour of staring at this damn letter passed by.
But I couldn’t procrastinate forever.
I heaved a sigh as I lifted Elio from his little corner. He brought his favorite stuffed animal with him–a plush narwhal with a rainbow horn that Dahlia had gotten him, one of the dozens that now littered his room.
I’d had a rabbit when I was a kid, but Flopsy had long been retired due to his old age. I still had him though, tucked away somewhere safe where he couldn’t get hurt.
“You like Narwhal, don’t you?” I cooed to my son, watching as he stuffed the horn into his mouth with a grin. He liked chewing on the end of it, which I couldn’t blame him for. His teeth were coming in all at once now, and there were a lot of long nights I spent up with him trying to soothe the fever and aches.
I sat on the couch, leaning back as I held Elio in my lap with his little plush. He stared at the random cartoon, giggling when the cartoon physics got a little crazy.
“Promise me you won’t drop an anvil on anyone’s head, all right?” I told him with a frown. Elio didn’t answer, just reaching his little hands out toward the TV, mimicking the sound of the birds flying around the character’s head.
“Good job, that’s what a bird says. Tweet, tweet,” I praised him happily. I kissed him on the top of his head and he laughed, bubbly and bright just like he should. Cartoon physics wrong or not, I was sure the show was harmless.
Tallon and Alessandro had been big fans of this cartoon, and they turned out just fine.
Well… sorta.
As I gently rubbed Elio’s back as he fixated on the cartoon, I finally grabbed the letter I had been dreading so much. A part of me wanted to throw it away, pretend that it never came, and be done with all of this.
But another part of me needed to know. The broken little girl who had the world on her shoulders, who spent her nights learning how to cook when she was too young to be using the oven because Mom had forgotten again and I didn’t want to impose on Dahlia’s family. The part I had locked away, she needed an answer, even if it wasn’t one I was going to like.
My fingers trembled as I purposefully and slowly picked at the seam of the letter. It ripped in a few places due to me carrying a baby on my lap.
I pulled the folded letter from the envelope, a nervous knot tightening in my stomach as I prepared myself for whatever it might say, even if it was going to hurt.
I opened up the crease and read the letter. I skipped through the formalities and straight to the definite answer, my eyes going wide at the result.
