Mafia Don’s Lost Heiress Chapter 06
He stayed at the hospital with me for three days.
While changing my dressing, a nurse quietly told me,
“Your father didn’t sleep at all last night. He sat beside
your bed watching you until his eyes were red.”
I gave her a faint smile but said nothing.
By the fourth day, I was able to get out of bed and walk around.
He came in carrying a thermos like an ordinary father
who had no idea what to do with himself.
“Willow, I made chicken soup.”
He carefully lifted the lid. Steam rose gently from the
soup, which contained rosemary and a few pieces of carrot.
“This was your favorite when you were little.”
He handed me the bowl, watching me with cautious hope.
“Try it. See if it tastes the way you remember.”
I took the bowl.
As the steam warmed my face, blurred fragments of the past began to surface.
an apron while I sat at the table, tapping my spoon.
He had turned and smiled at me.
“Little Willow, just a little longer. Daddy’s almost done.”
I lowered my head and took a sip.
The soup was mild, but my throat tightened.
He sat beside me and began apologizing again and again.
“The street fair was packed that day. I let go of your
hand for only a few seconds.”
“Just a few seconds, and you were gone.”
“Afterward, your mother stopped working altogether
and searched with me.”
His voice grew hoarse when he spoke of her.
“Before she passed, she held my hand and made me
promise I would find you.”
“She said you were afraid of the dark. She said being
out there alone must have terrified you.”
I looked up.
“When did Mom die?”
His fingers tightened as if the question had struck a raw nerve.
“The year after you disappeared.”
“She was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. She was gone less than three months later.”
I listened in silence.
The resentment lodged in my throat, too painful to swallow.
I wanted to hate him, but I knew losing me had
shattered him too.
“What about Carolina?”
He was silent for a long time.
“Her name was Carolina Reed before I adopted her. Ten years ago, I found her near a bridge in Georgia.
She was sitting there crying and said she had nowhere
to go.”
He gave a bitter smile.
“For one second, when she looked up, she reminded
me of you.”
“I kept wondering whether my Willow had grown up
somewhere else and ended up sitting alone like that,
crying.”
“So I brought her back to New York.”
“I gave her clothes, an education, guards, and the
Valenti name. I introduced her publicly as my adopted
daughter.”
“I know I favored her.”
“Because I kept trying to find you in her.”
I looked at him without speaking.
He hurried to explain.
“But she isn’t you. Willow, she never was.
The door suddenly flew open.
Carolina stood in the doorway, looking deathly pale.
“Daddy, you haven’t been home in three days because
you’ve been staying here with this fraud?”
She stormed inside and jabbed a finger at me.
“How the hell did she get you wrapped around her
finger? What gives a private–club hostess the right to
call herself a Valenti?”
“Carolina.”
For the first time since I had met him, Don Valenti’s
voice turned completely cold.
“Shut up.”
Carolina froze.
“Daddy, you’ve never spoken to me like that.”
He stood and positioned himself between her and my hospital bed.
“She is my daughter.”
“My biological daughter. The blood daughter I spent twenty years searching for.”
The color drained from Carolina’s face.
“That’s impossible.”
She shook her head, staring at me.
“The DNA report has to be fake. She must have paid off someone at the hospital. Someone like her would do
anything.”
“The reports came from two independent labs,” Don
Valenti said, enunciating every word.
“Marco and Abigail, the family attorney, were both
present for the blood draw. No one could have
tampered with anything.”
Carolina opened her mouth, but no words came out.
A few seconds later, tears filled her eyes, and she
slipped back into her wounded, pleading act.
“Daddy, what about me?”
“I’m the one who has been with you all these years. I
took care of you when you were drunk. I stayed beside you when you couldn’t find her and helped you survive
it.”
“What has she ever done for you? She comes back, and suddenly I’m the one getting thrown out?”
Don Valenti studied her for a long time.
“Carolina, I’ll arrange somewhere else for you to live,
and I’ll give you a settlement.”
“But you can’t live on the Valenti estate anymore.”
“Willow is home.”
“This was always her home.”