“That can’t happen.”
“It won’t, not under my roof. I’ll make sure someone has eyes on her the entire time she’s here and that they are with her on the plane ride home. I’ll do my part, but, Alex, you need to do yours. There’s a lot of craziness going on right now. It’s too dangerous for her to be here.”
“It’s always too dangerous to be around a Lee-Xiou.”
I didn’t like what he’d said about me, but I couldn’t honestly be mad. He was right, but still. “Yeah, but you’re the one who let her out of your sight and run away to another country.”
*****
I heard a soft knock on my door. “Gina?” And then a mass of wet curls stuck out from behind it. “May I come in?”
My arms were folded. I’d just hung up with Alex and still held the cell phone in my hand. “Yes. Sure.”
Cecily stepped into the room. “Thank you for the shower.” She paused awkwardly. “Did you call Uncle Alex?”
“Yes. I needed to let him know you were here and safe.”
She looked down at her feet. “He’s probably really angry. I was going to call him once I made it.”
“More like furious. Have a seat. Lunch should be here shortly.”
Those brown eyes looked up at me so earnestly that I would have given that girl anything. She deserved better than us.
Her voice was small. The sound was so tiny that I almost didn’t hear her question. I wished I hadn’t, but I’d heard. “Why didn’t my mother want me?”
My heart twisted. “Cecily.” I sat next to her. “Let me start off by saying, I’m sorry. I’m sorry about everything and all the pain that we’ve caused you. But, you need to understand this . . . you are an amazing girl in spite of Nina and me. Any mother would be proud to have you as a daughter. Nothing that happened since your mom discovered she was pregnant was intended to hurt you or was because of you.”
“Then, why did she fake her death? Why didn’t she take me with her?”
“That answer is very complicated, but I’ll say mostly to protect you from our father. He was nothing like Luciano or Alexandro. He was . . . hard. Chang Lee-Xiou was evil. Nina was afraid of how he would react if he’d known she was pregnant.”
The pain in her eyes couldn’t be hidden. “He was responsible for the death of my dad. My grandfather had my father killed.”
“Yes.”
“Had he known about me, would he have killed Nina too?”
“Probably.”
“So, she did want me? Now that Chang is dead maybe I can get to know her.”
I hated that I was going to have to be responsible for extinguishing that hope in her eyes.
“I don’t think that’s such a great idea.”
Cecily’s face scrunched up. “Why not? She’s my mother.”
“Her life is much different than it was back then. You could . . .” What the hell was I supposed to say? Your mom is a monster! She might even try to kill you just to get back at me. I was messing this up big time.
“I could what? I could mess up her life!” Her eyes welled up.
“Shit! That’s not what I was going to say.”
“Why don’t you want me to meet her? It doesn’t make any sense. Just because you don’t like me doesn’t mean she won’t.”
Frustrated, I ran my fingers through my hair. “Where on earth did you get a silly idea like that?”
“You’ve been trying to put me on a plane ever since I arrived. You’ve known about me for fifteen years, and you’ve never reached out either. The one time we met you tricked me into thinking you could be my mother to hurt Uncle Alex! What reason would I have to believe you care one bit about me?!”
“Cecily . . . that’s . . . I . . .” There was so much to explain, and I couldn’t find the right words.
Knock, knock, knock. Both of our heads snapped towards the door. I was so thankful for the interruption. I thought it was someone from my staff bringing lunch, but instead, Brody opened the door and walked inside. “Hey! Gina, sorry to interrupt but you forgot this upstairs. I could have sworn you said you wanted to show it to Cecily.”
I was going to KILL him.
Instead of handing me the book he gave it to Cecily. “I’m Brody Windham. I’ve heard a lot about you. I hope we get to chat a little later after your talk with your aunt.” He turned toward me, and I glared at him.
As usual, he ignored me. He walked over and kissed me on the cheek before winking and leaving the room.
Cecily held the book in her hand. “What’s this?”
I pressed my lips together trying to think of something to say. There was nothing really to say. She had the book in her hands. Maybe it would explain what my words couldn’t.
“Open it.”
She stared at me for a minute then looked back down at the album before slowly lifting the cover. Her eyes flew to mine at seeing the first picture. “Who is this?”
“It’s you. They are all of you.”
I sat quietly as Cecily spent the next twenty minutes going through the book. After she’d studied the very last picture, she turned watery eyes to me. She swallowed deeply. “I . . . don’t know what to say. I can’t believe you have all of these.”
“Cecily. I’m not
