Sweet Venom [✓]

37

The past had its way of catching up with even those who tried their best to stay buried.

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"Is that child mine?"

Elijah stared hard at the child still playing, and came to obstruct Natalie's view of her. But she merely pulled a disgusted expression, "Absolutely not, I remember that one night and I'm pretty sure we were both protected even if drunk, how could you say that? Come on, you're delusional."

"Then why does she look like me of all people, Natalie?" Elijah frowned, taking another glance at Marie-Anne. "She just looks very familiar."

"You think you're the only guy out there with similar features to her? Please, the man who's supposed to be responsible for her, disappeared one day into thin air quite literally. He was another drunken mistake, just like you." She snapped.

"Only the damn issue is, I kept going back to him like the desperate person I am, and he was very much taken too. My mistake, I should have known he wouldn't have ever stuck around or chosen me." Natalie sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as she sat down on the couch.

"Forgive me for thinking she's mine." Elijah floundered, "I don't know what to make of this bomb you've dropped on me."

"Besides," Natalie continued, "I was supposed to put her up for adoption, after I gave birth to her at my aunts home, I was supposed to leave. I wasn't allowed an abortion, father's too much of a conservative to let me. He never understood that I was too young. So he sent me to my aunt, only my aunt liked my mother and I so much so, that she somehow encouraged me to have the baby and keep her for myself, unless I wanted to abort her, even if it was too late. It's obvious what decision I went with and I don't regret it one bit."

"Does Elton know?" Elijah prodded.

"He knows I had the baby, and thinks she was put up for adoption." Natalie shrugged. "I knew what my father was capable of long before anybody else could accept it."

"It still doesn't make sense," Elijah queried. "What does this have to do with Tony of all people?"

"I pay Antonio to look after her when I can't. This is his place and he does everything that he can in making sure my daughter is comfortable. Farida is a nanny who helps out too. Antonio knows the man that was the father, he was good friends with him. I guess that's why he didn't hesitate when I went looking around for her father and found him instead. Maybe it's guilt or kindness, but he stepped in." She explained matter of factly.

"I can't believe you've been hiding all of this for so long, how old is she?" He whispered, taking a seat beside Natalie on the couch.

"She's four years old almost," Antonio stated, going to sit next to Marie-Anne on the floor and swooping her into his arms, like he was used to doing it. "Aren't you, Annie?"