the fate played

50 - once in a lifetime

Chris Langford

I couldn't stay there any longer, as much as I wanted to it was suffocating. She risked her life for me twice and what was the use of me? Nothing. Everytime I look at her, wires and tubes wrapped around her body, the tiny pieces of my heart clatter.

Placing a kiss on her forehead, I walk out.

To an outsider my life looked settled, in fact more than settled but to me, it was in pieces, be it my relationship or mental sanity. 

Romano had called Victor for a man to man talk and asked me to be with him. At first I refused but later he used the weapon named 'Hailey' on me and damn him, because here I was waiting for Victor to show up while Romano was bracing himself for what he was about to go through, if there were to be something else we didn't knew at all. 

As previously acknowledged, I never liked Victor but I had made up my mind that this was one last time I would come face-to-face with him. And the devil appeared with a scowl on his face, no wonder I hate this guy, yet again 'hate' was a small word, I despised him.

"Langford, What is it?", he asks. The nerve this dude has to talk to me like that. I turn and face him, "Hailey's father need some answers, that's why you are here and don't fucking Langford me", I almost shout, barely containing my rage. At first I didn't wanted to be here and then when I agree, I have to deal with this guy, who does that? Answer is- Romano. 

There was a momentary change in his expression after hearing my statement. Though he clears his throat and says, "What now? Didn't I gave you all the answers you needed. I had enough of headache with her." "I don't think so", comes Romano's voice. 

Victor and Romano had fixed their glares on each other despite the 2-3 foot distance between them and the silence surrounding it was threatening and to some extent annoying, can't they just get over it already! 

"You knew who was her real father, didn't you?" Romano asks. 

A dull moment of silence later Victor closes his eyes for a second and answers, "Yes", after opening his eyes. 

Stunned, shock, surprised were all smaller words in front of what I was feeling. If I were to remember it, Victor clearly refused Hailey when she asked him about her father. This dude lied to her, the fucking audacity he had, that he straight away lied to her on her face when she asked him not once but fucking twice. 

That's it, the barrel of my patience blasts, I take a few long strides, grab Victor by his collar and slam him into the wall behind. "you lied to her, you fucking lied to her on her face when she pleaded you to tell her about her father, didn't she?" 

Victor grunts and grabs my wrist, trying to free himself out of my hold. Romano gets beside me, separates us and pushes me back. "He lied to her, she asked him, he fucking lied to her"- I take a step- "Tell him Victor, didn't she plead to you, to tell her about her father, fucking tell him." 

"How?" Romano says "How do you know and not anyone else?" 

Victor shakes himself once, straightens and says, "A week after Julia and Jeremy died, I went to their graves for one last time as we were moving out of the country and I saw you there. Think what went through my mind that why would the Don of the country visit the graves of my elder siblings, the answer was simple."

Romano looks taken aback. His face went blank, punched into some another dimension. "Trust me, why would I have taken the headache to raise the bastard of country's Don. But my father had given me the ultimatum explaining that if Julia and Jeremy were gone there had to be powerful men involved and he didn't wanted that trouble on a day old baby, so he gave her our second name."