Dancing with a stranger

Chapter|23✨

It's been a few months now everyone's good. I haven't heard from my mother. I and Kian have our own place. Grace and Charlie live down the street. My father's doing great still running the business like he wasn't in the hospital a few months ago. He has some patches where his skin was burned badly. He's still taking it day by day. Aaliyah is getting so big.

I was standing in the kitchen holding Aaliyah getting ready to feed her when my phone rang with an unknown number. "Hello" I answer
It was a raspy distorted voice he's finally gone Now and you will know what it feels like to actually lose someone who cares about you.

I dropped to my knees hugging Aaliyah tight. I calmed myself down and dialed the number I knew by heart. Grace answered all I could manage to breathe out was he was gone and she hung up the phone. Within five minutes she barged through my front door with Charlie right behind. She took Liyah from me and Charlie embraced me in a big hug. I cried so hard in Charlie's chest because Kian was out doing business for his father this past week. The thing is I didn't get a message from him like a normally do in the mornings when he's away.

I tried calling everyone but my father was in a meeting and Kian's father said he didn't report back like he was supposed to. I was so frantic I didn't know what to do. Grace told me to calm down maybe it was to scare me and Kian would be home soon. I told her "yeah maybe your right."

I and grace were talking and catching up when my phone rang. It was Kian's father. " Stella I'm so sorry to tell you this but kians is really gone. I dropped the phone again and had a blank stare looking at grace. She just hugged me and Charlie came in carrying Aaliyah. He just knew when I looked up at him. He handed me Liyah and group hugged us. We stayed like that for while until I had to make the call to my father.

" I'm sorry sweet baby girl." I will have to talk to James." If you haven't figured it out my father and Kian's father put the feud behind us and are on okay terms. They saw how much we loved each other. And that they both share a granddaughter now.

It felt like my world came crashing down all at once again. I had a happy family for once. I and my father were getting along and we had got Aaliyah back. I heard back that Sean was the only one who died in that fire. My and Kian's relationship was strong. We go would take that all away from someone. I knew my mother fled the country probably.

I left Liyah with grace and Charlie while I went to talk with James to figure out what was happening now since he was gone. Also to officially know if it's true but I don't think he would lie knowing he has a daughter.

When I saw James I knew it broke him because the first thing he did was hug me. Then Devin hugged me. Devin was James' right-hand man and basically another figure in Kian's life. Then a small petite woman walked up behind me. "Good to see you James" she tried to smile. "Carla what a surprise to see you so soon." " I got a flight as fast I could."

She must be Kian's mother. He never really talked about her but she was still alive and living in London.

"Carla this is Stella De Santi she is the daughter of Michael De Santi of the black knights' gang and the mother of your granddaughter." The pure shock on this women's face when he told her that. She looks liked like she was about to have a heart attack. My granddaughter shouldn't have the blood of a black knights gang she sneered and stalked inside.

Apparently, they both had a hatred for my family. I followed them both inside. " she shouldn't be here" Carla barked.
"She has the right to since she's has a part of our bloodline." He states and walks into the living room and pours himself a drink.

I sit on the opposite side of her I was afraid of what she might say or try to do to me. " well how should we go about this" she says and grabbing a drink too off the table and throwing it back.

The tension in the room was suffocating, the air thick with unspoken words and past grudges. Carla's eyes, sharp and full of judgment, never left me as she swirled the drink in her hand. I could feel every muscle in my body tight with anxiety, but I refused to let her see my fear. I was done letting people control me with their disdain. Kian's mother, or whatever she was to him, could hate me all she wanted. But I had a daughter to protect now.

I took a deep breath, gathering the fragments of my composure. "We can do this civilly, Carla. For Kian. For Aaliyah."

Her laugh was harsh, mocking. "Civil? Do you really think that's possible, considering what you and your family are?" She glanced over at James, who sat quietly, nursing his drink, his face set in an unreadable expression. "I'm supposed to just sit here and pretend everything's fine when my son is gone? When the woman he loved is tied to a bloodthirsty gang?"

My jaw tightened at the insult, but I held back the words that were burning in my throat. She was grieving, too, even if she didn't show it the way I did. But it didn't excuse her disdain.

"I didn't ask for any of this, Carla," I said, my voice steady despite the storm brewing inside me. "I loved Kian, and I love his daughter. You may not like how things happened, but that doesn't change the truth. She is your granddaughter. And if you ever cared about Kian, you'll recognize that she deserves more than your hatred."

She slammed her glass down on the table, her face a mask of anger and sorrow. "Don't lecture me about what she deserves, Stella. You have no idea what it's like to watch your child get tangled up in that world. That world that took my son from me."

James, who had been silent up until now, finally spoke, his voice low but firm. "We can't change what happened, Carla. But we can change how we move forward. Kian wanted us to get along, for the sake of Aaliyah. He knew how much she meant to all of us, and he wouldn't want us tearing each other apart."

Carla's eyes flicked over to him, softening for just a moment, but her anger quickly returned. "I can't just forget everything, James. I don't trust them. I don't trust her."

The word felt like a slap, but I bit my lip and stayed still.

Devin, who had been standing near the door, spoke up, his tone calm but decisive. "You don't have to trust her. But you can trust Kian. And he trusted Stella with his life-and with Aaliyah's."

The room grew quiet for a long moment, the weight of everything hanging between us. I could feel Carla's gaze burning into me, her eyes filled with distrust and a kind of sorrow I wasn't sure she even knew how to process.

After what felt like an eternity, she stood up abruptly, pacing the room. "I don't know what to do with all of this," she muttered to herself. Then she stopped, turned to face me again, and for the first time, there was a flicker of something else in her eyes. Maybe acceptance, maybe grief. It was hard to tell. "I don't know how to be a grandmother, Stella. I wasn't there for Kian... and now I don't know how to fix things."

I felt a strange tug in my chest, a mix of sympathy and anger. She hadn't been there for him, but she was here now. She had a chance to make things right for Aaliyah.

"You don't have to fix everything, Carla," I said, standing up and walking toward her slowly, my voice soft but firm. "But you do need to show up. For her."

She met my gaze for a moment, then looked away, swallowing hard. "I'll think about it," she muttered, her voice smaller now, as if she was finally hearing the truth in what I'd said.

The silence in the room felt heavy, but not as crushing as it had been before. We had a long way to go, but for the first time in a while, I felt like there was a chance we could move forward. For Kian. For Aaliyah.

And maybe, just maybe, for all of us.