The Don's Daughter: Love & Betrayal

Thirty Eight

Paulo

She looks like an angel when she's sleeping. I've been sitting here waiting for her to wake up so I could tell her what I found. I don't know how she's going to take it. The arrival of her mother hit her hard. Combined with the past few days, I'm not sure she'll be able to take any more shocks but she has to know this before anyone else. By anyone else I mean Giovanni. I see all the things he's doing to try and get Maria.... Carina to trust him. Fuck, it's going to be hard to call her that. Even though I've known all along who she was, calling her Carina is just weird.

She told me everything after I rescued her from one of the guys she'd tried to blackmail for Lombardi. I'm not sorry that asshole is dead by the way. I hope he rots in hell or wanders around and sees just how strong Carina is now. The guy she was trying to blackmail was Russian and Lombardi wanted to force him to cooperate with him. He didn't want to so the bastard sent Carina instead of going there himself. That Russian wasn't scared of Lombardi. He stuck Carina in the basement saying that if Lombardi wanted his daughter back, he could go and get her himself.

As usual, Lombardi didn't care so it was up to me to get her out. I didn't understand what had happened to her until she told me why she hated basements. She narrated how Lombardi had forced her to act like Marianna and when she refused, he threw her in there, leaving her all alone for days. I wish I was the one who killed him that day. It would have given me immense satisfaction to know he was dead because of me. But since he's gone, I can't do anything more but to protect Carina.

Which is why I've been busy for the past few days. While Giovanni was kissing Carina's ass, I was looking for Lombardi's secrets. Like everyone else, he had a safe in his office where he kept important documents. I know Giovanni got to that one already. What I wanted, were his personal secrets. The kind everyone keeps from even their closest friend. I ransacked every part of his bedroom until I found it. A folder with his birth certificate. I wondered why he'd bother hiding something like that until I saw his name. I mean his first name. After that everything else I found kind of made sense.

"Paulo, I had the strangest dream ever" Carina says stretching. She's been out for like twenty minutes and stretching as if she's been asleep all night. Grabbing her arm, I help her into a sitting position.

"If it's about your mother showing up with Marianna who happens to be your twin sister then it's not a dream" tactless, I know. But I need her to get over that. What I'm about to tell her won't be easy.

"Damn it, are they still here?"

"Yap. We assigned them two of the guest rooms...."

"I don't want them here. Why the fuck would you do that without my permission?"

"Forget about that. We have a big problem"

"What problem now? Who died?"

"No one. But if you don't watch it, you'll be the next one"

"Wow, keep em coming, won't you. I just found out I have a mother and the person I've hated the most all my life is my sister. And now you're telling me that I could be dying next?"

"Yeah. Listen to this" I hand her the recorder I found. I closed the door when I came in here so no one will walk in on us. The revelations on that recorder are rather shocking. No one should know about it until we figure out what to do next. 

"Oh my God, are you serious right now?" she asks pressing the stop button.

"Do you understand why you're in danger?"

"Give me a second first. This is too much" getting out of bed she starts pacing "Who else knows about this?"

"Just you and me. What are you going to do?"