Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Dad
Chapter 218

"Um," I say, sitting up straight, my hands darting anxiously to play with my hair as they rarely do anymore. "I don't really remember, Jerome -" "Yes, you do, Fay," he says, frowning at me and pushing. "I know you do. Seriously, just tell me."

I take a deep breath then, looking at him seriously now. "He said that I should watch out for you. That he had done his research on you, and that you were shady and..." I bite my lip now, not wanting to say more. Jerome just narrows his eyes at me and raises his chin once, urging me forward.

I heave a sigh. "Jerome, he said you were grasping and that you always move towards the most powerful person you can. That you'd worked your way up from the streets and were now...conveniently shacked up with the heir to the Lippert fortune." Jerome leans towards me now. "What else," he says softly, intuiting that I'm leaving something out.

I shake my head at him then, sighing as I drop my eyes and my hands start to braid my hair. "He asked me if I thought you were actually gay."

"What?" Jerome gasps, offended and appalled.

"I didn't listen to him!" I say instantly, whipping my wide eyes up to him now, begging him to believe me. "Obviously I didn't listen! I trust you, Jerome! Our entire fate was in your hands, you could have turned Kent in in half a second!"

Jerome groans then, covering his face with his hands and flopping back on the bed. "Yeah," he grumbles sarcastically, "but why would I do that when I've got this amaaaazing gravy train taking me to Europe! If I turned in Kent, I'd lose my meal ticket and I wouldn't get to go on this luxury cruise!"

"Jerome," I groan, scooting closer to him and putting a hand on his stomach. "That is not what I think! It was just a joke!"

He keeps his face covered. "If it's not what you think, Fay," he murmurs, "then why am I just hearing about it now?"

"Because it was stupid! And Ivan was just grasping at straws, trying to convince me that you and Daniel weren't really on my side!"

"That's precisely right, Fay!" Jerome says, sliding his hands from his face and glaring at me now. "I don't know why you even listened to that guy! At all! You gave him way too much freedom in that house -"

"We needed him!" I insist, my eyebrows going up, shocked that I even have to defend myself on this point. "You know we needed him to trust us, Jerome!"

"Did you need to go that far with him, Fay?" Jerome snaps, sitting up now and glaring at me. "Did you really need to let him into your inner circle to get him to trust you that much? I mean, does Kent even know that you kissed him?"

I blink at Jerome now, my eyes going wide that he'd throw that in my face.

But then I get mad. Because who the hell is Jerome to throw that in my face?

"Yes, Jerome, I did tell Kent that, and he understood why I did it." I say quietly, leaning in to glare at him now. "Though we're both very confused about why you hit on me so much before I found out you were dating Daniel!"

Jerome's mouth falls open all of a sudden, and I don't know whether it's in shock or because he wants to throw something else at me, when suddenly the door opens.

"What's going on in here?" Janeen asks, frowning as she comes into the room. "Are you guys...actually fighting?"

Jerome and I both turn to stare at her, going silent. But then Jerome snaps his mouth shut. "It's nothing," he says, not looking at me as he gets up off the bed and heads for the door. "Forget it."

Janeen just watches him with wide eyes as he pushes past her, not even looking at me once before he heads down the hall. Janeen stares after him before she turns her eyes to me.

"Seriously, Fay," she says, staring at me. "What the hell was that?"

And I groan and fall back on the bed, covering my face with my hands. "Honestly, Janeen? I have no idea."

Kent sighs as he leans against the doorframe of the little dining room, which the six of them frequently use during the day as a kind of living room. There's no place to comfortably relax except the table, and Kent can't decide if he's lucky or unlucky that Daniel's the only one sitting there today, reading a book and drinking a cup of coffee.

Sighing again, Kent knocks on the open door next to him to get his kid's attention. Daniel looks up with surprise that turns a little into chagrin, but then then back to surprise when he sees the bottle of whiskey in his dad's hand.

"What's that for?" Daniel asks, confused, nodding towards the liquor. "It's not even noon."

"Yeah, well," Kent says, walking to the table and sitting next to Daniel, putting the bottle between them. "I have a feeling we're going to need it."

"Uh-oh," Daniel says, looking at the bottle instead of at his dad. "Are we...talking?"

"Yup," Kent says on a deep exhale. "She's making me."

Daniel laughs at that, looking up at Kent now. "She's not wrong, you know. We need to."

"I'm aware, kid," Kent replies, wrapping a hand around the neck of the bottle and pointing it towards his son. "So, do you want this in your coffee? Or..."

Daniel scoffs and starts to rise. "Don't be ridiculous, dad," he murmurs, moving towards the kitchen. "I'll get us fresh glasses and ice."

"Atta boy," Kent sighs, smiling as he watches his kid pass through the door.

When Daniel returns with the promised glasses, Kent pours and they both drink deeply in silence. There is just...so much that they've left unsaid for years. It's difficult for both of them to even know where to begin, so used are they to dancing around the important subjects that they've left lying between them.

But as the whiskey begins to loosen their lips and the minutes tick past, it gets easier. Daniel starts by telling Kent how glad he is to have him back and confessing, guiltily, that he actually suggested they leave him in jail. Kent sighs, assuring him that he doesn't blame him for that, which lifts the first of many weights off of Daniel's shoulders. From there, the conversation really begins.

And it turns, as perhaps was always necessary, to Lenai.

"We never talk about her, dad," Daniel says quietly, looking down into his second glass of whiskey. "I always....wanted to. But...I feel like we can't."

Kent looses a long breath then, covering his face with his hand, shame running through him. "That's my fault, Daniel, and I'm sorry for it. I didn't...know what to say. Your mom was...she was always so much more in touch with you, with how you were feeling. I didn't know how to handle you when you were upset - and it's not an excuse, it's my fault. But when you cried? God, Daniel, it broke my damn heart, and all I knew how to do was run away before I went to pieces too."

Daniel briskly wipes at his cheeks and Kent pretends not to see, but then he catches himself and forces himself to look at his son, to witness his emotions, to watch him cry. And he has to clench his jaw so tight that he swears his teeth will crack, because the sight of it...

But to Kent's shock, Daniel just laughs at him. "You know you can do it too, dad," he murmurs. "You won't dissolve like a pillar of salt if you let loose a few tears."

Kent smirks a little, grateful for Daniel's sense of humor. "You sure about that?"

"Nope," Daniel says, sniffing and shaking his head, meeting his father's eyes again. "We just...mourned so separately for her, dad. I never felt like I could talk to you about it. Never felt like you wanted to talk."

"I don't want you to ever think I forget about her, Daniel," Kent says, his jaw again tight. "Or that it didn't mean something to me when we lost her, just because...we didn't, and we don't, talk about her."

"I don't think that -"

"No," Kent says, shaking his head and taking another big sip of his drink. "Let me say this. Because it's important - your mom was an incredible person, and a wonderful mom, and a good wife. She was my partner in everything. She is singularly responsible for anything good I ever did, and any good traits that either of us have come directly from her. But we married and had you so young, and it was such a...a stressful time in our lives."

Kent's words fade out and he shakes his head, remembering it - the stress of having to go out and complete whatever task the Bianci's sent him to do, licking whatever boots he could to get a foot in this underworld, trying to restart the Lippert crime organization to pay the Bianci's back for...for saving him, for raising him.

And in doing so, selling his soul to the Bianci family.

And god damn it, selling Daniel to them as well - the grandchild they desperately wanted, that Lenai wanted as well.

"I was...so fucking scared, Daniel," Kent murmurs, raising his eyes to meet his son's. "When you were born? I was terrified of how much I already loved you, of...not being able to build a good enough life for you. Of someone hurting you, of using you against me?" he shakes his head, looking down at the table, unable to bear the memory of it.

"God, dad," Daniel murmurs, and Kent looks up to see his son wiping tears off his face again. "You could have told me. I thought you...didn't like me."

Kent scoffs, shaking his head again. "I love you, Daniel. You're everything to me. Seeing you happy, these past few days, laughing with Jerome and Fay? Safe?" He sighs, looking down. "Fay gave you everything I always wanted."

Daniel and Kent take a long time then, sharing memories of Lenai, of Daniel's childhood, some of which Kent doesn't remember. But some things are vivid, and some are the same - the grief and heartache they both felt as she grew sicker, the disconnection they felt when she died. The shared desire that they both had to reach out to each other, though neither knew how.

It is a long, difficult chat, dredging up mountains of memories that both had neatly stored away.

But the whiskey does its work, loosening their tongues, giving them courage to ask the difficult questions that have been on their minds for years.

And so finally, as Daniel pour their third glasses, he draws himself together and speaks the one that's been in his heart for months now.

"Did you love mom?" Daniel asks, taking a deep breath. "The way that you love Fay?"