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Valencia

I trembled a bit as I stared at Stephano.

He stared back at me. “Little Valen, you have to realize what this man has done. Even if I ignore all of what his mother did. I cannot get past the attack he made on my limo that carried my son and his fiancé. If Glory hadn’t been so well versed in fighting, I might not have ever been able to have my long lost son around for his wedding. ”

“I understand sir. I do,” I replied. “But I can’t be the kind of person that just suddenly turns on someone that was with me for almost twenty-one years.

He never tried to hurt me. In fact, when he was around, he treated me like his baby sister.

I would be lacking in loyalty if I could just agree to you killing him or setting a trap where I am the bait.

” I released a long breath and went on, “I know I need to be loyal to the Descalias, but this is like…” I shook my head. The whole situation was impossible.

“She’s right, Uncle,” Tito spoke up. “We can’t ask her to meet him while helping you to kill the guy who was her brother for all those years.”

“No, no. I will not kill him,” Stephano retorted.

We all stared at him.

“I wish to capture him,” he explained. “Then hand him over to the Walkers. He will then go to prison.”

I paused and asked, “You won’t kill him?”

“Not unless he gives us no choice,” Stephano replied. “Besides, I think he knows we wouldn’t let you meet him alone.”

“This doesn’t sound so good,” Zia interjected.

“No, it sounds horrible,” I told her. “I’m not sure my need to know the truth is worth anyone’s safety.” I pushed my plate away.

“You didn’t eat much,” Zia said.

“I’m sorry.” I felt my throat swelling up with tears.

“I am sorry, bambina.” Stephano came over to pat my arm. “You are caught in the middle of this. I can see that. But this is reality. We cannot allow you to see this man without protection.”

“But that is more than protection, Uncle Stephano,” Tito said. “You intend to capture him.”

“I do,” Stephano admitted. “And what’s more, he will expect me to do exactly that.

So back to my original point. Why would he set this meeting up at all?

And yes, I am aware of the brother connection, but you have to see this man is not stupid.

In fact, according to Glory and the others, he is above genius level.

Extremely clever and that makes him entirely dangerous.

He would not do something stupid, Valen.

” He looked at me. “And asking to meet with you for any reason after you have stayed with us for a few weeks would be stupid. And deep down, you know that.”

I stared at him as tears filled my eyes.

“Yes, I do.” What he said made sense and followed along with what I knew about Deacon.

No one ever beat him at his own game. Or at any game I ever saw him play.

I never knew the things he did illegally.

But I was aware of his achievements at the FBI.

He rose to a top position for his genius acumen.

He created programs that infiltrated enemy realms, like Middle Eastern terrorists.

He had commendations and awards from the Bureau.

Our mom…His mom always bragged about these accomplishments.

I swiped at my tears and raised my cell phone.

Tapping the messages and the little microphone on the box with shaky fingers, I spoke into the phone so it would type what I said, “Deacon. I love you and cannot endanger your life by meeting you. I hope that you will show that you still love me too and send me whatever it is that you wanted to show me.” I then hit send .

Everyone in the room stared at me.

“Wow,” Julianna murmured.

Tito wrapped his arm around my shoulder again and tugged me to him. “Damn baby, I have never felt so proud.” He kissed my forehead.

“Me either,” my twin said. “That was a great solution, sis.” She gave me an encouraging smile.

Stephano glared at me.

Tito stared up at him as his body tensed.

“I see that he wasn’t the only genius,” was all that Stephano said.

“I agree,” Zia exclaimed. “That was the only real solution, mia cara.” She patted me on the shoulder.

Stephano turned and left the kitchen.

We all stared at the doorway after he passed through it.

Again, Zia patted my arm. “He will not hold it against you, tesora. I know I tease him and talk a lot of what they call smack about him, but he tries to be fair. Most of the time...He could see how hard this was for you. He is all about family and no matter what happened in the end here, Deacon was family to you for a long time.”

I slowly nodded my head. “Now, we will see if he really feels the same—” The buzz from my cell told me I had a message.

My hands shook all over again as I raised the phone up to read it.

I found myself blinking my eyes at an old photo.

I felt confused. It was of what looked like a young Ophelia or Olivia Claire as she was originally named and in each arm she held…

With a gasp, I realized what this was. Dropping the phone like it had burned my hand, I bolted from the chair and almost fell.

Tito reacted swiftly and caught me as the chair clattered to the floor. “What the hell?”

Julianna reached forward and grabbed the cell phone.

“No!” I shouted at her. For some reason, I wanted to protect her from what Deacon had sent.

She raised it up and stared at the photo, just as the phone dinged again.

Her expression at first looked confused, then her eyes widened as she realized what I had.

With a gasp, she whispered in a barely there voice, “He even sent the birth certificates?” Raising her stunned almost identical gaze to me she muttered, “This cannot be true…”

Romeo reached over as he gently took the phone from her and studied the messages there. “The hell is this?” he asked in confusion. “What…he can’t be real with this!”

Still shaking badly, I held my hand out to him.

Raising his gaze from the phone, he looked at me and placed it into my trembling hand.

I stared down at it then enlarged the photo of one certificate. “I can’t believe…” My voice faded away. Looking at the photo, I shook my head. “Is this really us?” I raised my gaze to Julianna.

Her face had lost almost all of its color as she stumbled to a chair and sat down. “It sure looks like it. Our parents have pictures of us as babies and we did look just like that. I don’t understand.”

“Me either. But it looks like…I was Ophelia’s daughter after all. The birth certificates are for the year we were born. But our names aren’t…” I felt light headed and moved over to the empty chair to sit down again.

“What are you saying?” Tito asked.

I studied the certificate and said, “This says our mother was Olivia Claire Walker…”

“What?” Zia exclaimed.

“No, no…” Julianna kept shaking her head in denial as she looked stunned.

Romeo placed his arm around her as he looked upset.

“Deacon sent an old picture of Ophelia and she is holding two babies. Then he attached two birth certificates. One for each of us?” I shrugged as I felt a little sick to my stomach.

“Can I see it?” Tito asked.

I handed him the phone.

Sitting in the chair, he’d uprighted from the floor, he peered down at my cell phone.

After a minute, he read it aloud, “The mother is cited as Olivia Claire Walker. Father unknown?” He raised his head up to stare at me.

“Then we have no idea which certificate belongs to which of you. It looks like…It has names similar to yours but—”

“They aren’t real!” Julianna exclaimed.

I looked over at her to ask, “And how do you know that?”

“Because we have parents. They live in New York. In fact, they…” She shook her head and went on, “They're coming to see us both soon. I was going to tell you today.”

I stared at her and asked, “You say they are Italian, correct?”

“Yes, they are.”

“And do either of them have green eyes and red hair?” I asked. “Like we do?”

She glared at me but she didn’t answer.

I waited a minute then asked again. “Well, do they?”

With a sigh, she shook her head as tears filled her eyes.

I felt bad as I didn’t mean to upset her further. “I-I’m sorry, Julianna. I’m just as confused as you are.”

“It has to be made up!” Julianna almost yelled as she clenched her hands into fists. “I mean those aren’t even our names! Either Ophelia did some manipulation with the photo or Deacon did.”

“Maybe.” I shook my head. “But what if that is the answer? What if she took me because we were really hers?”

“Then why just take you?” Zia asked.

Julianna and I looked at each other.

“I had the measles,” Julianna answered. “And I was at the doctors when Ophelia took Valencia.”

“Damn,” Tito swore. “Look, I know this is upsetting and it might or might not be true. O had been known for many lies. Maybe she left this as one more?”

I again looked down at the images. “It cites the hospital and the county here on the certificates.”

“And we can verify it,” Julianna said.

Romeo took his cell out. “I’ll call Dante. He’s good at this kind of thing.”

“No,” Julianna said. “They are on their honeymoon, babe.”

He looked up at her. “Oh, yeah. That would be sort of rude, right?”

Zia scoffed. “You think, Romeo?”

I agreed. “We can’t bother them.” I looked over at my twin. “We could ask your parents?”

Julianna lost more color in her face as she corrected me, “ Our parents but I-I…” She raised her arms up. “How can I do that…” She dropped her arms. “What if it was one of O’s tricks? What if she did that so she could back up her claim? Like if anyone saw you or found out.”

“I don’t think she cared about any lawful interference,” Romeo said. “She would have simply killed whoever it was that found out.”

Zia gasped at this suggestion.

“I’m sorry, Zia,” Romeo apologized. “But that was the kind of thing she did. Her victims total more than fifty people. That we know of.”

“Oh, God!” Julianna cried out. “Don’t let her be our real mother!” She burst into tears.

Romeo looked gobsmacked by her reaction. “I’m sorry, love. I didn’t mean to…” Taking her by the hand, he tugged her up from the chair and said, “Let’s go to our room for a while. You need some down time.” He led her out of the kitchen.

Tito looked over at me and asked, “What do you want to do?”

“What can I do?”

“Take it to Stephano,” Zia suggested. “He has men who track unknown things in the world. It would be the fastest way.”

Tito looked from her to me. “What do you think?”

I shrugged and didn’t feel too encouraged by the suggestion. “I think he’s mad at me right now.”

Zia scoffed. “I do not agree, bambina. Sure, Stevie can be a real bully and he is stubborn. But he wasn’t mad at you when he left here. No, we would have known it.”

“How?” I asked.

She shook her head and explained, “He gets this little tick by his left eye and his breathing slows way down then his voice drops real low. He hides his emotions well, like any big bad boss, but I know the signs.”

Tito leaned in close to her and kissed her cheek. “You are too much, Mama. But you really gotta stop calling him Stevie.”

She smiled and patted his cheek. “As I have reminded him. He ain't the boss of me.”

I watched Tito and his mother together and smiled a little, even if my heart was breaking.

They were adorable together. I never experienced that with…

my possible mother. She was always too busy or gone.

Yes, she was nice to me and never harsh, but we didn’t have what these two had.

I shook my head. To think that all these weeks, I had been forcing myself to accept that Ophelia hadn’t been my mother.

Feeling lost as to why she had done what she did.

Now after a lot of soul searching and trying to reject Deacon as my true brother…

It had all been true? Our supposed biological parents weren't our parents?

So they stole us? No, they were not that kind of people, if I believed what Julianna had told me about them.

They were hard working, God fearing people who were revered by all who knew them.

“Valen?” Tito called to me.

His voice broke into my wandering thoughts. I slowly looked over at him. “Huh?”

He stepped closer and caressed my cheek with his fingers. “Aww, I’m sorry this happened, sweet girl.”

I grasped his hand and squeezed it then said, “It makes me wonder.”

“Wonder what?” he asked.

“If O ever told the truth? I feel like I’m lost all the time now. What I thought had been true for twenty years had been a lie. Then just as I face that lie, I’m told that it is the truth?”

“Baby, you don’t know that yet.” He took my hand with both of his.

“He’s right,” Zia said. “O could have created those documents in case you ever had questions?”

“There’s other signs here though,” I told them both. “Like our coloring. It matches Olivia better than our parents. And like Julianna confirmed, she had been at the doctors the day O took me. That could be the reason she left her behind. Then that picture!”

Tito wrapped an arm around me. “Valen, please try to calm down. I know this has upset you but you cannot change the past. You can’t alter what others have done.

And no matter what the real truth is, you have me.

You have my whole family now. We will help you to get through it.

To be happy. No matter who your mom was. ”

I gazed into his eyes then I burst into tears.

He looked surprised then grabbed me up into a hug “I’m sorry! What did I say? I’m so sorry!”

I tried to speak through my crying, “Y-you are the…” I sobbed a little more. “...the best man I h-have ever met! Oh, my God, you are so sweet!” I braced his face and peppered his cheeks with kisses.

“Si, that’s my boy!” Zia laughed.