Chapter 159
Akira's POV
"Todd..." Mother called suddenly, with her eyes bulging, and surprised reek her, I could see the expression on her face. Her voice laced with disbelief, "What the heck are you doing here?"
"Amelia..." He murmured and cursed at the same time before I swatted my arms from him.
"Don't you dare use my name, what are you doing here?"
Dad sighed taking a few steps from me before, his hands raised in a gesture of surrender. "Amelia, please. I can explain."
Mother's eyes darted to me, who was now standing there as confused as the other two in the room, "Nadine, sweetheart, are you okay?" she asked, her voice trembling.
I nodded slowly, my wide eyes flicking between my mother and the man who she refers to as Todd and whom I have known all my life as Ross. "Mommy… is he my dad?"
Her face paled, her lips parting as she struggled to find the right words. "Nadine…"
"Yes," Father interrupted, stepping forward. "I am. And I came back for her, Amelia. She has always been with me and she will always be with me because she is better off with me than you."
Amelia's eyes flashed with fury. "Being with you? Or did you leave her with your worthless wife and daughter? You take my daughter away from me, Todd! You walked out on me, with my daughter, you deprived me of seventeen years of my daughter. And now you just walked back in here, thinking you can... do what? Take her away, after I found her?"
"I had no choice!" Father shot back, his voice rising. "You don’t know what I was dealing with back then. I wanted to come back, I want to leave our baby with you but she will be in danger if I do that..."
"But you didn’t," Mother cut him off, her voice cold and sharp. "and what fucking danger are you talking about? Because you didn't protect my daughter for once. You didn’t come back. You didn’t call. You didn’t even write. And now you think you can just show up and play hero? You think you can just tell me that my princess is in danger and you are the only one that could protect her when you couldn't even protect yourself?"
My strong voice cut through the heated exchange. "Mother… if he’s my biological father, why did you say his name was Todd? Why did you keep calling him that? His name is Ross."
Amelia's eyes snapped to me, "Ross?" she asked almost unbelievably, that what she was hearing was not true. Her gaze moves back to Father. "You are not Todd Evans?" She asked almost unbelievably, Father shook his head. "Wait!" She shut her eyes shaking her head too violently, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. "Have you been lying to me all these years? Todd or what should I call you? Why did you lie to me?"
"Because I wanted to protect you, baby..."
"Don't you dare call me baby, Todd!" Her voice hitched.
"Let me explain, fine I lie to you but..."
"Keep your explanation to yourself and stay away from my daughter, I don't want to see you anywhere near, my Nadine." She walked towards me, pulling my hand, "From this day onwards you don't have a father, you got just me."
"Amelia, that is not fair, you can't take my right away, she is still my daughter."
"Don’t you dare," Mother snapped, cutting him off. "Don’t you dare stand there and act like the victim? You made your choice, Todd. You take my baby away from me, even when you know you are not going to care for her. My daughter had faced a lifetime bully from your mate and daughter. And now you want to confuse her? You want to make her feel that you are the one who loves her more?"
My gaze shifted to Dad, I wanted to get something straight. "Did you give Mother, the wrong name or that is your true name and not the one, my sister and I had always known? And if it was, why did you lie to her?" I said softly.
Dad hesitated, the weight of my question pressing down on him. "Because…" he began, but his voice faltered. I don't think he thought he could meet Amelia today, probably he was hoping that he would just get me and leave.
"Because he’s not your father," Mother said firmly, pulling my hand. Her voice was steady, but her hands shook as she placed them on my forearms. "He’s been lying to you, Nadine. He’s not your biological father but the man that adopted you. Your father… your biological father… is gone. And this man you called Ross, has no right to be here."
Dad stared at her, his face masked with desperation. "Amelia, don’t do this. Don’t turn her against me."
"You did that yourself," She shot back. "The moment you took her away from me, and left her with your wife and daughter, you lost the right to call yourself her father."
I could feel the pain my mother was going through internally. She fought the urge not to cry, her eyes were already clouded with unshaded tears. Her pain wasn't new to me, I know how it feels to be betrayed by someone you love and you think couldn't hurt you.
Father opened his mouth to protest, but the words wouldn’t come out. He had thought he could rewrite the past, but now he saw the truth. The damage was done, and no amount of explanations could undo it. To my mother, he didn't tell her his true identity because he doesn't love her but to me, there is a whole lot of story behind this.
Mother pulled me closer, wrapping her arms protectively around me. "You need to leave," she said, her voice low and firm. "You’ve done enough, go away, I could protect my daughter now."
"No you can't, I will not let you bring my daughter into danger," he pulled me off Mother's grip, I could see the urgency in his eyes and movement again.
"Stop it, father, I don't care if you are Todd or Ross, I am not saying you are not my dad, even if you didn't turn out to be someone related to me by blood, I would have considered you as one but my point is, I don't need protection and I will rather go with my mother than go with you, I don't want to go back to..." He shakes his head, interrupting me.
"You have nothing to be afraid of, I will not bring you there, I will take you with me. Let Dad protect you, going with your mother will only put you in danger."
"What danger, are you even talking about?" I swatted my arms off him. "did you gamble again and you ended up indebted to the mafia boss?"
"I will tell you everything but for now, we have to leave."
"What don't you understand I said no, I don't want to go with you, my new family could protect me." I take a step back, depriving him of taking my arms again.
"Fuck..." Roe cursed suddenly, and my eyes snapped to him, "We need to get out of here..." His voice sounded urgent.
"What is going on?" Mother asked.
"Our men are gone, there are gunmen outside, looking for you..." I felt ice cold, pointing at my chest.
"Looking for me, what did I do?" My voice trembling.
"I think..."
"I am bringing my daughter with me." Father interrupted Roe and pulled my arm roughly, and Mother pulled my other arm, with the two pulling on each side of my arms, I felt dizzy and tired and parted my lips to say something but terror visited me, as I heard the shattering of glasses and one of the men, lifted his gun and pointed it to my face.
I was in horror, thinking it was the end of me, then I heard an earth-shattering scream, with someone taking me down.
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