He Ransomed His Secret Son and Left Our Daughter novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Grandpa's House

Giacomo had painted a room for Lily.

He had done it in four days, with six painters working in shifts, and it was the color of a flamingo.

"It's pink," Lily said, standing in the doorway with her rabbit.

"You like pink," said Giacomo, anxiously.

"I like purple."

He turned to Dario with a look of pure horror.

"She likes purple," Dario said, without moving his face. "Since she was two."

"I'll have it repainted."

"Grandpa." Lily took his hand, the way you would take the hand of a nervous dog. "It's okay. I'll sleep in it anyway. But next time you ask Mommy."

He looked at his granddaughter as if she'd handed him a medal.

"Next time I ask Mommy," he repeated.

We had been in his house for three days.

He had hired a pediatric endocrinologist to live in the guest wing.

He had bought a refrigerator for Lily's insulin, and then a second one, in case the first one was lonely.

There was a pony in the stable.

Nobody had asked for a pony.

On the fourth morning he came into the kitchen with a black card in a velvet envelope, set it by my coffee, and said, "There's no limit."

I looked at it.

Then I slid it back across the table.

"I can't take that."

"It's yours. It's all yours. Everything I have is yours, Marlena. I've been saving it for twenty-eight years."

"I know," I said. "That's why I can't."

His face fell.

I put my hand over his.

"I didn't come here for money. If you want to spend something, buy Lily a paint set and ask me what color. If you want to give me something, let me just sit at your table and eat breakfast."

He looked at the card, and at my hand.

"I don't know how to do this," he said quietly. "Do you understand? I know how to buy things. I know how to frighten people. I don't know how to be a father to a grown woman who survived without me."

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