Regrets of the Don: His Beloved Walked Away novel · Chapter 28 of 32

Chapter 28: Fatherhood

The nurse at the station didn't look up from her screen.

"Visitors for the NICU are by the mother's list," she said. "What's your name?"

"Ricky Palumbo. I'm the father. It's on a test. Ninety-nine point nine."

She checked.

"You're not on the list, sir."

"Then put me on it."

"The mother makes the list."

I walked down the hall toward them.

My socks were still damp from the shop floor, and I had my sister's dried blood on the cuff of my jacket.

The families in the hall were watching.

A grandfather with a balloon. Two teenage girls with a car seat. A father in a hospital bracelet holding a coffee he'd forgotten about.

Down at the end, in the doorway of the waiting room, Cesare had stood up.

He didn't come any closer.

He put his hands in his pockets.

I stopped between Ricky and the NICU doors.

"Lili." He spread his hands. "Come on. It's my kid."

"Since when?"

"Since always. It's on the test."

"It was on the test in January," I said. "You didn't come in January. You didn't come to one appointment. You didn't come last night when she was locked out of her own apartment in the rain."

The grandfather with the balloon looked at Ricky.

"That was a misunderstanding," Ricky said.

"You put the lock in upside down."

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