“Yourson?” he chortled, wiping his eyes again. “After all these years, you want to dredge up the past?”
“The past has now become the present, you moron,” Maria said icily.
She reached into her handbag and pulled out another manila folder, withdrew a single document and handed it to her underling, who walked down the table again and passed it to David without a word.
He looked at it, initially curious, and then slowly his face went red with anger. He threw the paper onto the table and leaned back in his chair, a fire in his eyes that Antonio had never seen before. Antonio reached for the paper, but his father twitched it away from him, shaking his head as he did so.
“Where the fuck did you get this?” his father seethed, indicating the document with a dismissive wave.
Maria leaned back in her chair, a decidedly evil grin on her face. “Same place everyone else does.” she said innocently. “I had my lawyers look it up for me. After all, you know me – I never raise hell withoutallof the evidence.”
“What the hell are you trying to do here?” David demanded. “This document was sealed and hidden beneath so much red tape that the Pope himself would have had trouble accessing it!”
“You promised to give me my son if I kept my silence, and I did. Now my silence has ended, and I want my son. Antonio, you should see this too.” his aunt hissed, handing another document to Reynolds, who passed it to him. “I think it’s time that Daddy dearest told you the truth.”
“He doesn’t need to see it,” David snapped, but Maria silenced him with a raised finger. The entire room held its collective breath, wondering what David’s next move would be.
“Whatever it is, Dad, I can handle it,” Antonio reassured his father, before looking down at the document in front of him.
What he saw shocked him to his core.
12
Antonio stared down at the document in his hands for what felt like a lifetime, the words fading into a black and white blur. It took a while before any of it made sense, but when it did, his stomach dropped into his boots, and it was all he could do not to be sick.
“Is this real?” he asked his father, who looked back at him with a horrified resignation on his face. “Father? Is this real? Is this my birth certificate?”
“Yes,” David said eventually, his voice trembling ever so slightly. “I’m … I’m so sorry, Antonio, but yes.”
“This can’t be right, though,” Antonio stammered. “Aunt Maria’s married to … Uncle Tony … right?”
“Read it again, Antonio, for God’s sake!” his aunt said impatiently. “See if you can put two and two together.”
He stared at the certificate again, staring at the names under ‘father’ and ‘mother’, and then leapt from his chair in horror when he saw what his aunt meant. Underneath the section for each parent were the names David Blackwood and Maria de la Garza – his aunt’s maiden name.
Realisation hit him like a ton of bricks, and the room swayed in front of him as he tried to process the monumental information he’d just read. For a moment he thought he was going to faint, but he gripped the back of his chair like a vice to stop his knees from giving way. He lowered his head and took several deep breaths, willing himself not to completely fall apart, and then raised his head to glare at his father, who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there.
“You two?” he roared, picking up the nearest object and hurling it at his father’s head. It shattered into tiny pieces on the wall behind David, who ducked. Reaching for another object, he raised his arm to throw it, but was stopped by his father raising his hands in surrender.
“Explain yourself, now,” he growled, his voice rumbling like thunder. Maria started to speak, but he held up a finger to stop her. “I’ll hear from you later,Zia.”
“That’s no way to talk to your mother!” she protested, but was silenced by a glare from Antonio. He stalked over to her and leaned in close to her face, the sickly smell of her perfume violating his nostrils. It had somehow worsened, if that was at all possible, and it now reminded him of a dodgy nightclub in the middle of summer.
“Listen carefully, Maria,” he growled. “Whatever it says on that piece of paper, you’re no mother of mine, and never will be. Now, if you don’t mind, I want to hear from my father.”
David sat in silence for a while, and then looked up at his son. Antonio wasn’t surprised to see that his father looked older and frailer, as if all the life had been sucked out of him, and he almost felt ashamed for reacting in the way he had.
“You might want to sit down for this,” his father began, and Antonio took his seat once again. David took a deep breath, rubbed his face, and began.
“You have to remember that I was only eighteen when this happened.” he started, his voice hoarse and strangled. “I didn’t know what it meant to truly be in love, to settle down … I was a young man about town looking for a good time, trying to show Tony what it meant to be a man.
“I hadn’t long become heir apparent to the family businesses, and my dad told me to enjoy one last weekend of freedom before I started work at his law firm. After that weekend, I was to leave all playboy antics behind me, I was to grow up, settle down, and raise a family. He’d even picked out a bride for me – your mother.”
“She’s not his mother,” Maria muttered, earning herself a glare from everyone around the table. The atmosphere grew even more tense, and nobody dared to even breathe for a few seconds.
“One more word, Mrs Blackwood, and I’ll allow Damon to take you outside and have fun with your car!” Michael snapped. “I don’t care what youthinkyou’re entitled to, you do not have power in here unlessDavidendows you with it.”
Maria grumbled to herself, but fell silent once again. David took a sip of water, and then continued.
