Meena stopped and turned her fear filled gaze toward Evelyn.“Mom?”She shook her head to clear it.“Is it really you?”She threw herself into her mother’s arms.“Oh Mom, I found you!”
Evelyn hugged her daughter closer and kissed her cheek.“Oh baby, I’m so glad you did.”
Meena just let her mom hold her for a minute.Then she turned her head and spotted Leon.Sitting up, she just stared at him for a moment before she asked, “Are you...?”
“I’m Leon Vincinti.We just talked twenty minutes ago, my dear.”
Meena smiled.“You are real, aren’t you?”She reached out to touch him.“You’re real and I finally get to meet you.Oh, my God!”
Leon chuckled.“Yes child, I’m real.”
“And you do know that you’re my dad?”Meena asked in awe.
“I am so glad to see you are okay.”Leon smiled softly.“And yes, I am your father.”
Meena shook her head.“Not myfather, that’s too harsh.You’re my daddy.That’s what mom always called you in her stories.She would tell me about you and my brother Calderone every day.”She turned to look at Calderone.“Are you him?Calderone?My big brother?”
Calderone nodded and smiled.“And I’m guessing you’re Meena.”
“Dominica Lysette Druggan at your service, so to speak.”
Calderone looked shocked and turned his head to stare at his father.“Dominica Lysette?”
Meena turned to look at Leon.“Mom named me that for a reason.She always told me that I was named after your mother.She said you lost her and that while you would always have a small piece of her in your heart she wanted you to have a living piece of her too.”She looked at him for the longest time then she asked, “Is that all right?”
Leon felt a single tear roll down his cheek as he nodded.“That’s perfect.”Turning his head, he gazed tenderly at Evelyn.“I don’t know how to thank you for this.”....
Leon now watched both his wife and his daughter at the breakfast table.They were the most precious gifts he’d ever received.
After he answered their questions, the two women look relieved as they then went on eating their breakfast.
Leon sipped at his coffee.He had been thinking about Jelly Bean’s offer and wondered if her people were all around them.That could be why he saw those flashes.
At the end of the meal, John stopped to whisper in his ear, “We need to follow up on our guests.”
Leon nodded.
After a few minutes, they left the dining room.They walked down the two hallways separating the living area from this part of estate, then to the door leading to the basement and the cells.
When they reached the cell area they stopped at the three wooden crosses that held the three men they had taken prisoner.
Henry looked up and the pain in his eyes from last night was very apparent.“You are a real monster, aren’t you?”Henry growled at Leon.
Leon smiled and stared back.“You have no idea.”
Henry looked away and said, “You were willing to skin me last night.”
Leon shrugged.“I only took a small piece of you.I could have done worse.”
“You aren’t even going to deny it?”he exclaimed.
Leon shrugged.“You seem to think you are the only bad ones here.Sure, you can beat a woman alright, I have no doubt about that.I’m even sure that you went to prison for much worse crimes, but you are toddlers in the real world.The world I live in.I hope you have made your peace with your God because you won’t be alive too much longer.”
“So, you are gonna kill us?”Julius asked.
Leon shrugged.“If I do not, I’m sure the men watching this place will.”
Myron looked puzzled.“What do you mean, the men watching this place?”
