“What? It’s not my fault that his parents hated him from the start.”
Everyone laughs as Lorenzo gets on the phone to his brother Sebastiano. He and Francesco Bastianini are our top IT guys and they can find anything we need. I listen to him tell Sebastiano everything that’s going on.
“They’ll get back to me ASAP. We did get some information on Yakov before, but what if it’s not him?”
There’s no one else that I know of that would try and claim my son. I really hoped that Yakov was going to do the right thing and just stay away.
We don’t hear anything before we get to the office. There’s a new girl at the front desk.
“Hi, I’m Gianluca Mancini, we’re here to see Pauline and Phillip.”
“Holy crap. I-I mean just a minute.” She gets on the phone to let Pauline know we’re here.
“Hasn’t she met you before?” Eros whispers to me.
“She’s new. I’ve never seen her before.”
“No wonder. She’s staring at you like she wants to eat you.”
“Ew.”
“Hey, Gianluca. Why don’t you all come on back with me.” Pauline smiles as she greets all of us.
We all follow her into one of the conference rooms where Phillip is waiting for us. Phillip Sadler is the owner of the Chicago Panthers. He’s always been a hands on type of owner. The kind that actually cares about his team and players. The day I was drafted, he sat down with me and my parents to talk about what he saw in me. And what he hoped I would bring to thePanthers. This year my contract is up and we’re in negotiations. Phillip has said he won’t let me go to another team. So it’s just a matter of both of us getting what we want in my next contract.
Phillip stands and greets all of us.
“I always forget how big your family is until I see them again.” Phillip chuckles.
“One day you’ll have to come to a family barbecue.” I laugh as my papà nods.
“If I’m invited? I’ll be there.”
“Pauline said that you got a letter?” I ask.
“We did. And we’re making sure it’s a real lawyer firm.” He says as he hands me the paper.
Fuck. It is Yakov Koslov. I hand the paper to Lorenzo.
“My cousin, Lorenzo is our family lawyer.”
“We’ve already established that Gianluca is Giancarlo’s biological father.” Lorenzo says as he looks at my papà.
My papà nods at him, giving him the green light to tell Phillip some of the things we know.
“Yakov Koslov was with Giancarlo’s mother before she passed. From what Faith told us, he was abusive to her. She was on her way to Lake Renegade to tell Gianluca about their son when she was in the car accident that took her life. But before she passed, she was able to tell us some things. One that he was never on Giancarlo’s birth certificate. I’m not sure how she did that, but she did. We have his original birth certificate. She gave us permission to do a DNA test, she died before we got the results. But she did sign a letter saying she wanted Giancarlo to be with Gianluca.”
“I never doubted you all had this in order. I’m not sure why they sent all this here to us instead of you.”
“Probably because they hoped you would panic and do what they wanted. The other thing you should know is that he hasn’tseen Carlo for eight months now. Not that we would allow it, but he hasn’t even tried.”
“What do you want us to do?” Phillip asks.
“Nothing. We can handle it, but if you get any more phone calls, please forward it to us. Same with the letters.” Lorenzo says as he hands Phillip and Pauline his business card.
“I’m sorry you’re going through this. Every time I’ve seen Giancarlo, he’s always so happy.”
“Thanks. He’s a great kid, I only wish Faith was around to see him.”
