Page 38 of A Don & His Doll

Love stolen.

Fatherhood stolen.

Finding out that not only is Sienna alive, but that he had a daughter felt like a vicious blow to his heart. Uncontrolled tears carved paths down his face, and he didn't bother to stop them. A daughter? How the fuck could this be? I know damn well I ain’t missed twelve years of her life. This shit can’t be fuckin’ real, his mind raced as he paced the floor trying to process all this shit, still.

“You tellin’ me my daughter been alive all this time?” Monroe asked.

Mitch nodded.

“And Moms’ knew?”

“She knew,” Mitch confirmed again, cementing the reality of it all.

“Grandpop knew?”

Mitch’s silence answered before his mouth did.

Monroe’s expression shifted, and this time the rage came back meaner.

“You gotta be fuckin’ kiddin’ me.”

"You know how sick your grandfather was. He knew what Macie did, but he needed you and her to-"

"All due respect, Unc…I ain't tryna hear none of that shit. You tellin' me grandpop knew about this shit, and didn't tell me?" Monroe seethed. "The way I see it is he was just as selfish as my fuckin' mother!” He snapped. “Losin' Sienna fuckin' broke me. Until seeing her face the other day…Do you understand the fuckin' guilt I walked around with for the last twelve years? Her death was on me!"

Mitch didn’t say a word because truthfully, on every level all this shit was wrong, and he couldn’t defend it. Monroe’s anger was justified. If the shoe was on his foot, he’d be on demon time. Fuck mercy.

Monroe had avenged her death with no mercy, but even revenge had never freed him. Now he understood why. Because maybe there had never been a death to avenge. Mitch could only imagine how his nephew was feeling, and truth be told, he was justified in whatever way he wanted to carry it moving forward. There was one thing that was unspoken, but had already been established between them. Even with Mitch being the head of the family, he would forever be ten toes down when it came to his nephew. Monroe stood and began to pace the floor, and Mitch said nothing because when it was all said and done, he was ready to take this shit wherever it needed to go on behalf of his nephew..

“My daughter grew up without me,” he murmured. “She probably needed me. Asked about me. Wondered where the fuck I was.” His voice broke again, and that only made him angrier. “And I was right here.”

Mitch stepped from behind the desk slowly. “You didn’t know.”

“That don’t change what she missed.”

“Nah,” Mitch agreed. “It don’t.”

Monroe stopped pacing and turned toward him. At that moment, he wasn’t the Don. He wasn’t strong, and wasn't the man everybody feared. He was a father who had just found out he had failed a child he never knew existed. Why didn’t she tell me she was pregnant?

“We gotta move strategically with this shit. Macie-”

At the mention of Macie, Monroe’s face changed completely. Whatever softness had cracked open seconds before began sealing itself behind something colder.

“Macie is fuckin’ dead to me,” he said with finality.

Mitch didn’t respond, just nodded his understanding.

Monroe’s breathing slowed, but that didn’t mean he was calm. It meant he was becoming controlled again, and Mitch knew that version of Monroe was far more dangerous than the emotional one.

“I need everything,” Monroe said. “The letter. Names. Proof. Who helped her. Who knew. Every person connected to this shit.”

“I already took care of Abel. Him, Macie, Sienna, and my father were the only ones who knew,” Mitch clarified, taking a long drag from his blunt, then passed it to his nephew.

Monroe nodded once, then silence stretched between them again. Only this time, it wasn’t empty. It was loaded. He looked toward the window, watching rain slide down the glass while his entire life rearranged itself. Promise’s face flashed through his mind again, and guilt tightened in his chest. He loved her. That hadn’t changed. But how was he supposed to go back to her after his past had walked in with his daughter attached to it?

Mitch read the shift in his face.

“You talk to Promise ‘bout this yet?” Mitch inquired, sitting back down behind his desk.