by M. D. Melai
The days went by fast, but the nights would crawl. My mind stayed busy during the day, but at night it wandered. I thought about the ‘what if’s,’ and when it wasn’t the what if’s that kept me up, it was the night terrors that haunted me.
My mother stayed with Benito that week as she went over my father’s assets with him. Benito would be taking over all my father’s businesses and he and my brothers were busy working on the legal work. My mother also had decisions to make about her life as well.
The main decision she had made was that she wanted to move back to the United States. Benito and I both offered her a place to stay at our homes, but she declined. She wanted to live on her own and not burden us, although she could never be a burden to us.
When she made that decision, she forced me to make one of my own. I had a house back in Toronto too, so Violet and I decided it would be best to sell it as well.
After all the business affairs were handled and my mother found a beautiful condo not too far from me in New Jersey, it was time to head home.
Violet, my mother, and I headed back to Toronto at the beginning of the week to work on packing the houses, finding a realtor, and wrapping up both my mother and father’s affairs there. Benito accompanied us back home. It was now Benito’s responsibility to keep us safe. Emilio, my brothers, and Lucas were supposed to fly up in a week to help finish packing and do whatever else needed to get done.
Violet and I had spent the majority of the first of the week going through and packing up our house. Benito helped when he could, but he mostly stayed with our mother.
By the end of the week, I was thankful we didn’t have much packing left. The things we wanted to keep, we packed up in boxes and marked them to go back with us, and the things we didn’t want, we boxed up and set in the garage for donations.
A few days ago, my mother, Violet, and I had to sign the papers for the houses to be put on the market. We decided today we would take a break for just a little while to rest. All four of us were sitting in the living room of my parents’ house going through old photo albums.
We had gone from when my mother and father first met, all the way up to when Emilio and I met. It was great looking through all the years and seeing how things had changed.
“Mamma, where are your wedding pictures at?” I asked when I noticed they were the only photos I had yet to see.
“Oh, I did forget them, didn’t I? They’re in my closet,” she said, looking up from a photo she was holding. “Blue box… I think left side.”
I got up off the floor and headed upstairs. As soon as I entered her closet, I looked up and there were two blue boxes, one on the left and one on the right.
“Ma, which side again? Left or right?” I yelled.
“Umm, right side.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Right side now.
I pulled out the box from under several other boxes that were piled on top of it, and wondered why her wedding pictures were in a box and not in an album like all the others. The dust from the box made me cough slightly as I wiped off the top. I could definitely tell it hadn’t been opened in a while.
I was halfway down the stairs when I opened the box to look inside. The picture staring back at me though was not of my mother and father on their wedding day, it was of Benito, a woman, and a baby sitting on a hospital bed. Benito and the woman were smiling from ear to ear.
The woman was not my sister-in-law. She did, however, look familiar. As I took in her face, I was trying to figure out where I had seen her. Her blonde hair was beautiful and her green eyes were piercing.
Those eyes.
Faith’s eyes.
Germany.
Heinrich.
What was her name again? Adela?
Yes, Adela.
Why was Benito with her? They looked so young and happy.
Who is the baby?
I’m so confused.
I walked into the living room about the time I flipped the photograph over.
April 1991- Beni, me, and Liliana
April 1991? That’s the month and year I was born.
My heart started racing as reality set in.
“Mamma?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said, not looking up at me.
“What’s your blood type?”
“B positive,” she said quizzically.
B positive? My father was O negative.
It didn’t take a genius to realize a B positive and an O negative could not make an A negative.
I started shaking as I looked at the picture I was holding in my hands. I finally took a good long look at the baby, wrapped in a beautiful pink blanket, in Adela’s arms.
The baby was me.
“Why do you ask?” my mother said as she finally looked up at me.
When our eyes met, she knew. She knew that I knew. Her eyes went wide, and I watched the color drain from her face.
She knew in that moment I had just figured it out.
My parents were not my parents at all, but my grandparents.
My parents were Benito and Adela.
Thank you for reading our book! If you have a few moments, then would you do us a huge favor and review our book on Amazon or Goodreads? Reviews are so important for independent authors, and we would also love to hear what you thought about it.
Thank you so much!
M.D. Melai and C.S. Leigh
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, we would like to thank God for blessing us with this opportunity once again.
Thank you to Patsy for helping us along the way. We have become much better writers. You have made us more attentive in our writing and have taught us to question everything. Thank you for the countless hours you have spent helping us out.
Thank you to our wonderful Beta readers: Carrie, Dessie, Jane, and Erica. We can never thank you enough for your love of Liliana’s journey and your wonderful words of encouragement and input.
Thank you to our friends who rallied around us, read the book, and spread the word. You all are amazing!
Jessica DeLucio, you did it again girl. The cover looks wonderful. You are amazing and so very talented. We appreciate the work you have done on both Deceptive and Fugitive! We look forward to many more projects together.
Readers! What can we say about you all? Thank you so much for your love of Liliana and her wonderful story. You all have made our dreams come true! When we sat out to write her story years ago, it was just a dream, an idea. We never thought we would actually publish her story, and when we finally did, we were worried no one would want to read it, but the feedback and love you have sent our way has been amazing. We could not have asked for better fans.
Last but not least, we say a special thank you to our families. Without you this would not have been possible. We could tell you thank you a million times and it would never be enough. We love you all so very much.
M.D. Melai would like to say a special thank you to her husband and her Mom and Dad for the countless hours they all spent watching “E” for her so she could either finish writing or editing. Thank you all for putting up with all her “craziness.”
C.S. Leigh would like to thank her parents and siblings for the constant support. You all have been by my side since Melai and I started this journey five years ago. I would like to give a special shout-out to my mom and dad: thank you dad for helping us on our way to greatness, and thank you mom for being one of our beta-readers and constantly giving us feedback.
About the Authors
M.D. Melai and C.S. Leigh are a cousin writing duo from North Central Texas.
They began the first draft of Deceptive in 2009 while attending college at the same time. The idea began in a kinesiology class that they took together, and they built it up from there as each class was full of brainstorming. But in too short of time, life got in the way and Liliana’s story was put on the back burner.
Over the next five years, Liliana’s story never
left their minds or hearts as it was discussed sporadically.
So when April of 2014 graced them with its presence, the two decided that, after all the time that had passed, it was time to finish their dream, so they began working on Deceptive once again. And from that point on the two were inseparable as they wrote and released the entire series in two years. All three books were self-published by the authors and have been on the rise since.
M.D. Melai is a stay at home mom of an active son. When she isn’t being a mom, a wife, or a sideline cheerleader, she tries to fit in writing time whenever she can. She also enjoys reading as much as possible, and spending time with her family. Melai hopes to one day finish her Bachelor’s in History and English.
C.S. Leigh spends her days working for a hospital, and her nights consist of writing her first solo novel or reading. In any spare time that she has, she spends it with her friends and family. She is also very active as she still plays soccer for a local adult league. Sports are a huge part of her life and you can catch her at local sporting events. C.S. Leigh has her bachelor’s degree in business, but has decided to follow her passion of writing. She hopes to one day go back to college and get her degree in English or Creative Writing.
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Here’s a sneak peek at
INCEPTIVE,
the final installment in
The Deceptive Series
Chapter 1
My eyes were still locked on my mother’s when I felt the picture fall from my grasp. I caught a glimpse of it as it floated down to the bottom of the stairs. My cheeks started to burn with heat as sweat began to bead on my forehead. My breath became short, and my heart felt like it was about to pound out of my chest.
My mother’s face fell as pure shock spread across it. She slowly stood up and clasped her hand over her mouth. Benito’s eyes darted back and forth between us as Violet made her way to the staircase.
“Are you okay?” she asked confused, before she bent over and picked up the picture.
Violet examined the photo, before flipping it over and reading the back. Her head snapped up quickly, distress written all over her face. She stood there speechless, looking from me, to the picture, to Benito, and back to me.
Confused by what was going on, Benito quickly made his way over to Violet and took the photo from her. I watched as his face registered what he was looking at. A range of emotions flashed across this face—shock, sadness, love—before his head dropped.
“Lily…,” he spoke softly as he exhaled instant shame. His head slowly lifted until our eyes met.
I dropped the box of photos, and heard as it toppled down the stairs. Violet was able to catch it, but not before all the photos spilled out. In that moment, I didn’t care about any of those photos—only the innocent one that had made everything else irrelevant.
My eyes, though, never wavered from Benito’s, and his never moved from mine. There were so many questions swirling around in my head, and I needed time to think. I rushed down the stairs, and as I started to pass Benito, his arm caught my hand. I refused to look back at him—all I wanted to do was run towards the front door and escape this nightmare.
“Please stay,” Benito pleaded. “We need to talk about this.”
“I…” I paused for a moment, trying to think of the right words to say. “I just need a minute. Can you give me that?” He slowly let go of my hand, silently giving me the okay.
Without ever looking back at any of them, I made my way out the front door and down the steps. Panic instantly washed over me, and I bent over and closed my eyes to block out my surroundings.
Please, don’t have a panic attack! Not right now!
Taking in as deep of a breath as I could manage, I started to finally get a grip on my anxiety. The deeper the breaths, the better I felt. I couldn’t say the same for my thoughts, though.
Once I felt like I could walk, I started down the long drive of my parents’ house. At first I was walking at a brisk pace, but the further down the driveway I got, the faster my pace picked up. And the faster my pace picked up, the faster my mind raced.
What was going on?
Benito was my father, and Adela was my mother.
How could this be?
Benito was twenty years older than me. I always thought that was a huge age difference between siblings, but it never occurred to me how unusual that was, because my parents had Dante just two years before me—or so I thought. And whenever I asked my mother why she had us so late, she would always respond by saying that we were her blessed accidents. Why hadn’t she told me the truth? She had plenty of opportunities. And not just her, why hadn’t Benito or my father said anything?
Adela was a Heinrich, right? How could she be my mother? I didn’t know anything about this woman, other than a few things Stefani, her grandmother, had mentioned to me while I was over in Europe. I also knew she was dead—my birth mother was dead.
How did she die? Did she die giving birth to me?
My mind reeled as more questions started to consume me. Why had they passed me off as Benito’s sister? Was he ashamed to have me as his daughter? Was I a mistake? What happened that my grandparents had to raise me as their own? Why had no one told me?
My entire life has been a lie. Everything.
I was already at a slow jog by now, and without even consciously thinking, as soon as I hit the pavement outside my parents’ gate, I took off at a dead sprint towards my old house just down the street.
When I reached my house moments later, I stopped running and just stood in the middle of the driveway. My eyes tried, but failed to focus on my surroundings as I thought about how much simpler everything was before my father…well, grandfather, forced me to move to New Jersey two years ago. My life was perfect then—I was happy. I would give anything to go back to that day.
Since I didn’t have my keys with me, I walked up to the front door and quickly found the spare underneath our potted plant. The house was eerily empty as I opened the door and walked in. Violet and I had finished packing up what was left the day before. I still couldn’t believe we were putting our home up for sale.
Maybe we shouldn’t do that now.
Maybe I should keep my house and move back to Toronto. I didn’t have as many bad memories here as I did in New Jersey. This could be the place where I could start back over again. Some place that I was separated from all the lies, deceit, and heartbreak. I could even reopen my business—I was sure that our old clientele would be thrilled to know that I was back. They were all upset when Violet and I had closed down our office here.
But the more I thought about it, the more I came to realize that wasn’t an option anymore. Previously, I had ran away from my problem instead of facing them, and that almost cost me Violet—it had cost me my father.
Before I knew it, I had made my way up to my bedroom and over to my back window. When I lived here, I used to spend countless hours staring out this window, trying to collect my thoughts—whether it was about work, my family, or my relationships.
I took a few deep breaths and tried to clear my mind. Out of all the information I found out about my family in the past year, this was, by far, the most unexpected and biggest lie of them all.
Over the past two years, I had learned my family was head
of the Italian mafia, and that a rival family, the Heinrichs, was after me. With this new revelation, I now knew that same family’s blood runs through my veins.
And on top of all of that, I’m still in the dark as to why the Heinrichs want me so bad. Whether my family knows that or not, they have neglected to tell me the truth.
But, out of everything, this betrayal hurt the most.
I had been deep in thought when a light knock on the door frame tore me from them. Benito was standing in the doorway as I turned around. His face was pale, and he looked ashamed. I dropped my eyes from his, before he took a few steps in my direction. He came close enough to put his warm hand on my shoulder—it was oddly comforting.
“I’m so sorry,” he quietly said as his other hand reached up to my face and cupped my cheek. I was taken aback by his gesture. Benito was not one to show affection and, until recently, wasn’t very concerned about me. He quickly realized how unusual he was being toward me and dropped his hand to his side.
“How could you not tell me?” I asked, meeting his eyes again.
“I always planned on telling you, but I didn’t know how to.”
I nodded, not really understanding. But, for once, I tried to keep my temper in check. “So you’re my…father?” Calling him that left a sour taste as the words passed over my lips.
“Yes,” he confirmed. “I can only imagine how confusing and surprising this must be for you.”
“You have no idea,” I replied as I shook my head.
“I promise I will answer any questions you might have, but, for now, can we head back home? Mamma is worried about you.”
“Sure, but can you give me just a few more minutes?” I asked.
“Take as much time as you need,” he said, before patting me on the shoulder and walking out of my room.
Benito said that he would answer any question I may have, but was I really ready for the answers? After everything I had been through, could I even handle it? I was still mourning the loss of my father… grandfather. How could I possibly comprehend the magnitude of this situation?