CHAPTER THREE
Danelle blinked more than twice, the strange man stood there still looking at her, happiness scoured through his features.
"What are you talking about?" Danelle quizzed from her confusion.
Italy was suppose to be a fresh start for her, encountering this strange man is slowly tainting the whole freshness she wanted.
"I can't explain that well, but please can you come with me to visit our famiglia. Everything will be explained to you, but I must ask. Did you meet Carlo, he was the one sent to bring you back home.
was he the one who sent you home?."
Danelle gawked with a creased brows, a distorted expression, still trying to piece together what was happening.
With various questions stirring her head, she found herself following the strange man. He had ushered them out of the airport, they were stalking down the wide area of the parking lot.
It was until he pulled an entrance into his car, for her to go in and take a seat that her brain revved back to life. This man is a total stranger. Sure he claimed she's a long lost sister or relative and seemed harmless, but what are the odds?
What are the odds of everything he said being a lie and a scheme to abduct her. The world is currently too grey for her to blindly trust this man and follow him.
If anything, her view on the world got tainted when her husband of four fucking years worked with the devil she thought were her family.
"I'm not following you. I don't know you, and I think you've mistaken me for someone else-"
"Danelle Ford. I know your name, I'm not lying to you or trying to do anything bad to you." He tried convincing her, but Danelle just wasn't having it.
"Yeah nice try, but I'm still not the one you are looking. And by the way I don't answer to that last name, I'm Danelle Jones, not Ford. I part ways with the bastard titling the name." She stormed off his presence, unable to keep her emotions at bay.
She got into a cab, finding a cheap and classy hotel to accommodate her presence till she's well settled in the country.
She was coming out from the shower when a knock banged on her door. She glanced at the door, pulling a skeptical look at the door and whoever could be outside knocking.
She requested no room service or made any order, and she's a foreigner here with no friends or relatives that would come visiting upon her arrival.
The knock came again after she had responded with silence. Danelle dropped the towel she's using her head, clad into a robe hastily so she can go check out who was knocking.
Upon opening her door, the familiar face of the strange man she met at the airport was the first to show up, and beside him was an old woman, definitely in her seventies.
"What are you doing here? Who is she- and how did you find me here?" Her brows furrowed, a questionning look masking her expression.
"My sweet darling. We're the Vinci's, and this is figuratively our country, we rule the hook and crannies. My name is camilla Vinci," The old woman spoke in a clear English accent, fluent with her admirative voice.
"Now, would you let us in your abode my sweet Rosa, I've quite the discussion to table." She quested, politely with a friendly smile gripping her face.
Danelle could only gawk with pure confusion, she shifted from the spot she stood rooted on, opening the door wider to allow their entrance.
They came in, looking around before moving to seat on the couch provided inside the spacious room.
"So I'm not going to waste your time and just get right on with it. You are not who you think you are.
Yes, you're a Vinci's descendant. As a kid, you were taken away and stolen from your parents, you were replaced. No one knew until your replacement had grown into a teenager, the culprits behind your vanishing coming out with the truth.
They took you away because they didn't want you becoming who you're meant to become, that is the heir to the Vinci's Empire.
Since then we've worked on getting you back, touring through the past from the day you were taken and dumped to die on the streets, but a man and his wife picked you up.
It's a long story and it doesn't get any shorter, instead longer but the good thing is you came home to us. Your brother was meant to bring you back home, I suppose he sent you home?"
Albeit Danelle heard clear of the woman's narration, things were still sinking into her brain as she processed the entire story.
Why was she just learning about this? How did she grow up without anyone letting her know that she was adopted or never belonged to the Hales family.
No wonder her mother loathed her existence, she wasn't her real mother and she couldn't bear seeing her success not belonging to her actual own daughter.
This would have been revealed to her also if her father hadn't lost his life to his cancer.
"So what do you say? Want to get to know your family more or you're still in denial?" The grandmother questioned, a bit sassy in her tone.
Danelle glanced over to her, masking a firm expression. "Fine." She concurred, embracing yet another drastic change in her life.
She was taken away from the hotel she lodged for a temporary residence and sheltered in a jaw dropping mansion bigger than anything she's ever seen.
Her real parents were no longer alive, she wished they were.
she was settling inside her new room when she felt a presence.
Truly a female of about her age came up into her room scouring her with a look tainted with irritation.
"Scommetto che sta ringraziando i suoi creatori per aver saputo che fa parte di questa famiglia." She scoffed afterward her utterance, making her mockery clear as a daylight.
Danelle who understood what she said in Italian, telling her she's sure grateful that she found out she's a part of this family.
"And what do you mean by that?" Danelle stood up to match her stance, casting her an unfriendly glance to counter her intimidation.
"Yes. I mean look at yourself, do you think yourself as a classy person, with how shabby your dressing is and how poor you're looking. Ugh!" She made a gagging expression, rolling her eyes. "It's so easy to guess what your life is like back at the states. Probably a slut beggar with no healthy source of income." She added, snickering at her own words.
Danelle remain unhinged until she heard her assessment. She had the perfect life, the perfect everything, she was no slut neither a beggar, she was a woman of honor, married to one of Damilton's best and richest bachelor, until she walked into her matrimonial bedroom yesterday's morning and everything perfect came crumbling down.
How quick her life took a turn for a traumatizing dive. They didn't only steal her life away from her, they were going to kill her.
She rubbed on her stomach, reminded that the little lives growing in her were the reason she's very much alive at the moment. If not for them, she'd be a murder case never to be dissected.
Danelle sighed, looking back up at the female glaring at her, a little smile edging her lips. "Are you done? I'd like my solitude back to myself," she quested politely.
"Unless you go back to the gutter where they picked you from, I am not about to give the peace of mind you think you'd get in this house. Get out you filthy bitch! This is not your life, it is mine and I'd be damned to watch you ruin it or take anything away from me!"
Her threats were obvious, and deadly as she stomped out of her room.
The moment was hard to decipher, but Danelle knew that she's definitely threatened by her presence in this house.
But who was she and why was she threatened to the point she wanted Danelle gone.
Her grandmother told her to prepare herself for dinner where she'll meet everyone in the family.