Missing for Twenty Years, I Found My Mafia Father in a Nightclub Chapter 05

Missing for Twenty Years, I Found My Mafia Father in a Nightclub Chapter 05

I lifted my head and looked at Vincent. 

Blood ran down my temple as I asked in a voice 

barely above a whisper. “Dad, do you really not 

recognize me?” 

My consciousness was slipping away. 

I tried to look at him for one more second, but 

darkness swallowed me before I could. 

In my dream, my father carried me on his 

shoulders. 

I laughed and shouted, “Higher, Dad! Make me fly 

even higher!” 

He tilted his head back to look at me, and the scar 

at his right temple stood out clearly beneath the 

sunlight. 

“Hold on tight. Daddy will lift you higher.” 

Then the dream changed. 

A black cloth covered my eyes. 

I smelled a harsh chemical odor and heard my 

father shouting my name through the chaotic 

crowd. 

He called again and again, his voice growing 

farther away each time. 

For twenty years, I had heard that voice in my 

nightmares. 

Every time I woke, I could still remember exactly 

how he had called for me that day. 

The first couple who bought me lived on the 

outskirts of a city. 

They forced me to call them Mom and Dad. 

When I refused, they beat me and quickly sold me 

again. 

Later, I was sent to an isolated farm in the 

mountains. 

An old woman once dug her fingers into my arm 

and said. “Keep her for a few more years, and she’ll 

fetch a much higher price.” 

Before the old bruises could fade, new ones 

appeared. 

But I never forgot the lullaby my father had sung 

to me. 

Every night, I used those few lines to soothe myself 

to sleep. 

I could no longer remember everything that 

happened afterward. 

I only remembered that I had refused to cry. 

I did not cry when I escaped from the farm. 

I did not cry when construction work rubbed my 

fingers raw. 

I always believed that as long as I saved enough 

money, I could return to my father’s arms and 

wrap my arms around his neck the way I had 

when I was little. 

Then the door to the nightclub’s private lounge 

appeared in my dream. 

Dad stood behind the scattered cash, looking at me 

with pity and distance in his eyes. 

“Young lady, it’s wrong to lie your way into a world 

you weren’t born into.” 

I stood far away and watched Bianca cling to his 

arm, cooing at him the way she always did. 

He looked straight through me as though I were 

not even in the room. 

Then the dream dissolved into darkness. 

I dreamed that the people who had once held me 

captive caught me again. 

They called me worthless and filthy over and over, 

telling me I had no right to carry the Moretti 

name. 

I tried to run, but my feet would not move. 

“Dad!” 

I screamed and opened my eyes. 

The first thing I saw was a white ceiling, followed 

by the sharp smell of disinfectant. 

Someone had fallen asleep beside my hospital bed 

with one hand still wrapped tightly around my 

wrist. 

It was Vincent. 

Only then did I realize I was in a hospital. 

I stared at the scar on his right temple for a long 

time, unable to tell whether this was reality or 

another dream. 

His fingers moved slightly before he lifted his head. 

When our eyes met, I saw that his were swollen 

and red. 

“Little Star?” 

His voice shook so violently around the name that 

it barely sounded like his own. 

I froze for a moment before asking softly. “Is that 

what you used to call me?” 

“I’m sorry. I can’t remember my own name 

anymore.” 

Vincent’s face crumpled with pain, and the hand 

holding mine trembled even harder. 

“Little Star, you are my biological daughter. After 

you lost consciousness, my personal doctor and the 

hospital ran separate DNA tests. The blood samples. 

were guarded by my advisers from the moment 

they were taken. No one had any chance to tamper 

with them.” 

He handed me the test report. 

I could not understand the complicated data. 

All I understood was the final line: Paternity 

confirmed. 

“Little Star.” 

He said the name again, and the tears he had been 

holding back finally fell. 

“I’ve been searching for you for so long. The day 

you disappeared from Bryant Park, I sealed off 

every exit nearby. I had my men search every 

building and every street in the area.” 

“After I became the Don of the Moretti Family, I 

mobilized every dock, casino, shipping company, 

and contact I had. I sent people to search for you 

across North America, but I never found a single 

reliable lead. I thought I’d die without ever finding 

you.” 

As I listened, tears began slipping down my face. 

too. 

I had waited twenty years to hear those words. 

“I understand.” 

I closed my eyes, my voice barely audible. 

“Give me some time to take this in, Mr. Moretti.”