Fall For My Ex's Mafia Father novel Chapter 199

The people blocking the door step aside and the new guests begin to fill in – about twenty of them. Some of the people are familiar to me but some are totally new. While everyone else fills in, I’m surprised to see my father standing still, narrowing his eyes at Kent, apparently confused.

And then he shifts his glance to me, on Daniel’s arm, and I realize that…Kent just publicly re-established my engagement to Daniel without Alden’s permission, even though my father has been offering me around as a potential marriage option to other powerful families – Ivan included –

I quickly glance around the room, trying to get a read on it –

I see Ivan’s blonde head moving away from us through a group of people, walking with a dark-haired girl –

But, more pressing, I see Natalia and Alessi approaching Kent, their eyes curious and a little eager, as if they’re hyenas finally getting to the heart of their prey.

And Kent is staring at my father, locking eyes with him, daring him to counter his word that Daniel and I are engaged, that the alliance between the Lippert and Alden families that has lasted for twenty-two years has finally broken apart.

I know immediately what I have to do and I move, pulling Daniel with me to my father’s side.

“Papa!” I say, giving a happy little laugh and throwing an arm around his shoulders, still keeping a hold on Daniel with my free hand. I stand on my toes to give my father a warm kiss on the cheek. “I’m so glad you could come – I didn’t hear word back from the invitation!”

My father starts a little at my sudden hug but then wraps his arms around me, fond. “It is good to see you, girl,” he says, smiling down at me in a fatherly way. And despite how much he’s pushed me recently, I’m reminded – suddenly – of the fond father that I saw in the images of his wedding to my mother, the way he looked at me when I was a child. And I realize that he’s perhaps been waiting for a hug from me for a long, long time.

I smile at him, then, not able to help it.