Daughter of a Don

Second Thoughts

                After she had escaped the dinner with her father and Veronica she went back to her room. She truly had enjoyed her father’s company and would have Veronica’s had she not know it was fake. She wondered if her father could see through her act as well. But if he could he didn’t give any indication that he had. He had even made comment about being happy that they were getting along so well. Later that night when Jenna went downstairs for her usual snack, she was happy to see that Veronica hadn’t been in the kitchen. She once again heard a baby cry. This time she went to investigate a little more. After all her father wanted her to be welcoming of them and she hadn’t even met Vinny yet. She went into the room just off the study to find that it had been turned into a nursery. She found an older woman holding a baby. She wasn’t sure if she should go in at first, but the woman had noticed her in the doorway and gestured for her to come in and she introduced herself as Ms. Stone. She already knew Jenna’s name which made Jenna smile because that must have meant that her father had mentioned her and why would he have done that if he didn’t want her around anymore. The women held the baby out for her to take and she reluctantly did.  Jenna couldn’t help but notice how cute he was. Ms. Stone commented on how he must like her because he kept smiling at her. That made Jenna happy. She left and went back to her room to go to bed thinking that she was wrong about Vinny. She thought she might like to be part of his life. After that first night she decided that she would try to visit with Vinny as much as she could before she had to go back to school. Soon it became habit for her to go and spend time with Vinny and Ms. Stone in the evenings. She had started to form a bond with Vinny, and he was always happy to see her when she came. She had genuinely come to love him.

                Soon it was time for Jenna to return to school and she fund that she was actually going to miss Vinny. She had enjoyed their time together. Shortly after returning to school she caught herself thinking that she was awaiting her next break so she could see her brother, Vinny. She had even told all of her friends about him and how cute he was. She had shown them the picture she had of him on her phone too. She had even gotten brave enough to text her father and check on him, which was something she rarely did, not because she couldn’t, just because she knew he was always busy, and she never really knew what to say. Her father had seemed happy that she checked in on Vinny. He told her he was doing well. She continued to check in on him every couple every couple of weeks until the end of the semester when she got to go back home and see him in person. Her check ins on Vinny had also started a ritual call between her and her father, which seemed good and to her surprise they had talked more over the past few months than that had since she was little. When she arrived home, she went straight to see Vinny. He had grown so much since the last time she had seen him.  She was grateful that she would get to spend a little longer with him this time than she had on her last break. As her break went on, she continued to spend more time with Vinny. She had been a little fearful that Veronica would try to stop her from seeing him but as far as she could tell she was never around and didn’t really spend much time with him. That made her think that it was twice as important for her to spend time with him then. She didn’t want him to have the same type of childhood she had, were he never felt close to anyone and never felt loved or like someone thought he was special. She would make sure that he always knew she cared about him and he was special to her. She hoped that the feeling would be mutual, but if it wasn’t, she would show him that she loved him anyway because she never wanted him to feel like she had. Jenna’s break seemed to come and go quicker than she had realized and before she knew it, she had to go back to school. But she knew it wouldn’t be long before she would be back with Vinny.

                The next break she came home for allowed her to see Vinny take his first steps and she had gotten several pictures of him. She now had several pictures of him around her dorm room and even had started a scrap book for the others. She had some of the two of them together and she even managed to get a picture of her father when he hadn’t noticed. He typically didn’t allow anyone to take his picture. The only picture Jenna had ever seen of him was one with her mother. They had looked so young and happy. Whenever she seen it, she couldn’t help but smile. Her father had always talked fondly of her mother when he talked about her, but that wasn’t often. He kept that part of him closed off from people like he didn’t want anyone to know that he had a more sensitive side. Jenna guessed with his line of work showing any sort of weakness would be a bad thing. She remembered him telling her when he sent her to boarding school that it was not only because he couldn’t be around to take care of her and that he wanted her to get a good education, but also because it was safer for her to not be there. She wondered if he would send Vinny off to a boarding school when he was old enough. She assumed he would. It made her wonder why he ever had kids if he could never see them, but then she felt guilty for thinking such a thing. She never doubted her father’s love for her, and she knew he loved Vinny as well. During her visits she had noticed that not only was Veronica never around for Vinny, but she never spent any time with her father either. She wondered why that was. Veronica was barely even home half the time. She wondered if there was something wrong in their relationship, but she would never ask or try to find out because not only was it not her business, but she truly didn’t care. The only thing that she would worry about would be that Veronica would try to take Vinny, but she didn’t think that her father would allow that. At least she hoped he wouldn’t.

                During Jenna’s afternoons with Vinny she started taking him outside to play and to the park and for ice cream and other things that she thought he would like. Her father came to her one night when they were getting back in and asked her if they had a good time and she explained that they had. She could tell that he wanted to say or ask more but he didn’t. She wasn’t sure why. She would have told him anything that he asked of her. Instead he went back to his office and closed the door. After Jenna had made sure that Vinny was tucked in, she went to bed, but she was awakened by yelling a few hours later. She could tell that one of the people yelling was her father, which was unusual because he hardly ever raised his voice. He didn’t have to. He had always been able to get his point across without that. And if he didn’t then he had men that would get his point across for him, usually physically. Although Jenna had never witnessed it visually, she had heard some of it a couple of times when she was younger.  The yelling didn’t last long and then she heard a door slam and nothing else.