Daughter of a Don

Time for Change

                The next day when she came down to the kitchen for breakfast she was shocked to see Veronica sitting at the table with Vinny in front of her in a high chair and she was attempting to feed him but it appeared that he was wearing more than he had eaten. Veronica was very impatient with him and kept scolding him. Every time she did it, Jenna was irritated, but she tried to let it roll off, even thought it had been extremely difficult. It about broke her heart to leave Vinny at the table with her, but she knew she shouldn’t interfere. She thought that the thought of her being mean to Vinny would drive her insane, so she tried to do other things throughout the rest of the day to get her mind off of it. She tried to do activities that made you have to think. She figured that was the only way she wouldn’t think about Vinny, but even that didn’t help. Her mind kept wandering back to what she had seen in the kitchen that morning. Later that evening her father told her that he had appreciated her spending time with Vinny and making sure that he was taken care of. He told her he had appreciated it, but she was young, and he didn’t feel that it was her responsibility, so he had a talk with Veronica about doing more with him. Jenna’s heart dropped into her stomach because she knew Veronica wasn’t going to let her spend time with him if she had anything to do with it, and if she was supposed to be spending more time with him she knew that would mean that she would get far less. It occurred to her that the argument she had heard probably had to do with that “talk” with Veronica that her father had mentioned. She wanted to tell her father he shouldn’t have done that, but she didn’t. She just told him that she loved Vinny and she had been happy to spend time with him.  He smiled and told her that she reminded him of her mother, that she had been kind too. He told her that made him proud, which made Jenna smile, even thought she was worried about Vinny.

                Several days passed and Jenna hadn’t stopped thinking of Vinny. But she did manage to find things to do to keep herself busy and she still went and seen Vinny at night when it was time for him to go to bed. She always tucked him in, and he always seemed to be waiting for her. She hoped that they would always have that bond. One night when she went to his room to tuck him in, he wasn’t there, and she wasn’t sure what to think about that. He had always been in his room that time of night before. She waited up to see when he was put back in his room, but it was after 1 am and she was starting to worry that Veronica had taken him away when the gate opened, and a car drove in. A few minutes later Veronica got out and she appeared to be stumbling. She started to walk to the house and then turned around and stumbled back to the car and got Vinny out and carried him into the house. Jeanna was furious. How dare she go out drinking when she had Vinny. She knew she needed to take care of him. What kind of care could she possibly provide when she was so drunk she had forgotten to get him out of the car. Jenna went down the stairs and had planned on heading her off and taking Vinny and putting him to bed when she saw her father walk out of his office. She decided to hang back. She couldn’t hear what her father was saying but she could tell that he was pissed given his body language.  Jenna couldn’t imagine that she could have said or done anything to get her point across better than her father had. After all, scary was what he did. A short while later Jenna stuck her head in to check on Vinny who was sound asleep. Just when Jenna was about to go back to her room, she noticed a mark on Vinny’s face. At first, she thought that maybe it was dirt, but then she realized it was a bruise. How could he have gotten a bruise there on his face. She couldn’t imagine him falling and hitting his face there.  The thought made her furious, because if he hadn’t fallen and hit his face that would mean that someone most likely had hit him. She wouldn’t have that. She didn’t care who had anything to say about it, her father included, but she couldn’t imagine that he would allow anyone to put their hurt Vinny either. He must not have seen the mark earlier when he met her at the door. She had half a mind to storm into Veronica’s room and rip her out of her bed or were ever she was and beat the hell out of her. But she knew that would just make things worse so decided to wait. But she would be getting to the bottom of this. If she didn’t, she would be sure that her father did.

                So, the next morning she steeled herself and knocked on her father’s office door. It wasn’t long before one of the guards came to the door and told her that he couldn’t see her than. She tried to plea her case and make them understand that it was important, but they wouldn’t listen. One of them told her that they would let him know that she needed to see him as soon as possible, but they wouldn’t let her in. A while she saw her father. He had one of the guards get her for him. She explained what she had seen and that the bruise was in an area that she couldn’t see how he could have fallen and done it. Her father listened to every word she said and after she finished, he told her not to worry that he would look into it. She hoped that he would do it soon and that he would have someone keep an eye on Veronica while she had Vinny. Jenna made sure that she kept an eye on Vinny every chance she could and checked him each night for more marks. She didn’t see any others from the on. She hoped that was because he hadn’t been hit or had anything bad happen to him. The idea of someone mistreating him made Jenna crazy with rage. She hadn’t seen Veronica since it had happened, and she figured that was for the best because she didn’t think she could’ve been civil if she had. She needed time to cam down. And it was going to need to be a considerable amount of time. Jenna couldn’t remember a time when she had ever been so mad.

                Time passed quickly and semester after semester went by and before Jenna knew it Vinny had turned three. She was going to be home in time for his birthday with made her happy. She had planned out a big day of fun with him for his birthday and she couldn’t wait to see how excited he was about it. She had gotten him present as well. She didn’t know if anyone else had planned anything for him. But she would make the most of it either way. And Jenna was thankful that there hadn’t seemed to be anymore issues with Veronica or anyone else being mean to Vinny that she knew of, but Vinny was still young and she didn’t know if he would tell them if someone had been mean to him. She hoped he would. Plus, she assumed her father would be keeping an eye for anything that he thought seemed out of place. Besides Veronica didn’t spend much time with him still. Her mothering had been short lived and appeared to have only happened because she had been told she had to by Jenna’s father. Jenna was glad that she wasn’t spending much time with Vinny because she figured that would decrease the chances of anything else happening.

                Jenna spent Vinny’s birthday with him just as she had planned. No one else had seemed to plan anything for him so it made it easy for her to do what she had panned. They made a full day of it. She took him to breakfast in the morning and then they spent the day at the zoo, and she took him to Chuck E Cheese for dinner. He played and laughed, and they carried on together the whole day. Vinny really seemed to enjoy it and so did Jenna. It improved her mood tremendously to spend the day with Vinny. She had been Somewhat stressed due to her course work and trying to get all of her college applications in. But she had managed to get them all into the schools she was interested in. She hadn’t exactly decided which school she wanted to go to yet, but anyone of them that she had sent applications to would be fine. They were all good schools.

This time when Jenna had to return to school, she had mixed emotions because it would be her last semester at boarding school before she graduated. But on the bright side of that she knew that she would be able to spend a few months with Vinny before she went off to college and she knew that her friends had also put into the some of the same schools that she had. So, she was hopeful that she would have at least one of her friends at college with her. But she guessed only time would tell. They all had kept their grades up so she would think that they would all have a high chance at acceptance at any of the colleges that they had applied to. Before she knew it graduation was there and she was walking across the stage to receive her diploma. Ms. Kessler had come to watch her graduate which made Jenna happy. It was her understanding that Ms. Kessler had worked at their home for a number of years and she had known Jenna’s mother as well. She had told Jenna that her mother would have been so proud of her and that she wished she could have been there with her to see it all. Jenna wished she could have been too. Ms. Kessler had taken several pictures during the ceremony and said that she had planned to show Jenna’s father when she saw him because she knew he would want to see it all as well.

Jenna flew back to New York the day after graduation and had promised her friends that they would keep in touch through texts and calls. Jenna was looking forward to that. She would miss them which was only natural given that she had basically grown up with these girls. She had spent every semester with them since she was five years old. They were more sisters than friends. At the layover in Atlanta she had to say good bye to Beth which was bitter sweet for both of them as they realized that there was a good chance that this would be the last time that they took that flight together since they wouldn’t be going back to the boarding school. Jenna was sad to part from her friends but was looking forward to seeing her father and Vinny. When she got home it was as if she had never left. Things with Vinny picked back up right were they had been when she left. She couldn’t believe how fast he was growing. He could carry on full conversation with you now and he was learning to count and say his alphabet. She was proud of him. He was a smart little guy. She bragged on him to her father when she saw him later in the week. She had received several of the college acceptance letters throughout the week as well. She could have her pick of several schools it looked like, which made her happy and from what she had heard from her friends they could too. She loved the idea of that because that increased the chance of them being together at college. Jenna had told her father all about her acceptance letters as well. She hoped it made him proud, but when she told him he seemed preoccupied by something even thought she had smiled at her and told her she had done a good job.