Chapter 6

Renee never knew her own birth mother. Maria had told her that she had found Renee at her doorstep and with a note that said she was Rico’s daughter. At that time,Aurora was three years old.Rico knew he had an affair with a woman but he had been scared of admitting it to Maria for fear that he might lose her so he had lied and said he didn’t know anything about the baby. Maria had insisted on a DNA test which indeed confirm that the baby was indeed Rico’s.At then Rico had admitted to cheating on her and had begged for her forgiveness.Since the child was his,Rico had no choice but to name the baby and take good care of her.Overtime,he started to grow fond of Renee. But Maria and Aurora never liked Renee.They only pretended they liked her whenever Renee and Rico were around.For years,they had been secretly planning on ways to get rid of her. Renee felt very disheartened on finding out that they never really liked her.And here she was,thinking that they might’ve been worried sick about her. She loosened her hand,stared at the door sadly and then started walking away from the house. She didn’t notice the car across the road.The car that had been following her since morning. Inside the car sat Dante,his secretary and his driver. “She looks so sad.”Dante pointed out,staring at Renee from the window. “From my findings around the neighborhood,the woman Renee grew up with isn’t her birth mom,while some of the neighbors I asked said she’s been nice to Renee,others said Maria is a two-faced woman.She doesn’t show kindness to people and they’re not sure she can be kind to her step daughter.So I think Renee might not really like her family home.”The secretary explained. Dante grimaced as he continued watching her. She was walking with her head lowered.He didn’t like how sad she looked. It made his chest tighten. “Warn the Gallo Family.That from now on,they are to treat her like a Queen,she is my Queen and no one is permitted to make her sad!I can help resolve Rico’s debt but I can also destroy that family if they push me!”Dante squinted as he said in a cold voice. The secretary nodded. ************** Renee had an habit of eating sweet stuff whenever she was sad. She went to a cake shop and ordered several pieces of tiramisu. As she ate him,she tried to cheer herself up. It was a good thing she finally got to know her step mother and sister’s true intentions towards her. If she hadn’t heard them today,she would have continued thinking that they were one big happy family. At least now,she had to look out for herself more and protect herself against those vile people. Dante couldn’t help but smile as he watched her hurrying eat up her pieces of cake,nodding and talking to herself as if cheering herself on. He couldn’t hear what she was saying but it seemed as if she was trying to become positive and bright again.He found that so adorable. With how depressed she had looked earlier,he had thought she would end up crying but instead she was eating cake and smiling again. She was so an optimistic girl and he was even more impressed by her. Dante had gotten out of his car,in fact he was in the same store with her but he was covering his face with a newspaper as he spied at her. After watching her for a while, he decided to leave. Just as he stood up and made for the door,a child bumped into him. The child looked up and saw his face then fell to the floor in horror and burst into tears. His crying was so loud that it attracted the customers in the store,including Renee. She was surprised to see Dante here but she didn’t dare to guess that he might have followed her. She just thought that he came for some desserts too. The kid’s mother quickly came over and hugged her kid. At the sight of Dante’s frightenedly half face,she yelled. “What the hell is your problem?People like you should be locked up and not allowed to go about scaring other innocent people.What if my kid went into a shock because of you?!” Subsequently,people around him also joined the woman and talked about the terrible scars on Dante’s face. Dante was also used to this.In fact,he loved scaring people with this mask of his.The fun part was that no one could ever guess that it was actually a mask and not his real face. While Renee saw that he just stood there without saying anything,she felt he was sad for being insulted by different people like this. She didn’t know how he got those scars but she believed no one should be told such hurtful words. Without thinking,she rushed through the crowd and stood in front of Dante.She spread out her arms as if protecting him from all these people. “How dare you talk to him like that?It was your kid who bumped into my man and even stained his suit with cream.You should be apologizing to him!” Dante stared at her,incredulously. Did she just call him her man in front of all these people? “Your man?”The woman asked in disbelief.”Are you in your right senses?Don’t you see how scary your man looks?Your ugly-ass man scared the living daylight out of my kid.I haven’t even asked him yet for compensation for traumatizing my kid and you’re asking me to apologize?Everyone here can see how terrible he looks.I’m worried this might haunt my son for life!”