Their Little Princess

Chapter Thirty-Six

The next day, I go back to school.

I walk out into the hallway on my way to 3rd period when I'm stopped. There's a man who looks to be about 50 because of the gray in his hair, he walks over to me, "Madison?"

I'm about to make my getaway but then I see the oddly similar resemblance to my mother in his face, his sharp jaw, his hazel eyes, his defined nose. I stop, staring at his face curiously, "Yes?"

"I'm your abuelo, your mother's father. It's nice to meet you," He says.

Then it makes sense, "Oh, hi," I say. 

"Here, come on, I'll take you out for some brunch. Your brothers told me to take you out today since you met Lorenzo's family a couple nights ago," He says, "Does that sound alright with you? We can talk about your mother."

It does sound alright. I want to meet the man who raised my mother. I want to know my mother better. And my brothers clearly want me to meet him, I don't want to let them down yet again when it comes to meeting family, "Okay."

A half hour later, we're at a nice diner. It smells of french fries when we walk in and we get a booth toward the back of the diner. "Mind if I check the time on your phone? Mine is dead," He says, outstretching his hand. I hand him my phone and look back down at the menu.

"Gracias," He says, sliding my phone back over, "So, I'm to assume you don't know what your brothers do for work?" He asks once we've ordered, "Do they plan on you working there?

As I'm about to answer, my phone rings, "Oh, it's Xander, I should answer—"

"No, don't. He only wants to interrupt. He seems to have a feud with me, you know how Xander is, he blames me for your mother taking you away," He says. I frown because I understand being blamed and feeling guilty, and it's not as though that's something out of character for Xander. So after 5-10 more calls from Xander, I silence the ringer.

"I don't know what my brothers do for work," I admit, "But um...It's okay. It isn't that big of a deal."

He laughs as if he's in on a joke I don't understand. I shift in my seat.

"So um...What was my mom like?" I ask. He promised we were gonna talk about mom but so far, all we've talked about was my brother's business. And he doesn't remind me of mom, in a way, he's worse. He reminds me of a rat in his mannerisms. Slick and disgusting. But he's my abuelo, I can't just leave or tell him to take me back to the house.

An hour goes by and my phone rings again. My heart drops when I see that this time it's Alessandro. Alessandro who has never called before. What did I do? Am I in trouble? Did abuelo text him and tell him I was disrespectful and standoffish?

"You don't have to—"

"It's Alessandro, I have to answer it," I say as firmly as I can manage, before standing up and walking away from the table toward the counter. 

I finally pick up the phone, "Hello?"

"Madison," He answers sharply, "Why aren't you at school?" It's odd, but I'm almost certain in the midst of the hint of anger in his voice there's a sense of relief. "I'm...I'm with abuelo?" I say. I'm confused, where else would I be? They're the ones who sent me here.

He's quiet on the other line for a long time, "Why are you with him." It sounds less like a question, it hardly even sounds like a statement.

"He...He picked me up from school, and he said—he said you told him to," At this point I'm terrified that he's furious with me. But why would my own grandfather lie about my brothers telling him to take me. Is he not allowed to see me? If not, then why?

"Maddie, what diner are you at?"

"Lamplight, I—"

"Stay where you are, I'll be there in 10 minutes to pick you up." "But—"

"That's an order," He says calmly.

In less than 10 minutes, the diner door opens and abuelo stands up casually as if without a care in the world, "Well, this has been pleasant," He says to me. 

Carlo walks over to me with a smile, "I'll drive you home."

"Um...Okay," I say unsurely, "But how come—"

"Did you eat okay? Do you want to stop at Wendy's?"

I give up on trying to get answers, "I guess so."

"Great, I'm starving."

Elijah's POV:

The moment Carlo has Maddie in the car and pulled off, Sandro pushes Luis back into the counter, holding the gun to his neck. "Wanna tell me why you felt the need to turn Madison's tracking services off? And then wanna explain why you're taking my sister out to a diner under the false pretense that I forced her to?" He says lowly.

I give the terrified employees one look and they scramble into the back, shutting the door.

"Oh, forgive me," He says much too calmly for someone with a gun to his neck, "I only thought I should meet the girl set to inherit my business."