My mind was all over the place, not one thought was abstract, most of them were endless thoughts and thoughts that never really had a resolution or an end to them. I spent majority of the car ride being aloof but then again, so did Harry.

I didn't believe him, why should I? Harry wasn't an all that trustful person to begin with. I always had my doubts on wether Harry was actually trying to protect me but now I see that he was really full of shit. My thoughts went back to my father, shot and bleeding back at the motel. Maybe I shouldn't have left the room, at least then I would be with him.

"Eat." Harry breaks the silence by pushing a plate of breakfast in front of me. I had told him I wasn't feeling hungry at all so that made him order for me. We were pulled over at a small diner on the side of the road. There was some old gas pumps that I'm sure have been here since the 40's or 50's, at least that's what the poster on the wall says.

I look down to the plate. Scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage links and toast. None of it seemed appetizing to me one bit, I push the plate away from me and look up to Harry. "I'm not hungry." I say once again.

"You have to eat. I am not making another stop." Harry snaps, drinking his straight black coffee from the mug.

"Are you going to start telling me the truth?" I question, my eyebrows lowered in a subtle glare that Harry doesn't notice or maybe he does and decides he doesn't care. "You dropped a big fucking bomb on me just last night and now you're expecting me to just be okay with that and not need any other explanation?"

"What the hell do you want me to say?" Harry remarks, a glare of his own. "I told you the truth and you called me a liar."

"I want the truth, Harry." I grit. "What the hell is going on? Why did we leave my dad behind and who the hell are you really?" Harry looks annoyed but he looks at me and sighs.

"I can't discuss anything here."

"So let's go—"

"We can't go until you eat your breakfast." Harry glares and I huff in annoyance. I look back down to the food, I wasn't all that hungry but I know that if I don't eat I will regret it later on. So I eat as much as I could and then Harry and I are walking out towards the car. As I'm adjusting my seatbelt, Harry shuts the trunk harshly and comes in with a folder of some sort in his hands. He passes the folder to me and my eyebrows furrow. "Open it." He orders and I do.

The first thing I see are photographs. It was my whole family getting inside a black SUV, we were probably on our way to church. The next slide was a zoomed in picture of me from the same day, I looked miserable. The next slide was me talking to the neighbors daughter through the fence and then getting scolded for it that I was forced inside the house. The last slide was Clyde and I. I waited in the car while he loaded up my bag in the trunk.

It was dark but they still managed to catch my face in the picture looking out the window, looking tired and miserable once again. I look up to Harry in confusion. "What is this?" I question, motioning to the pictures.

"Keep looking." Harry says, focused on the road in front of him. I set the pictures aside and I am met with a ziploc bag, inside was a SIM card and a thumb drive. When Harry sees this, he takes the bag from me, grabs the thumb drive and sets it up on his computer. The SIM card he puts away in his pocket.

He clicks on a file and it is full of voice recordings that he begins to play.

"Is it?" I hear the voice of an unfamiliar man.

"Yes." Harry's voice.

There's shuffling around and now the man's voice sounds a lot more closer. "Valentina," Soft chuckle. "God, even saying your name out loud makes me feel like I did when I first held you. I know this is probably so confusing to you, I know you don't even know who I am. My name is Vincent Di'Marco, your real father."

I look up to see Harry looking at me with narrowed eyes. When the man continues, I look back to the screen. "I'm sorry that this is the way we have to meet for the first time, over some lousy recording. It's probably for the best, you don't know me, you might need time to wrap your head around this. Maybe when we finally meet, I can hold you in my arms if you let me." He chuckles sadly.

"I can't imagine how big you've gotten, from the pictures of you I've seen, you're absolutely beautiful. That's all thanks to your mother. God, I miss the both of you so much. I have loved you since the day you came into this world, my little Pétalo."

The recording ends and Harry hands me the folder again, two pictures lay on top. One was a picture of a man, he had strong features and at the top there was a name, Vincent. The man from the recording. The second picture was of a woman. "Who is she?" I dare to ask.

"That's your mother." Harry says, confirming my suspicions. Of course, if I had a new father why wouldn't I have a new mother. There was pictures of them together and even some where she was pregnant. Somehow, there was a picture of me as a child. When I turn it, my mothers handwriting was in the back.

Valentina, age 4.

What was this doing here?

"As you can see," Harry begins. "We've been looking for you for quite some time now."

I shake my head at this. What was the point of all this evidence if I didn't even know what it was about? "Why did this happen?" I ask. "If this man is my father, where was he this whole time? My mother?" I pick up her photograph. "I have never heard of or seen these people before in my life."

"I haven't been around long to understand either," Harry says. "From what I've been told by your father—"

"I don't know that man!" I interrupt. "He isn't my father."

Harry looks annoyed but doesn't comment on that. "From what I've been told by Vincent, Fiore and him had a fall out. Vincent wanted to back out of a deal he had with Fiore, he wanted to make sure his wife was safe for when their daughter was born." Harry says and I expect him to keep talking but he doesn't.

"And then?" I push. "What happened?"

"He didn't tell me. I assume he wants to tell you himself." Harry turns to me. "That's all I know, Valentina. I was just hired to bring you home."

Home. I scoff. "Home with some strange man that claims to be my father?"

Harry shrugs. "As far as I know, Vincent Di'Marco is your biological father. The time it takes you to come to peace with that is none of my concern."

"Right. I forgot you were only here for the money." I remark, closing up the laptop. Harry puts it away as well as the folder.

"I apologize if you thought differently." At his reply, I look out the window for the rest of the car ride.

—

Jason Statham as Vincent Di'Marco

Rachel Weisz as Viola Di'Marco

Valentina at age 4

Valentina's Spotify playlist is linked in my bio BTW, it's collaborative so you can add songs that remind you of the story or of the characters. :)

(Pétalo means Petal by the way)