Chapter 8 - When she just fit

"Nice cut." I heard the boy with his potty-cut hair who pointed his head towards me as he showed his friend to look at me. Both of them were about 17 years old and clearly were some of those boys who had no respect and were going to end up on the streets. I watch the two of them exchanging their thoughts on my hair with each other as we rode the lift to the second floor of the hospital where Madelaine was being kept.

Their overgrown t-shirts covered with skulls hang loosely over their bodies, but for some reason wasn't long enough to cover their briefs peaking from their jeans that they were wearing beneath their hips. They looked terrible both clinging on to their skateboards beneath their arms. I run my fingers through... over my hair in habit reminding me that my hair was cut too short when their eyes followed my hand closely so I slowly let my hand fall to my side drawing my suit jacket slightly to the outside revealing my gun, which made them quickly turn their heads away from and keeping their mouths shut.

"Did you just threaten two kids?" Mia questions once the elevator doors open and the boys are out of hearing distance.

"I didn't threaten anyone." I reply non-chantingly. I was still a little angry about my hair which was cut a number three and at the sides had some fucking pattern snipped in. I looked like a fucking football player.

"I think your hair looks nice." She smiled as she opened the door to Madelaine's room. There was that smile again. The one that made me do whatever the fuck she wanted.

"Go home." I ordered Carlo who was sitting on the chair reading a magazine. He nodded standing up and immediately leaving us alone closing the door behind him.

"When do you think she will wake up?" Mia questioned as she stood by Madelaine's body taking her hand into her own.

"We will have to wait and hear what the doctor says." I reply taking in the seat Carlo sat in a few seconds ago. I looked at Mia with worried eyes as she carries her hand across Madelaine's cheek. She cared about her. My phone buzzed against my chest tearing eyes away from Mia.

"Ciao."

"Mister Damian." Luigi spoke into the phone causing my eyes to shoot up at Mia making sure she couldn't hear. "That Mia girl has no secrets. Everything she ever did was blasted over all social media pages. Even what she ate she posted. She was fired from her job because some man called James Smith accused her of sexual harassment, but it seems that she was the one getting harassed. She was out showing him at his practice and he got jealous. She lived a normal life."

"I need everything on him," I reply still watching as Mia softly whispered into Madelaine's ear. She wasn't paying me any attention.

"There is one other thing... her mother has been sick for a long time. She was in and out of the hospital since Mia was eight years old. Her father took care of them, but he struggled to make ends meet ever since his wife got sick. He took out a loan against his house to send Mia to University and she has been helping to pay off the debt, but since she lost her job she isn't making payments."

"How much?"

"$70 000"

"That is not too much." I declare.

"The only problem is it wasn't a loan through the bank as he was already in so many hospital debts. He borrowed from a loan shark connected to the Gambino's" I see.

"Send me an email with everything attached so I can look at it." Mia had so many problems already and now she was worried about Madelaine's health. What was I doing to her... them. If it wasn't for me she would probably have found a job by now and they could have kept their payments going. Madelaine would not have been in the hospital.

"The other one?" I question Luigi.

"There is nothing. It is like she never existed. Not even a birth certificate.

"Keep searching." I end the call.

"If you want to go back home I will organize everything." I thought it out loudly. There was too much at risk for me just letting her go.

"You would?" She questions letting go of Madelaine's hand and walks towards me. Her eyes were sparkling like the gems they were as she looked at me. "You would just let me go?"

"If you wanted to." I wished that she wouldn't.

"I can't leave without Madelaine."

"I can't let her go back there." If I let Madelaine go back there is no way of telling if she would be seen by the people that gave her to me. She would be too much of a risk for them and she would never be safe. With me, I will do everything to keep her safe from now on.

"I... No. Please don't send me back." Madelaine's scratchy voice fil the room with panic as she sits up and starts plugging the needles from her arms. "I would rather die than go back."

"Stop. Madelaine." Mia jumps up and tries to calm the just woken Madelaine. "Don't do that." Mia's arms trying to get Madelaine to lay down, but no success.

"Why did you do this?" I question her as I take a stand at the foot and end of the bed. Immediately she froze.

"I heard that woman say that she was going to do a home check for the girl." She sneered. "You are planning to send me off again."

"What woman?" I question her as confused as ever. I never said that I was sending her away.

"The woman that came by while we were having dinner with your mother." She points out tears starting to stream down her face. I couldn't figure if they were tears of sadness or of anger. "I will not go! You are a piece of shit! Mafia fool!" She screamed she was trying to provoke me. She wanted to die.

"Keep your voice down," I order her. "That woman was my lawyer and what we discussed has nothing to do with you. If you stuck around to eavesdrop on the rest and not get your panties in a twist you would have heard that I also asked her to get me information on that fucking college you kept going on about."

Her eyes widened at my words. "You were going to send me to college?" Her voice was softer now almost a whisper. "I am so sorry. I didn't know... I just couldn't go through that again. Not knowing where I would end up. I am so sorry. What do I need to do to make this up to you? I will sell drugs, I am really good at selling things. I can make you happy?"

"Just get better and don't call me the mafia again." This girl was broken. I couldn't wrap my head around what she was saying. She could keep me happy? Sell drugs? I would kill the person who made her do anything like that.

"Is everything okay in here?" A nurse burst into the room. Curly short dark brown hair bounced on top of her head. "I heard screaming. Alisson her nameplate read.

"Everything is fine. She was just a little disorientated." I explain, but her eyes flew to Madelaine who assured her that everything was fine. She walked towards Madelaine, I could see that she wasn't going to let this go. Her hand follows the drip until she finds the end not attached to Madelaine's bleeding hand. She quickly covers her hand with gauze to stop the bleeding looking at her eyes and taking her temperature.

"I am fine." Madelaine retreats pulling her head away from the nurse. "I am sorry." Her head falls as soon as the nurse leaves the room.

"It is going to be fine." Mia comforted her and I nodded leaving the two of them to talk.

"Get me Doctor Dianelli, please." I requested when I get to the desk where three nurses sat whispering. Their eyes as wide as saucers when I spoke. There was no doubt that they were discussing us. The one immediately picked up the phone and called for Sofia while the other stuck their noses into some patient files.

"She is on her way, sir." Allison confirmed and I went back to the room closing the door behind me as I take my phone from my pocket, not paying attention to Mia and Madelaine. I dial the second name on my contacts letting Angela know that she is needed. I explained everything to her briefly. I had a feeling that I was going to need a lawyer right about now.

"When can she leave?" I question Sofia the moment she enters through the door. I needed to get us out of here.

"Ben, the nurse called Social services." She informs me, although I thought that she would. "She said she heard Madelaine screaming she would rather die than go home with the Mafia. I told her that it was most probably a bad reaction from the anesthesia, but it was too late she already called." She places her hand on my shoulder like there was nothing to be done. Like it was over, the fuck it was over. Anything could be undone.

I withdraw my shoulder from beneath her touch pulling out my phone and calling my brother to make things undone. "I will fix this. You just get her ready to be discharged."

"I can't discharge her into your care. She is a minor. She has to be discharged into the care of a parent or guardian."

"Now what the fuck am I?"

"Legal guardian, Ben." Sofia sighed. I knew this, but nothing here was legal anyway and Sofia knew that so why the fuck would she care if I took her home now?"

"That would be me." Mia pops her head past mine in front of Sofia trying to help.

"That is nice sweety, but the hospital is going to need the paperwork on that and by my guess, you don't even have papers to be in the country." Sofia gives Mia a loving smile.

"What if they did?" I question Sofia knowingly. That was the first thing I did when we got home from New York. While everyone was resting, keeping to themselves and settling in I was getting all the paperwork ready. From permits, identification documents, passports, birth certificates. I kept both their names as far as I could, but seeing that I couldn't find the last name for Madelaine I gave her my own. It seemed fitting at the time, she was given to me.

"Set up the paperwork that states Mia the legal guardian of Madelaine."

"That might be a problem as it will draw unwanted attention and raise questions." My eyes move to Mia. "I wasn't sure how all of this was going to play out and Madelaine was given to me so I might have given her my last name."

"You did what?" Madelaine snapped. "So what? You just expect that you give me your last name and just like that I am your wife?" She spits.

"God no!" I throw my hands up in the air. "How the fuck do you get to that?"

"I told you before. I know men like you."

"You don't know me," I warn angrily. "And stop thinking that every man in a suit is going to use you for sex. This is not the costa nostra. We don't sleep with children..."

"If you guys don't stop yelling You might actually make this mess too big for me to clean up." Angela interrupts. "He is right though..." She smiles as she looks at Madelaine. "He doesn't even sleep with a woman willingly giving them their bodies." That wasn't true. Her eyes caught mine and the corner of her lip pushed up into a bigger smile. "Besides I haven't seen him get invested in anyone as he does with the two of you. You already became part of his family and..."

"That is enough." I intervene before Angela could say anything else. "Now get us out of this mess."

"Madelaine's information should be up on the system by now. I had one of my IT guys hack the base. I don't know why you insisted on giving Madelaine your last name, but we had to work around it. I guess you have to work with what you get." She shrugs. "I am just waiting for Elena to call so that I can collect the assessments and so forth so the judge can sign off and then Madelaine would legally be your daughter." She informs us all.

"I will get her discharged then." I heard Sofia giggle like a fucking school girl as she exits the room.

"Madelaine Damian. Madelaine Damian. Madelaine Damian..." Madelaine repeats her new identity over and over again. My last name running over her tongue as she gets used to saying it. This was never my intention. I open my mouth to say something but quickly snapped it close again. There was nothing more to say. I asked Angela to handle this and she did exactly what I thought her to do, but this time she worked the magic on me and made my a father. I usually do this for others. Who actually pays me to do it. "...daughter of Ben Damian." My eyes dart to Madelaine as the words past her lips.

"Benvenuto Damian." I correct her. Ben was short for Benvenuto.

"Madelaine Damian, daughter of Benvenuto Damian," Mia spoke for the first time as the color of shock painted her face white.

"I know this isn't ideal, but we will figure it out as we go." I try to sound genuine and in control, but to be honest I had to come to terms with it myself. I never even wanted to become someone's father and now out of the blue, I had a teenage daughter. This was all new to me. Madelaine was my family now. We take care of our family.