Chapter 104 - You Are Not Welcome Here

It was not until late midnight that my men found her. 

As it turns out the older man who took her was none other than her father. He had heard the commotion and called an ambulance who took her initially to a nearby hospital. Once she was stable they transferred her to the Emerald Hospital. It was the highest ranked hospital in the country with the best and brightest staff.

The only bright side to this situation was that the police managed to find and take the other woman into custody. I gave my statement to the investigator who advised me to not leave the country yet. 

Truthfully, I extended my stay a while ago so I could spend more time to get Celeste back on my side. Even though she was under the impression I was to leave in a few days, I was only sending my parents and their belongings home. Celestes biggest gripe was my parents comments, so I had them go home so that I could make her waver.

Now I was unsure of what would happen. I knew she would be angry at the fact that I left her. But she had a cool head, I figured if I shared what that woman has been doing to me for the past few years she would understand why I acted the way I did.

Based on the intel my men found, since she was no longer an emergency patient they had her in their VIP section of rooms. The hospital was quiet and only the nurses and some on call staff were awake at that time. I found the nearest nurse to guide me to her. "Excuse me. I am here to see Celeste D'Angelo. Could you take me to her room?"

The older woman looked a bit surprised at my request before narrowing her eyes. "Are you an approved guest?" I stayed calm despite my rising irritation. "I am not sure if its alright could you phone her family or let her know personally. She should be expecting me, I would but my phone died."

She nodded and went into another room before returning with a visitors badge. "Follow me." I was surprised they let me in but I would take any form of grace I could get. However once we entered the VIP wing I saw two men guarding a door and another man leaning against the wall.

It was her father. He looked haggard like he has not slept. The other nurses in the ward cleared out leaving us four men alone. I felt a bit embarrassed I did not bring anything to give her but it was late.

"So... you found us." I had not formally met her family yet and only seen her father a few times. This was an awful way to make a good first impression. "Ciao, è un piacere conoscerti. It is nice to meet you sir." I stuck out my hand but he only glanced at it and scoffed.

"Why are you here?" He did not bother to give me any face. Not that I expected him too but I hoped he would understand where I was coming from. "I am here for Celeste. Is she alright?" I leaned to look past her father and straight at her door. The guards moved slightly closer to one another, prepared to stop me from going in.

"I get that you like my daughter. I understand you traveled many hours from your home to court her. But you are not welcome here. Leave." It was clear in his face that he was unhappy with me. It seemed I needed to convince more than one person.

"Sir I understand why you are angry, but what happened tonight will not be repeated. That woman has been stalking me for some time but I had it under control. She made some threats which concerned me but my men were working tirelessly to find her and also I had men watching Celeste so I knew she was safe. I never anticipated her coming out to attack Celeste when I was right there. Up until dinner, she had never made personal contact with me."

But it seems as though I said the wrong thing. His eyes widened and he looked furious. "She made threats against my daughter? You knew she was in danger and never bothered to tell me." A vein had popped up on his forehead and though he kept his voice low, which I assume to not wake his daughter, he cracked and ground his teeth. 

"Again I never anticipated that would happen-" But he did not let me finish. He removed himself from the wall and stalked towards me. He was a tall man much like myself and his overall demeanor was imposing. Though I still held my ground, he did intimidate me. 

"Let me make myself clear boy. You are to never and I mean never be near my daughter again. You not only knew she was in danger and knowingly kept it from us, you have no respect for her to the point you left her to die. That woman gave my daughter lethal amounts of caffeine which she is highly allergic to. You left her gasping for air in such a sorry state that had my daughter not had the hindsight to ask me to come she would have died."

He never laid his hands on me but his words cut me deep. I was ashamed for leaving her but at the time I had no other option. "I will never approve of your marriage with her. I can't trust you with her. She is my life, my only child. She deserves to have a partner who has only her best interests in mind. I could not care less who they are if they love my daughter as though they would die without her then and only then would I approve."

His words triggered the memory of the man who had eyes for Celeste. Suddenly the fox in the hen house that the woman mentioned made sense. "What if it was Dean Cortez?"