The Wild Wolf Pup (Zoe's Rescue Zoo #9)(73)

We went to the track a lot after that and I grew to love horse racing. I don’t know if it was the thrill of winning or the thrill of spending time with you.

I was thirteen when you took me on my first date. I didn’t know it was a date at the time. I thought it was just one of our typical father-daughter dinners. You remember those don’t you? The nights you would take me to Villa Pasquette restaurant and had the owners Gino and Maria serenade me at the table. Anyway back to the date, I was thirteen and instead of going to dinner with my father I wanted to hang out with my friends. I didn’t want to go, but you insisted I did and promised it would be the last time.

After work you picked me up and handed me a bouquet of flowers. I looked at you like you were crazy but then you told me, “Remember, Adrianna, a good man will always try to remember the little details.”

That night you tried to teach me what I should expect from a boy. You told me to set my standards high and never allow a boy to disrespect me. “To some you’ll just be a girl, but to one you’ll be the world.”

I didn’t need for you to show me how a woman deserved to be treated because for thirteen years I watched you treat my mother with the utmost respect. And long before that last dinner we had at Villa Pasquette, I knew I wanted to walk in my mother’s shoes one day. I wanted the man I married to look at me, treat me and love me just the way you loved my mom.

Even now, at twenty-nine, married to the love of my life and two kids—you and Mom’s story is still my favorite one ever written. Thank you for loving my mom.

I was fifteen, almost sixteen and learning how to drive. I had taken lessons, but I was still nervous about failing my upcoming road test. You had a Lincoln at the time, a navy blue one to be exact, and you didn’t even let Mommy drive it. But you let me drive it. You took me out every Sunday morning for thirteen weeks, showed me how to parallel park, how to pop a U-turn and when I told you I was afraid of the highway, you tricked me into driving straight onto the Belt Parkway and over the Verrazano bridge. I passed my road test thanks to you. Thank you for teaching me to face my fears.

It was my sweet Sixteen, and we were on our way to the catering hall when you pulled out a tiny velvet box and gave me a pair of diamond hoop earrings. I had wanted them so badly and I remember you telling me in the limo “I never disappointed you yet and I’m not about to now.”

I cherished those earrings. Still do and when Victoria is sixteen, I will pass them down to her.

Even when things got tricky for us, and I started to date Anthony, the dynamic between us, that incredible bond a daughter only has with her father, well, it shined through, allowing us to still build great memories.

Like the subway series tickets, you surprised me with. You wore your Mets gear, and I wore my Yankee gear, we ate hotdogs and rooted for our separate teams, never truly allowing our differences outweigh the bond we created throughout the years.

And differences we had.

I wish we would’ve done things differently. I wish you would’ve talked to me about how you were feeling instead of acting out of fear. I wish you would’ve remembered that before everything, my first role in life was your daughter and I’d always be your girl.

The years Anthony served in jail, I wish I would’ve been courageous enough to tell you how much I missed you. I wish I would’ve found the strength to tell you how much I needed one more memory. Maybe a trip to the racetrack would’ve reminded us of all the memories we made and the ones we still had to make.

We lost three years of our bond to fear and resentment when all we needed to do was be honest with one another.

If you would’ve come to me, I would’ve told you all the things I am now about to say.

I will always be your little girl.

I took your advice and found a man who always remembers the little details.

A man who is a lot like you.

I found someone to live up to the great man that is my dad.

And to him I am his whole world.

I found that one person just like you said I would.

And I am now Anthony’s wife.

I am a mother to two amazing children.

But at the end of the day I am also your daughter.

I will always be your daughter and you will always be my father. The man who taught me to expect greatness, to never settle for less than I deserve and to conquer my fears.

Three great lessons that I will teach my children.

But there is one lesson I’d like to teach you and that is to know life may end but love doesn’t. I’ll always love you, Dad. I’ll think of you every time I drive pass the boarded up restaurant we used to go to. I’ll think about you whenever I wear the earrings you bought me. I’ll smile as I speed down the Belt Parkway and imagine you’re right beside me in the passenger seat and when the Belmont stakes come around, I’ll always bet the fourth race.

I’ll miss you.

But you’ll always be in my heart.

Thank you for loving me.

Love Always,

Your Little Girl





Chapter Twenty-Eight




There used to be a time when partying entailed a clubhouse full of whores, a never ending supply of booze and a brick of the finest weed. A time when the only things the Satan’s Knights MC knew was mayhem and grief, blood and death. The days when their president lived for the darkness and craved a little bit of light. The days before I found my Sunshine.