Chapter 53

“Serena, we don’t have time for this right now—go and meet your family.” Christian chuckled at my pathetic and desperate behavior, but I could not take this any longer.

“I can’t concentrate on that, and it’s all because of you.” I blamed him. Christian smirked and brought his hand to my cheek. He brushed my hair to the side and leaned in closer while I tried to hold in my breath.

“It’s my fault that you...love me?” He looked at me and lowered his hand to my waist. “N-no?” I stuttered and tried to look away, but no matter what I did, his eyes continued to follow mine.

“Just accept me or reject me—but stop leading me on.” I tried to gather my courage to not let him walk over me. He was good at hiding his feelings and it seemed as if everything which had happened yesterday, including his breakdown was completely forgotten—but at the end of the day, we both knew what went down. “You want me to talk about my feelings...now?”

“Yes, if not now then when?” I managed to get out. Christian gaze moved from my eyes to my lips, back to my eyes—while I was anxiously waiting for his words. “What do you want? You’re confusing.” I whispered.

“You are confusing, you can’t just tell me you love me and expect me to say it back right now.” He suddenly pulled away and turned around to leave. “Let’s go, your parents are waiting.”

His words hit me like a truck. Of course, the confession came out of nowhere and had even surprised me, but I still held onto a bit of hope. He never said he didn’t love me.

“The answer to your question...please wait a bit until I can give it to you.” He said and walked off.

“Is everything okay?” Matteo immediately asked when we made our way to the backyard to join them. “It’s perfect,” I told him with a fake smile on my face.

The way they all looked at me made me nervous and anxious. I understood that they were happy to meet me—but in a way, I felt exposed. “So pretty.” Lita held my hand and smiled at me with tears in her eyes. Out of instinct I moved my hand to her eyes and wiped away her tears, but before I could remove it again, she grabbed my wrist to stop me from doing so.

“Let me hold you for a bit longer.” She almost begged me while all I could do was nod my head.

My eyes traveled to Emilio who I thought was smiling at me, but when I follow his eyes I saw him gaze at Luna while Johnny glared right back at him. This was definitely going to be something.

“Although I’m happy the truth is out, I can’t believe Isobel betrayed us like that. We should have Aldo’s head for raising his daughter to be a rat, regardless of the Sala’s being close to us.” Marcello turned his head to Christian.

I immediately tried to read the look on his face because the same could be said about Lucio and Enzo. Christian had a sad smile on his face and agreed with Marcello. “Yes, well I’m sure you heard the Sala’s will be dealt with so let’s not worry about that anymore.” He spoke as if he was the one who had betrayed them.

Enzo told him he hated him, wished for him to never be born—but still. Christian would go this far to protect his brother.

“How are you doing? The two of you were close, weren’t you?” Emilio gave Christian a look of pity but all he did was shrug his shoulders. “I don’t care, it is what it is.” He tried to end the conversation.

“Anyway, we shouldn’t be discussing stuff like this. It’s a long time before Fabio will decide to do something.” Christian spoke and looked at Carmen and Luke who were both listening along with terrified looks on their faces.

“Right, what we want to hear about it Serena—how was your life growing up, how did they treat you?” Matteo asked, and only now my heart had dropped.

Only that question was needed to open my eyes because my eyes traveled from the designer clothing the twins were wearing to the large backyard we were sitting in.

This could’ve been me.

This could’ve been Beau.

“My life was not that interesting.” I immediately told them, afraid of not meeting their expectations but Lita shook her head. “It is, and we want to hear all about it.” She tried pushing me while I obviously was not in any mood to discuss it with so many people listening along. “You must’ve had a wonderful life, Angelica!”

Wonderful life? The two who had a wonderful life were right in front of me and glared at me as if I was in the wrong.

“I moved to a lot of different foster families more times than I could count my fingers because they did not want me, I barely graduated high school, I’m a college dropout—I ended up working as a stripper, I can’t cook or clean or do math or something like that, so no it wasn’t really that wonderful—and I go by Serena,” I spoke sarcastically and felt bothered by her question.

A wonderful life?

Perhaps I started to understand what Beau meant.

They gave me away and threw me away like dirt and had the right to say I had a wonderful life?

Matteo and Lita gave each other a hurtful look and I felt extremely guilty because I knew Lita had been depressed, but still, that comment did not sit right with me. “I’m so sorry.” I apologized to Lita.

“Please know that I have been waiting for this moment for a long time, so I hope you can accept me the way I am.” I quickly reassured her and held her hand when I noticed the tears in her eyes. “Yes, we will and we don’t care about your background, I’m just happy you’re here...Serena.”

“I think we all are, it feels so unreal.” Marcello who had been staring at me since the moment I had walked in told me. “And from now on, no one will disrespect you.” He looked directly at Christian who let out a sigh.

“I think I should properly apologize for that, but Serena and my mom are good now—right?” Christian asked me.

Were we?

Francesca had bought me lots of baby clothes and even went as far as sending me a good morning text every now and then but whether it was sincere or just to satisfy Christian I did not know yet.

“Francesca is a nice person, she just felt threatened by you—but no one will hurt you anymore, we’re all here now,” Matteo said.

“So if you guys are so happy that she’s here, why did you guys give her away?” Carmen spoke for the first time. Ever since the moment I had walked in this little bitch had been glaring at me, not understanding that she and Luke were just the backup children. The replacement twins.

“Carmen!” Matteo called out, but she glared straight into his eyes as a way of telling him that she was going to get answers one way or another. “No, because Luke and I were not even aware we had a sister, you told us about a brother but you never told us anything about a sister, so why?” She stood her ground and ignored her father.

“It’s okay, I would like to know too,” I reassured him after seeing the worried look on his face.

“All I wanted was to hide you from Fabio, I wanted to give you a better life and until this very day, I regret not fighting for the both of you. Till this very day, I regret choosing the family name over my very own children.” He spoke and looked at Christian.

“Lucio had told me that you were willing to go to war to keep the baby safe, and when he told me that I knew that he left the family name in good hands, I’m proud of you, Christian.” Matteo tried to praise him, but Christian who was not waiting for any compliments shook his head.

“Please don’t—I hurt Serena many times,” Christian truthfully admitted. His words brought me back to the past as I remembered the times I used to be scared of his presence, but Marc was right—I had misjudged him. Christian was one of the kindest people I had ever met.

“But you are here for her now, and she obviously likes you—anyone can see that, right, Serena?” Johnny jumped in, to safe the day.

“You’re right, he’s amazing.” I agreed with Johnny. He was always being too hard on himself, while everyone else seemed to think otherwise and I wondered where it came from.

“I’m just happy I get to experience the birth of yet another grandchild and your wedding.” Matteo sighed.

Wedding...right?

“So after you send the other baby away to die this one returns, must be great right mom?” Carmen rolled her eyes at me. Matteo’s look went dark and he stood up from his chair.

“Carmen, get out.” He told her with a calm but intimidating look on his face. Instead of fighting back, Carmen glared at Matteo before she walked away. Matteo seemed like a strict parent as Carmen did not fought back but immediately listened to him. Would I also have been raised like that?

“I’m so sorry everyone, please excuse me.” Luke apologized and ran after her.

Well, it was not worse than the Lamberti’s ‘warm’ welcome so my feelings were not completely hurt. “Give her some time, it’s all new to her.” Lita smiled and squeezed my hand. “I understand, it’s also new to me.”

It was indeed new to me to have a little sister and one who did not like me to top it off. In the past, I had always wished for siblings and felt offended whenever my friends told me that I should be lucky. But I finally began to understand their point.

“They just have to get used to you, don’t take it personally,” Emilio tried to talk right his little sister. “I understand, don’t worry about it.”

“You’re so kind and understanding.” Marcello complimented me for doing the bare minimum.

“Did you ever look for my brother?” I asked the Alfonzo’s, hoping they would give me the answer I was waiting for.

“We have always wanted to find you, but we were scared of Fabio finding out about your existence and we wanted to keep you safe.” Matteo tried to dodge the question. It was not about me, it was about Beau.

“But did you look for my brother?” I repeated the question. They gave each other a look that I could not read until they turned their heads towards me. “Serena, maybe you should calm down,” Christian whispered in my ear—but I ignored him.

I had to know this.

“The first few days I begged Fabio to tell me about Adrián every single day but he told me he was gone and I feel so sorry that I could not protect him, the way we thought we protected you...but we couldn’t protect you either,” Lita spoke with tears in her eyes. Emilio placed his arm around his mother’s shoulder and pulled her closer. “I am so sorry for failing you as a parent.”

“I feel terrible for having to make that decision to give him away, I blamed myself for years and did not want to be here anymore.” I looked at her tears and felt sorry for having to ask this question, but in order for me to fully accept them, I had to know. “I thought the birth of Carmen and Lucas would lighten the pain but it never did—and I love them so much but I was never completely healed until the day I heard you found your way back to us.”

“Serena we’re so sorry about you and your brother and all I hope is that his soul has found peace and is capable of forgiving us for abandoning him and for sending him to that monster.” She managed to get out before she completely broke down crying. I looked around with an uncomfortable look on my face while Emilio was trying to calm her down. I never knew how to handle tears.

The Alfonzo’s seemed to have good intentions and I felt bad for Beau that he was not able to make his own decision about that.

I knew I had promised him but...

“Adrián is still alive,” I whispered, making everyone turn their head towards me. “Of course he is, he is alive in our hearts—every single day,” Marcello spoke.

“Right, he’s still alive in our hearts...” I agreed with them, deciding to keep it to myself as promised.

As much as I wanted to tell them the truth, it was not up to me but up to Beau to tell them their identity.

“Let’s talk about something else, please tell us about yourself, Luna.” Emilio had suddenly changed the subject and decided to say something after staring at her for ages.

Once again I looked over at Johnny who did not seemed impressed. From one issue to another.

“Sure, but first things first—we met at work so I’m a stripper!” Luna made everyone laugh before she started ranting about herself.

“When we get home, I have something to tell you.” Christian suddenly whispered in my ear. I looked at him in surprise while he smiled back at me and moved his mouth to my ear yet again.

“W-what?” I asked in shock. Would he have found out the truth about Beau? Did I not lie good enough?

“An answer to your question, I’ll give it to you later.”