Chapter 69

“So, tell me—what do you think?” I asked the girls as they all stared down at their plates. “I think we can all agree that you really can’t cook.” Luna spat out the food back onto her plate with a dirty look on her face.

“My God, I’m hopeless.” I sighed and slammed my head against the table. “I can’t clean, I can’t cook—what can I do?”

Faith collected the girls’ plates from the table and threw away the food before she walked towards me and placed her hand on my shoulder. “You have people to do that for you—trust me, Christian doesn’t care.”

“Faith this is not something small, I couldn’t even follow a simple recipe? Don’t you think that’s sad?” I sulked at the idea of me failing to be a mom. No matter what, I couldn’t depend on maids I never even had in the first place—and wanted to do things on my own.

“See, from now on I forbid you to watch these videos—we’re right here!” Olivia told me as Luna nodded her head. “What she says, and I also forbid you to learn Spanish through that toddler app—I’ll teach you!”

“You will?” I sighed relieved. “Yes, but you don’t need to be a perfect housewife for Christian—and you don’t need to push yourself to learn a new language because of your parents!”

“They both learned to love you without it, so I promise you—they don’t care.” She reassured me. It was nice that she was trying to help me, but I still felt useless. “Right,” I mumbled.

At that exact moment, the front door got opened and all of us stared at each other in shock. “Did you know he’d come this early?” Faith asked, I shook my head. “Throw it all out, they can see this!” I spoke, referring to the burned food and the dozen cleaning supplies.

While the girls followed my orders I quickly walked to the front to keep them busy. “Christian!” I smiled and pulled him into a hug as I stared at Matteo who was behind him.

“Why does it smell like a campfire?” Christian pulled away and scrunched his nose while thousands of thoughts went through my head. “Don’t ask, it’s much easier for everyone.” I walked past him and made my way to Matteo.

“It’s like every time I see you—you end up looking prettier, let me look at you.” He held my hands and stared at me. I looked like I had just run a marathon.

He suddenly pulled out his phone, and took a picture of me—and there was nothing I could do about it. “It’s for you mother.” He explained with a satisfied smile on his face. Old people.

“What the hell is this smell?” Christian had still not finished, whatever he was doing—and made his way to the kitchen. “Oh hi, you guys smell that?” He asked the girls who all shook their heads in unison, all but Luna who nodded her head instead.

“Serena tried to cook and clean, no big deal—we almost died in the process.” She told him. Matteo laughed at me while Christian frowned his eyebrows. “W-why?” He chuckled as I looked down embarrassed.

I liked the four of them better when they were still awkward with each other. “It’s because she wants to play housewife,” Luna explained. If she could only keep her mouth shut for once. “I’m afraid she thinks you’ll leave her—because she feels useless.”

“Serena—you couldn’t cook and clean since the moment I met you, and you transformed my room into a garbage dump—what’s the point of trying so hard when I already have my first impression of you?” He asked confused and walked closer to place his hand on my belly.

“This can’t be good for the baby, let’s get out of here.” He suggested as we all followed him to the living room. “Sir, she’s also been pushing herself to learn Spanish.” Olivia exposed me this time. I tried to read the look on Matteo’s face and he almost seemed embarrassed. Was it because of me?

“Serena, we’re so happy to have you back—and you not being able to speak Spanish is not the end of the world. None of us care about that.” He gave me a pitiful look. So in the end all of this work was for nothing.

“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your two friends?” He looked at Faith and Olivia. That’s right, they hadn’t officially met yet.

“This is my...dad.” I hesitated to let out the last word. Calling him by his name had become something usual to me, but there was no other way to introduce him. The proud smile he had on his face, proved to me that it was worth it. Perhaps I should get over myself and try it more often.

“I’m sure you all have a lot to tell me about my daughter.” He leaned forward in anticipation. “While you go do that, I’ll steal Serena for a bit—if you don’t mind.” Christian grabbed my hand to pull me up.

“Yes, go ahead,” Matteo smiled at him. “W-wait!” I whispered as he pulled me out of the room. While I did not worry about Olivia, leaving Faith and Luna in the same room as Matteo was not a great idea.

I followed him to the patio and took a seat next to him. “Why are you smiling at me?” I asked him when he did not say a word. All he did was smile at me.

“It’s because I like looking at you.” He smiled even more and grabbed my hand as I tried to avoid his gaze. “Let me look at you.” He chuckled and lifted my head with his finger.

“How are you feeling?”

“Good, I’m good and the baby is good!” I remained positive. The truth was that I was suffocating and couldn’t wait to go outside, but this was not the time to be selfish—not when everyone was ready to risk their lives for my baby. “Did you see the pictures?”

“Yes, I did.” He nodded his head and sighed. “You can barely see anything, she looks like an alien—doesn’t look like me at all. Maybe you...but definitely not me.”

As expected, it was exactly something Christian would say. His words were always unpredictable and did not surprise me anymore.

“You’re unbelievable.” I glared at him, making him laugh. His laughter sounded like drugs to my ears—and I couldn’t help but join him. If there was one thing I loved about him, it would have to be his laugh.

“Why are you laughing?” He laughed even louder and gave me a slap against my shoulder.

“I’m laughing because you’re laughing.” I managed to get out, with tears almost threatening to spill from my eyes.

“Your laugh is addictive.” I giggled and tried to calm down as he did the same.

“Dana told me you missed your meeting because you went out partying all night.” I wiped away the tears from my eyes and tried to change the subject. The smile on Christian’s face had vanished and he seemed bothered by my comment. “I’m sorry, I’m not judging you!”

“I know.” He chuckled and reached his hand out to hold mine. “Let’s talk about something else.”

“I heard you had a request for Johnny?” He asked me. A request?

I went into deep thoughts and was wondering what he could be talking about.

“Ah, about Vincenzo and Luis?” I refreshed my memories. It hadn’t even been an entire day, but Johnny already ran off to tell Christian.

“Is it because of Beau?” Christian wondered, but I immediately shook my head. Originally I had also thought these feelings were because of Beau, but they weren’t. “No, it’s because despite everything, we genuinely had a good time together. They were there when I needed someone—“

“They were there when I wasn’t.” He finished my sentence. I felt bad and did not know what to say, because denying it would be a lie and we both knew that. “Serena, I promise you that no one will touch them.”

“That’s quite some promise.” I snickered, thinking about his previous promises. “Then I’ll promise you that I’ll try.” He changed his statement. “Trust me or not, I have once considered him my friend.”

“That sounds better.”

“Wait, I have something to show you.” Christian suddenly pulled out his phone and scrolled through it before he handed it to me. “Oh my god,” I spoke in disbelief as I looked at the pictures of the baby room.

He had already made so much progress. The walls were painted in the glitter paint I wanted and the room was filled with furniture. “I even organized her closet.” He spoke with a proud look on his face. It had turned out he had bought even more stuff. There were probably enough diapers to last for at least a year.

“And I did it all on my own.” He reminded me, almost sounding as if he was expecting a sticker. At times like these, the macho personality he was always trying to show, would vanish and made him look like the child instead. “I see, if I didn’t know any better I’d say you’re fulfilling your duties.” I sarcastically spoke as he rolled his eyes.

“Have you already decided on a baby name?” I asked him as my mind went to my daughter who still did not have a name. Until now she was still called, ‘the baby’ and did not have a name yet.

“No, I’ve been looking—but not yet.” He spoke embarrassed, while I ruffled my hand through his hair. “It’s okay, take your time.”

“What is the first thing you plan on doing when you get out of here?” Christian asked me. That was a very good question.

“I once told you about the woman I got my surname from, I think it’s time to visit her grave,” I told him. It was something I had tempted to avoid, but after the Alfonzo’s requested me to change my last name I felt like a part of me was betraying her, and I would not be ready to take that

“So you are going to become an Alfonzo?” Christian chuckled and rested his hand on my knee. “I thought you’d say something about the baby—but you want to run off to change your surname instead?” He teased me. “What’s even the point, we’re getting married.”

“You know, you’re extremely annoying.” I sighed and got up from the couch. “We should head back, who knows what kind of lies they’re telling Matteo.”

It seemed as if that was exactly what they were doing because the mischievous look on their faces when we had walked back in could not have been missed.

“Princess, your friend has just told me how you got expelled several times for beating up half the school—you’ve been living your life as an Alfonzo all this time,” Matteo spoke with a proud smile on his face while I glared at Faith.

Even though we weren’t extremely close back then, we went to the same high school so she was the only one who could’ve told him. “Sorry.” She mumbled.

“It’s true though, she appears to be quiet—but the quiet ones are always the craziest ones.” Luna laughed. Christian who had joined her and laughed along was enough to make me run away.

“And I heard you were captain of your school dance team, they’ve shown me some of your videos. Have you seen them, Christian?” He asked as I ran over to grab his phone from his hands.

“No he hasn’t, and he doesn’t care,” I spoke annoyed and looked at Christian’s smirking face. “I’ve seen her dance a few times.” He spoke as I rolled my eyes, knowing he was referring to the strip club.

“You guys are all being very annoying,” I called them out and looked at the guilty look on Matteo’s face. “I’m sorry, I just wanted to get to know you better.”

“No, no—not you!” I held both of his hands. The last thing I wanted to do was to ruin the bond with my birth father.

“Now who wants to hear more embarrassing stories about Serena, because I think I have a lot!” Luna looked at everyone. She never knew when to stop.

“I do.” Christian raised his hand and pushed me aside so he could sit down.

What did I get myself into?