Chapter 87

“Luca, I need you to go back to the safe house and I need you to inform Christian that Serena is with me.” Vince walked towards us and pulled me away from Luca.

“W-what, I don’t get it?” Luca spoke as confused as I was.

“I will hand her over to Fabio, all he ever wanted is Serena—he’ll put everything to a stop and everyone will be safe as long as I give him Serena,” Vince explained. “I’m following Christian’s instructions. He will pick her up in five hours.”

Christian was in on this?

“He has instructed you to give his pregnant woman to your murderous father? Sounds like Christian.” Luca sighed and grabbed my hand. “But I did not doubt my cousin even once, I knew he had something planned.”

“I know you knew, I haven’t seen you this calm in ages.” Vince chuckled. “This was supposed to be a secret until the very last minute, but I can’t bare the thought of you thinking Christian has abandoned you, because he will never.”

“You should also know that Luis is back with me, and he told me you’d hate him for that—but he has a plan. All you have to do is trust him.” Vince spoke.

“I could never hate him, you know that. I trust Christian.” I smiled and remembered his words. I love you, you have to trust me—and I’m sorry.

He had once again made a plan without me and thought I would’ve been angry. Yes, I told him that I’d never forgive him if he hurt Luis, but if he would’ve told me the truth I would’ve never spoken those words. “You should go, we don’t have long,” Vince told Luca.

Luca looked back at me with a guilty smile on his face. If anyone would’ve told me that I would’ve given my life for Luca or that we would’ve been hugging I would’ve laughed in their faces. Luca and I were so different and were known to be frenemies, but this side of him was something different. I liked this serious side of him.

“After you get back safely and after my niece is out of there, I’ll treat you to a drink—I think we all need one.” He spoke and held his hand to my stomach. “Breast milk for the baby and something strong for us.”

“I agree.” I smiled. Luca turned to Vince and pulled him into a hug. “And you?” He laughed.

“Thanks for staying by Christian’s side—and make sure you don’t go to hell. No matter what, you have to come out of this alive!” He told him. “Let’s hope so, that’s what we’re going for.” Vincenzo spoke.

“Come on, Serena.” Vince stuck out his hand, and for the first time in a long while I had accepted it. I had my friend back. “So what’s the plan and how do we get your dad not to kill me?”

Vincenzo grabbed my hand and opened the car door for me. “The plan was not to tell you anything because I’ve heard that you’re a bad actress, but unfortunately you’re going to have to play the part.”

Vince made his way to the driver’s seat and drove off. “Will no one see him?” I wondered as my mind went to Enrique’s lifeless body. “Couldn’t Luca take care of him?”

“No, that’s for me to deal with,” Vince spoke. I did not even want to think about whatever he planned on doing, but maybe I could talk him out of it. “You want him to know, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Vince confirmed. “When the time is near, I want him to know that his own son betrayed him and why he betrayed him.”

“I blamed you and Beau for my mother’s dead—while you didn’t have anything to do with it and neither did your family. Beau has been nothing but good to me and you...Christian made me realize why it wasn’t worth it,” Vince explained. “Why?” I asked him. I still had so many questions.

“It’s because I love you, Serena. It isn’t worth it because I love you.” He told me. I froze up and did not know what to say. Did he love me?

I obviously cared for him and despite everything, had still considered him to be one of my closest friends, but love? How could I love him when I didn’t even have romantic feelings for him? Vince was like my brother, another half of me and I loved him as a friend—but the way he loved me? I could never love him like that.

“I’m glad.” I smiled at him. I did not want to say the wrong thing and push him into making the wrong decision, but I also couldn’t lie to him or give him any false hope.

“I know we can never be together, don’t worry.” Vince chuckled. I turned my head in surprise and looked at the slight smile on his face. “Christian loves you and you obviously love Christian, and I love the both of you.”

All I could do was sit in silence as I did not want to hurt his feelings, but even more than not wanting to hurt his feelings all I felt was fear. I was about to meet my biggest enemy and confront one of my biggest fears.

From all the stories I’d heard about Fabio Garcia, I knew that he was the real deal. He was not some kind of small problem which we could’ve easily wiped away, and he had proven that time and time again.

That man was even capable of scaring Luis who had always been bright and happy and Vince who had always been warm and kind. “How is Luis holding up?”

“Fabio doesn’t know about Beau yet so Luis is safe, my dad believes Luis just walked away so he let it go because Luis is not his priority right now,” Vince spoke relieved.

“And what now?”

“Now I will call my dad and tell him I have you, after that, you can see for yourself how sloppy he works.” Vince said. “Do you mind if I call him?” He asked.

“No, go ahead.” I gulped in fear and watched as Vince clicked on his dad’s name. I was not ready to hear his voice and I definitely wasn’t ready to meet him. All I could do was act tough, but deep down I knew I wasn’t ready for it.

“I hope you’re here to share the good news.” A voice growled out. So this was Fabio Garcia.

Unlike Vincenzo’s soft and nice tone, Fabio did not sound as welcoming and just the thought of him made my skin crawl. “Yes, I have her—I have Serena.” Vince told him as he looked at me.

“Well, where is she?” Fabio asked in a demanding tone. This man seriously gave me the chills. “I’m on my way right now.”

“And the brother?”

“Still near dead, Enrique checked up on him,” Vince spoke. It was beyond me how this man had shown Beau mercy, only for him to treat him like shit. “Good, make sure he stays alive to watch the show later.”

Show? What show?

“Vincenzo—if you’re playing games—” Fabio spoke. I observed Vince’s worried expression and tried to calm myself down. “I’ll kill you and Luis both.”

My hands had automatically moved to my stomach. This man was not alright, he was willing to kill his own son.

“I know, I won’t.” Vince almost trembled. He was visibly terrified and I felt awful because I was literally sending him to his death. I knew that I did not force him to help me and believed Christian also didn’t but even then he was still willing to help us.

“I’ll give out the order to drop everything and for everyone to come back to the mansion,” Fabio spoke. Suddenly everything became so clear. So this was Christian’s plan.

“They’ll be looking for her—so we need all the protection we can get. The only ones who are invited to this party are Matteo, Lucio, and that disrespectful beast!” He growled.

That was quite some way to describe Christian, a disrespectful beast. Whenever this man opened his mouth I felt my legs go numb and could feel the hatred through the phone. He hated the Alfonzo’s and he hated the Lamberti’s—so what was left for my baby?

Would this really work out? In the worst case scenario he would’ve killed me right away, but deep down I knew he wouldn’t. If that was his plan, Christian wouldn’t have been that stupid to send me here.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I should trust Christian, that’s what he told me.

“Sure, I’ll be there in ten minutes,” Vince replied before he finally hung up the phone. I could not listen to this man for another second, let alone see him.

“So this is the plan he came up with?” I breathed. Sometimes I liked to believe that Christian liked the thrill and that, that might’ve been the reason why he liked to play with my life.

“Fabio will let his guard down, he’s already done so. Christian really thought this through, everyone who has to be taken care of or will be in the same area, and your families will be safe—as long as you and Beau are separated, you’ll be safe...for now.” Vince explained.

“Incredibly risky but also really smart—Christian always thinks ahead, there is no way he won’t win this.” He told me. He was right, there was no way we wouldn’t win this.

Me going to Fabio was a sacrifice that had to be made. Fabio ordering everyone back to the house would mean that every hostage in the safe-house would be safe as well.

“And you? Your dad just told you he’d kill you if you play him.” I asked Vince as the thought had suddenly crossed my mind. It wasn’t my life that was in danger, it was his life.

“Don’t worry about me, worry about yourself.” Vince spoke. All I wanted was to worry about myself, but I was being realistic and after hearing Fabio over the phone, I wasn’t so sure about that. “How can you ask me not to worry about you?”

“I tried.” He chuckled. “But’s it’s nice to see that you do worry about me.”

“In case something does happen to me, I need you to take care of Luis for me—can you do that?” Vince requested.

The request felt useless because nothing would happen. We would all be fine and Christian would save all of us. Right?

“Don’t be crazy, we’ll all make it out alive.” I forced myself to believe, but I knew better than that. Anything could happen. “But if I don’t—“

“Yes, I promise—I’ll take care of Luis,” I told him to shut him up. All I had to think about were the best case scenarios and definitely not the worse case scenarios.

All I had to do was to force myself to believe that this would all work out.

“Good, if I were you I would mentally prepare yourself. My dad, Fabio Garcia hates you.”