Chapter 93
Christian
“Vince? Vince, wake up!” Christian shook his friend’s near lifeless body as the surgeons pulled the stretcher and ran for their lives.
If anything he had expected to go to the hospital for the birth of his daughter, but not for this.
“Christian, I think they can take it from here.” Marc grabbed Christian’s hand to stop him from walking. It’s all my fault, Christian thought to himself and couldn’t shake off the thought of Vince reaching out his hand while he just left him. His best friend reached out for his hand while he felt pressured to save his brother instead.
“Enzo is all right, he’ll manage—thanks for asking.” Marc patted his back. That was right, I hadn’t even asked about my brother, the thought had suddenly crossed Christian’s mind. “And dad?”
“Your dad’s at home—he’s fine, just a bit shaken up, and your grandpa is dealing with Fabio’s men who decided to surrender,” Marc explained. He was at home.
His own son was in the hospital and he was at home. Christian couldn’t forget the look his father gave to his brother and knew that this would most likely never get fixed. It was the same look he himself had given Enzo, but despite Lucio’s personality change, he was afraid that this time things might’ve been different. “You should give your dad some time, don’t talk to him unless it’s business-related.”
“Have you told Serena?” Christian asked. He made her a promise, but he had broken it, just like that. Vince was fighting for his life while he made a promise to Serena and Luis.
“Yes, she already knows about everything and—” Marc began and turned around after he heard Serena’s voice. “Christian!” She called out while Luis was beside her. Christian stuck out his hand to hold her, but she had pulled away instead. “Vince?” She asked as Christian’s heart felt as if it had shattered into a million pieces.
Even until now, it was still about Vince.
“Christian, where is Vince?” Serena repeated as only one thought went through Christian’s mind. There was no, how are you doing, are you hurt or are you okay—just Vince, Vince, Vince.
“He’s in surgery—“ Marc tried to explain. “Surgery?” Serena cut him off and looked at Christian. “What do you mean, surgery?”
Christian took a deep breath and thought whether or not this was something to get angry over but quickly realized it wasn’t. He knew that if anything he was the last person who had the right to get angry, not after what he had done.
“Well, will he make it?” Serena asked. Christian looked down at Luis who had shown zero expression and knelt so he could look at him. “Of course he will make it, he has to.” He spoke as he looked into Luis’s eyes.
“Serena, I think it’s for the best if you go home now and—“
“No,” Serena spoke. “I’m not going home until I know more about Vince, I’ll stay here the entire night if I have to.” She made up her mind.
“Wow, nice to see you care about me and the baby.” Christian blurted out. “Uh Luis, let’s go and buy a bear for your brother!” Marc read the room and dragged Luis away from the situation.
“What the hell are you on about? Don’t you think I care about you and the baby?” Serena wondered. “You know that others got hurt tonight, my brother got hurt, my dad nearly collapsed—but all you care for is Vince.”
“That’s not true!” Serena defended herself. “I have eyes and I can see that you’re doing fine, so my worries automatically go to Vince, what’s wrong with that?”
“Serena, I don—“
“Have time to argue? Me neither.” She crossed her arms and turned away. “If that’s what you’re going to say each time after picking a fight, then don’t start it in the first place.”
She’s right, Christian thought as he remembered his position. He had no right to be upset. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.” Christian immediately apologized and grabbed her arm. “Me neither.” Serena sighed.
“Christian, after everything we’ve been through, how can you say I don’t care about you?” Serena asked as she grabbed his hand. “I came here to check if you were alright before Vince had even crossed my mind and I love you, and I want to be with you.”
“You don’t have to explain yourself, just forget about it.” Christian was eager to end the conversation and pulled her down so she could sit. “Fine.” Serena huffed.
“Serena, I have to tell you something.” Christian suddenly spoke. He knew his path of being truthful would not work unless he started telling her the truth. “Well?” Serena frowned.
“When the basement caught on fire, Vince reached out his hand to me and I did nothing. I wasn’t thinking straight and all I wanted was to protect my brother and only after realizing my mistake, I went back to get him—I’m sorry.” He apologized. She should hear it from me and not from someone else, he thought.
The reassuring smile on Serena’s face was a complete surprise to Christian. He had expected her to call him a heartless monster, but she didn’t. “Don’t feel bad for saving your brother. If it came down to it and I had the chance to save Beau, I would’ve done the exact same. That’s life.” She shrugged her shoulders.
“It is.” Christian agreed as he brushed her hair to the side. “You’ve been through so much today, and you’re still so beautiful.” He smiled as she looked down with a blush on her face.
“Have you thought about a name yet?” Serena changed the subject. “I think the baby is going to remain nameless for a while.” Christian chuckled.
“Fine by me, as long as it’s not something like Christina.” Serena shrugged her shoulder while Christian had a worried look on his face. “Not Christina, noted.”
“I’m not even going to ask.” Serena yawned and leaned her head against his shoulder. “I’m tired.”
“I told you to rest,” Christian said, but before he knew it she was already asleep.
Two hours had passed and the doctor had finally come back to give them an update. Luis looked at the doctor with hopeful eyes as Serena held his hand. “The surgery went well, he’s out of life danger.” He told them.
“Is he awake, can we see him?” Luis immediately asked, but the doctors' expression had changed as he shook his head. “The surgery went well—but now it’s up to him to wake up.” He had changed his original approach.
“Up to him?” Christian frowned his eyebrows as the doctor nodded his head. “Yes, it could take days, weeks, months, years—it's up to him.”
“What?” Luis pouted as all the hope he had left had vanished. “Y-years?” He repeated the worst-case scenario before he burst out crying. Marc immediately picked him up and pulled him in a tight hug while Serena’s hand moved to her belly. All this news was too much for her.
Every single word the doctor spoke after that had become a blur as also she was thinking about the worst-case scenario. “Let’s take you home so you can rest,” Christian spoke.
He could not bear the thought of seeing Serena in the state she was in, so the first thing he decided to do was to show her the baby room. “Keep your eyes closed.” He told her and focused on the smile on her face.
“They are closed, open the door!” Serena spoke. Christian opened the door to the baby room and led her inside. “Open.”
Serena gasped as she opened her eyes and tears rolled down her cheeks. “Why are you crying, don’t you like it? We can change it if you want.” Christian spoke in as he feared to have failed her again.
“No, I love it. Did you do all of this on your own?” Serena walked through the room and took in everything she had expected it to be like. She had one simple request, everything in white and glitter pink.
“I did, I did it all on my own.” Christian proudly spoke as Serena wrapped her arms around his body. “I love it, thank you!” She kept repeating while she attacked his cheek with kisses.
“And now what?” Christian sighed and took another look at the results of his hard work.
“Now we wait,” Serena smiled.
The past weeks were exactly as described. All they could do was wait as they tried to pick up their lives again.
Vince was still in a coma and Beau tried his hardest to restore the bond with his family while he took care of Luis.
Lucio was in denial and pretended as if nothing had happened, as if Enzo had never betrayed him or even better yet as if Enzo was never born. Even though he was dying he had made it very clear that Enzo was not welcome anymore, and strangely enough, Enzo was okay with it. He did what he had to do, he protected his little brother and earned his forgiveness, so now he could finally live in peace.
For Isobel it was different. She wanted her power back and she wanted her family’s forgiveness—and even though they were eventually happy that she saved an Alfonzo, it still wasn’t enough. They were happy that she fixed the mess she had originally made, but that was it.
Meanwhile Christian felt as if he was living his life in guilt. There was still so much to discuss and after the talk with Marc he thought he had changed his mind, he thought he would’ve had the strength to tell Serena the truth, but he couldn’t. He sat her down on multiple occasions, but after seeing the smile on her face he couldn’t do it anymore.
He didn’t want that smile to vanish and was determined to do anything to keep it that way, even if that meant taking the secret to his grave. As long as she did not lose that smile.
“Christian, wake up!” Serena shook his body as they laid in their bed. They had just come home from going on a date night and Christian was fast asleep.
Christian mumbled something and covered her mouth with his hand, while Serena bit his finger.
“Ow.” He yelped and rubbed his eyes before he sat up straight. “Why is the bed so wet, did you pee yourself?” He yawned and stretched his arms.
“No, I didn’t,” Serena spoke with a bright smile on her face and shook his shoulders back and forth to wake him up. “I think my water just broke.”
“What?” Christian asked wide awake and grabbed his phone from the nightstand. “At 2 AM?
“Yes, at 2 AM,” Serena confirmed with the same bright smile on her face while Christian tried to clear his head. “So I suppose we can’t go back to sleep anymore?” He realized.
“No, of course, we can’t!” Serena spoke as she nudged his shoulder.
“I’m going to be a dad?” Christian suddenly asked as he slowly started to understand what was happening. “Yes.” Serena nodded her head.
“Are you just going to sit there or are you going to help me?” She stuck out her hands to Christian who was completely clueless.
“Right, help.”
