Chapter 95

“Milo, say baby.” I heard Christian’s voice as I slowly opened my eyes. “Baby,” Milo repeated. “Good job, you got so much better at talking.” Christian praised him.

“Look who’s awake!” Emilio smiled and made his way over to me. “Yes, I was only asleep for like five minutes—because you guys are being so loud.” I yawned.

“Look at him.” Emilio chuckled and pointed at Christian. He held the baby in his arms and showed her off to Milo who looked at her in amazement. “He hasn’t even been a dad for a day, and he already seems like a different person.”

Christian turned around and gave me a satisfied smile before he made his way over so I could see the baby. “Do you want to hold her again?” He asked, but I could see that he wasn’t ready to let go of her. “It’s okay, you hold her.”

“Okay, then I’ll hold her.” Christian smiled and sat down in the chair next to me. “Up!” Milo called out and opened his arms while I had a guilty look on my face. How was I going to gather all of my strength if I couldn’t even pick up a toddler?

“Not today, Milo.” Emilio saved me and picked him up himself. “Christian, you look so peaceful.” Emilio observed him. He was right, he did seem peaceful.

He always seemed so stressed, tensed, and angry at the world—but a lot had changed in just a few weeks. “Little sister, you must be so exhausted.” Emilio caressed my hair.

He wasn’t wrong.

I had a rough time after the baby was born, and trying to keep up with all these new instructions and these visits didn’t make it any easier. “I’m fine, perfect.” I lied to Emilio.

It felt wrong to complain about my struggles while I had Christian and he had to do it all on his own. “Don’t lie to me,” Emilio spoke and gave me a flick on my forehead.

“Okay, I have to go now.” He excused himself and grabbed Milo. “Christian, listen.” Emilio turned around.

“You have to promise me that you’ll take care of Serena and the baby. Don’t give her a hard time, when she asks you to do something—you do it. Be nice to her, don’t let her sacrifice her sleep—“

“Yes, I know.” Christian cut him off. “Don’t worry and just go—she’ll be fine.” He reassured him.

“Your brothers are annoying.” He spoke right after Emilio left the room. “I agree, but it’s actually kind of cute.”

No one had ever been overprotective of me, and I actually joined the attention, I only felt bad for Christian that he had to deal with not only Matteo and my brothers but also my uncles and my cousins.

Christian ignored my words and focused on the baby. “Where’s Cesca and my mom?”

“Home, our home—I don’t think they’re leaving anytime soon,” Christian said. Apparently Cesca and Lita had always been close, so they had become even more inseparable.

“She’s pretty, isn’t she?” I pouted and leaned forward to look at my baby.

“She is, she has your heavy head, your cheeks, your nose, and your lips. She looks like mommy, so she’ll be fine.” He nodded his head. “I like her eyes the most, she has your eyes,” I giggled and ignored his backhanded compliment.

“She’s boring and doesn’t really do much, but I promise she’ll be more fun in a few months,” I told him in fear of him saying something I wouldn’t like, but unlike my expectations he gave me an angry look and pulled her in closer.

“How can you call my princess boring?She’s breathing, she’s healthy—and she looks beautiful,” Christian spoke with a proud smile on his face. “She’s doing more than enough. She doesn’t have to do anything else, from now on daddy will take care of her.”

“Since when did you become so wise, you are almost scaring me.” Lucio spoke as he leaned against door. “That was my sentence, but yes.” I agreed with him.

I had nothing to complain about this new Christian and hoped he would be like this for a long time.

“I was already in the parking lot, but something didn’t feel right so I came to see my granddaughter again, I want to hold her one more time.” Lucio cleaned his hands before he walked over to Christian and grabbed her from his hands. “So...did you hear something from Enzo?” Lucio asked.

“I don’t need any more embarrassment, so please told me he reached out to you.” Lucio spoke. “Yes, he did—he reached out to both me and Serena.” Christian told him.

“Do you already have a name for her?” Lucio asked.

“I do,” Christian answered. I had been anticipating those words for months, and it was finally time. “You do?” I asked to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.

“Siena Lucia.” He smiled at her. “You have a part of mommy’s name, daddy’s name, and grandpa’s name.”

I had prepared myself for the worst and expected something like Christina or Christin, so I was pleasantly surprised.

“I thought you’d be selfish, but you included not only me but also your dad,” I told him. “I like it, I like Siena Lucia.”

“You named her after me?” Lucio's voice cracked. “Dad, please don’t.” Christian sighed and looked the other way as a tear rolled down Lucio’s cheek.

The thought of Lucio not being here for much longer made the meaning of it all so much more special. At first, I felt angry and betrayed because he had kept it a secret till this very day, but Lucio was the kind of person who thought about the bigger picture and probably didn’t want to break his family’s heart.

“Look at you.” I smiled at Christian and wiped his tears. These were not happy tears anymore, but the tears of a son who knew he would eventually lose his father. I placed my hand on top of his and tried to calm him down. “Today’s supposed to be a happy day.” I reminded him.

“It is.” Lucio agreed. After everything he still tried to appear happy because he had no idea that Christian had told me the truth. “Today is Serena’s day and Siena’s day.”

“By the way, your new assistant is on her way to take you home,” Lucio informed us while Christian immediately scoffed. “I gave her a to-do list, I assume she finished it?”

“Christian!” Lucio sighed. “Please don’t treat her like that—she’s a really nice girl, you haven’t even met her yet.”

“That’s the problem.” Christian rolled his eyes. “I don’t know who I’m letting near Serena and Siena.”

“Her husband is a lawyer, he works for your aunt’s new boyfriend’s firm—we can trust her,” Lucio reassured him while Christian let out another sigh.

“This sounds like a neighbor, cousin, aunt, goldfish story,” Christian complained before he looked at me. “My aunt has a new man every two months.”

“I take it back, you haven’t changed.” Lucio laughed. “And watch your words when you talk about my sister.”

At least he was capable of laughing.

“Anyway, she won’t last a week—I know you won’t let me fire her unless I have a reason to, so when she gets here and the list is not finished I’ll fire her—case closed.”

Lucio gave him an offended look and shrugged his shoulders. “I really like this girl, she’s a professional and if you don’t want to break my heart you won’t fire her. It’s interesting, you’re underestimating her.”

“I think so too, it’s not because she’s a woman right?” I teased him, but Christian took it a bit too seriously. “No!” He spoke and looked down at Siena. “It’s not because she’s a woman, when my Siena turns eighteen I will give everything to her, so it doesn’t have to do anything with that.”

“You better, and even if you get a son you can not suddenly change your mind!” Lucio warned him. The only thing I was wondering was who was going to tell them that baby number one would be the last baby.

“Daddy will clean up this sick and twisted family business, and give you a clean empire.” Christian promised the baby while Lucio gave him a warm smile. “Good luck with that.”

“I have to go now, but grandpa will visit you again next week,” Lucio spoke to Siena. “Be good to mommy and daddy and grandma.”

Seeing Lucio with the baby and his kind words of encouragement warmed my heart and was completely different from Matteo and my brothers who had stuck most of their attention into threatening Christian.

“I like this new version of you, forget what I ever told you, and from now on please be good to Serena and let the past be the past,” Lucio spoke as he handed Siena over to Christian.

“I hope you get some sleep Serena, it looks like you’re wearing eyeshadow.” Lucio said his goodbyes to me. It was clear where Christian got it from, and I wondered if Siena would eventually be the same.

After Lucio left, Ramiro, Amanda and the other midwives had returned to take further care of me and the baby, and after some more time we were finally discharged.

“Daddy picked out a nice and expensive outfit for you,” Christian spoke to Siena who was peacefully asleep.

“She can’t even tell the price apart, it’s a waste of money—we should donate some instead.” I suggested.

“Let’s do both.” Christian nodded his head. He was in such a good mood which meant I could probably take some more advantage of him.

“You really enjoy watching Siena don’t you?” I asked him as a way of testing him. “Of course I do, it’s my daughter.” He simply shrugged his shoulders, which allowed me to move on to my next question.

“So you can watch her while I’m going back to school?” I carefully asked. He looked up at me in surprise and furrowed his eyebrows. “School?”

“Yes, I’m want to be a good example and finish school,” I told him. It was a spontaneous decision, but one I knew I had to make once I saw Siena. My biggest fear was Christian turning me into a housewife and wanting me to sit at home all day, the same way Cesca and my mom gave up on their own dreams—but now that I had Siena I didn’t want to be like that.

The thought of bringing it up had scared me for a while, because we both knew I did not have any good experiences with school or work.

“Serena, there are successful people without a degree and a piece of paper doesn’t make me any more proud than I already am.” Christian sighed. Okay, so that was a bad idea.

“But if you really want to go back to school, you should do it and I’ll watch Siena.” He surprisingly gave in and placed her in my arms.

“Come on, we should go,” Christian spoke as he prepared himself to push the wheelchair. “This new assistant can carry your bags.”

He really seemed to have an issue with this new assistant to the point where our conversation in the elevator was just him complaining about her presence. Other than encouraging him to at least wait until he would actually meet her—I had nothing more to add.

“She’s already late and it hasn’t even been a day.” Christian rolled his eyes as we arrived on the first floor. “Yes, of course, she is—you gave the poor girl a list from here to Tokyo!”

Christian scoffed and ignored my words as he focused his attention on Siena. As expected an immediate smile had appeared on his face. “Siena is so calm, she was a bit more active in your belly.”

“Yes, I think we know why,” I spoke and tried to erase the bad memories from my head. Other than Vince, I did not want to remember anything else from that time and was ready to move on with my life.

“There is this bear I want to buy her, wait here!” Christian suddenly spoke and kissed my forehead before he ran off.

“Daddy’s going to spoil you so much.” I giggled at Siena and waited for her reaction, but it never came.

“If you’re waiting for a reply, you’ll have to wait for a bit longer.” A female voice spoke to me. “Do you also have children?” I asked as I looked up in excitement.

“No, I don’t.” The girl shook her head. “Just someone who has two loving parents with eight children.”

“Are you Serena?” She smiled at me. “I’m Christian’s new assistant.”

Of course, she was the new assistant.

“Yes, I am and this is Siena.” I proudly spoke and felt happy to finally have the opportunity to introduce her to someone, without Christian breathing in my neck.

“Nice to meet you, Siena.” The new assistant spoke and bent down so she could take a better look at Siena. “She is really cute.” She pouted at the baby.

Her voice was so soft and warm, and just by one look, I could sense she was a nice person. To be honest, after hearing she was married I had expected someone a bit older, but she seemed around my age which made me feel even worse. Christian would destroy her.

“Just a heads up, Christian can be a bit too much to handle—and I know he gave you a list with impossible things to finish b—“

“I’ve already finished it, piece of cake.” She stood up straight again and shrugged her shoulders. “Oh...really?” I spoke surprised. She seemed completely unfazed by his impossible requests.

“Yes, I’ve been doing this for four years now—he won’t scare me away.” She giggled at me. “That’s good.” I smiled back and prepared myself for the awkward silence which was about to follow. “Well, welcome.” I awkwardly mumbled and turned my head to look for Christian.

“Oh, there he is!” I called out relieved as he made his way towards us with the bear in his hands.

His face seemed pale and the smile had dropped from his face as he took his final steps. “What’s with the face? Did they not have the designer bear anymore?” I mocked him, but he quickly recovered himself and shook his head.

“No.” He spoke with a forced smile on his face and did anything but look his new assistant in her eyes. He seemed pissed and did not want her here at all.

Gina seemed just as tensed as I was by his unfortunate expression so I decided to put in a good word for her. “Christian, she finished the entire list already, isn’t that great? Her name is—“

“Wait, what’s your name?” I asked embarrassed as I waited for her to introduce herself. My eyes shifted to Christian—who looked at the poor girl with a furious look on his face.

“What are you doing here?” He glared at her. The assistant must’ve felt as uncomfortable as I did because she was almost shaking.

I knew he planned on making it difficult for her, but it was not her fault that she was able to finish whatever crazy list he prepared for her. “Chris, be nice,” I whispered and stuck out my hand to his new assistant. “I-It’s Gina.”

“Nice to meet you, Gina.” I smiled at her and nudged Christian’s leg. “Come on, don’t ruin my day,” I whispered as I turned my head to glare at him.

It took him a few seconds but he eventually stuck out his hand and gave her an unimpressed look and a bone breaking handshake. It was nothing new that he did not like the idea of a new assistant, but this time it seemed as if he had taken things to a whole other level.

“Nice to meet you, Gina.”