Chapter 163

“I feel like you’ve officially lost your mind, Christian.” Beau chuckled. “I don’t know what kind of thing you’re planning, but I’m kindly requesting you to keep my sisters and me out of it.”

“I thought the idea was to scare him away, not to anger him even more. Carmen agreed. “Oh my god, we’ll all end up dead.” Carmen freaked out while she bumped her head against Beau’s shoulder.

“Shouldn’t we stop him?” Christian spoke. Beau was confused by his words but was in no mood to argue with him. It didn’t take him long to figure out that Christian would do whatever Christian wanted to do.

“Whatever you want, Christian. I’ll stay here and watch my sister while you talk to Dario.” Beau told him. Carmen gave him an offended look and smacked his shoulder.

“Hey, why do I have to miss out on the fun?” Carmen pouted. “I thought you guys were bringing me along on a special mission.”

“Yes, a special mission to keep your mouth shut.” Beau rolled his eyes. Christian had enough of the two bickerings back and forth and nudged Carmen. “I’ll be back soon, okay?” He smiled at her. “In the meantime, please be nice to your brother.”

“Yes.” Carmen nodded with a blush on her face. “I’ll stay here. Take all the time you need.”

“Unbelievable,” Beau muttered while Christian removed himself from the two as fast as possible and made his way towards the motel room.

Christian looked down at the small envelope in his hands and placed it inside of his jacket. It was an invitation to his dad’s family photoshoot. It was something he owed Dario, and if all went well, Dario did not have to live in a lie anymore.

“Christian.” Dario greeted him as soon as he opened the door. “Cousin,” Christian spoke back with a forced. smile on his face. Regardless of his feelings, this was not the time to treat him like his enemy.

“So, we’re cousins now?” Dario scoffed. “I have a name. Please use it.”

“I thought we were on the same side now, but fine, Dario.” Christian shrugged as he walked in.

“Where is your uncle?”

“Out.” Dario snarled. “He’s known to make the best of every situation and used this time to look at some flowers. Can you believe that?”

Christian chuckled at the thought of Mauro taking this time to take back to his own life, but it didn’t take long before he thought of something else. “He should stay inside. We don’t know what your dad is planning-

“He won’t hurt me,” Dario spoke. “I’m the last memory he has of my mom. He won’t hurt me-even if I betrayed him.”

“Well, there are other ways to hurt you,” Christian muttered. “Anyway, I didn’t come here for that. I came here because I want to talk to you about your dad.”

Dario lowered his head and turned away so he did not have to face Christian. “I need you to tell me everything, how he came back, why he came back-and what he’s planning to do to us.”

“Don’t.” Dario sighed. “I helped you free your brother because I didn’t want anyone to get hurt and because Serena asked me to, but here is where it ends. I don’t want to end up like my brother.

Luck”

“Luca is doing fine.” Christian sighed. “Johnny and Marc are watching him the same way your dad watched Enzo and Gina.”

Bonus “I didn’t want to do that.” Dario clarified. Christian could see the regret behind his eyes and could tell he was telling the truth.

“I can clearly see that,” Christian spoke, irritated. “But are you really going to beg for his forgiveness and go back to him while you know he’s a bad person?”

Christian walked closer and held Dario’s wrist. “Let go of me,” Dario warned him. “You have a lot of nerve touching me for someone who got handed this position without having to do anything. The position which belongs to me.”

“That’s not true.” Christian defended himself. “I don’t know what my uncle told you, but that’s not true. You don’t know the things I had to sacrifice in order to be here.”

Christian thought back at the normal childhood he missed out on and all the friends who feared him because their parents told them not to hang out with him. He had to hold himself back from telling Dario the awful truth. He had to hold himself back from telling Dario that he did not have an easy life. Not even close.

“Listen, I know you’re not a bad person, and I know that because Serena told me. I know you know right from wrong, but please know that whatever your dad is planning on doing will hurt both of us.”

Christian told him.

Dario freed himself from Christian’s grip and pushed him off. “Whatever he promised you can’t happen. but it’s not too late to make the right decision!” Christian tried his hardest to get through to him. “Help me stop your dad and-”

“He is the only person I have. You know, it’s so easy for you to talk about these things when you everything!” Dario yelled out.

have “Everything?” Christian frowned. “You think I have everything?”

“I’m just going to ignore you pretending like my dad, who is also your uncle, isn’t dying at this very moment.” Christian brushed him off. “But long story short, I don’t have everything. You have no idea.”

“Do you want the family business?” Christian asked. “Because I don’t care, you can have it-all I want is for Berto to leave my family alone!”

“My dad is on the verge of dying. I actually don’t have time for this!” He spoke, irritated. Getting through to Dario seemed a bit more complicated than he initially thought, and he could no understand how Serena managed to do it.

“You’ll give it just like that?” Dario chuckled. “Do you hear yourself?”

Christian’s words were no lies. He thought it would’ve been nice to hand it down to Siena, but he wouldn’t put her life in danger for it to happen. “I’ll help you get the respect you’re seeking.”

“Help me get respect?” Dario scoffed.

“Yes,” Christian replied. “How do you think I got here? It’s not because of my dad. It’s because I gave up a lot to earn everyone’s respect.”

“Don’t lie!” Dario stopped him from talking. “You’re here because you have a family behind you I never got the chance to be part of that family.”

“Because of your mom,” Christian stated. “Not because of our grandpa, but because of your mom.”

“She probably had nothing good to say about the Lamberti’s, but from what I’ve heard, she wasn’t exactly an angel either.” Christian reminded him. It took Dario some strength not to attack Christian for his harsh words about his mother.

“Listen to your cousin, Dario,” Mauro spoke as he entered the door. Christian and Dario turned around and looked at the flowers in his hands. “Your dad has been pulling strings for way too long, and I loved my sister-but he’s right,” Mauro admitted.

“My sister used your father as a puppet, she was after his fortune, and the Lamberti’s did whatever was necessary to stop her-don’t follow into her footsteps.”

“Uncle!” Dario called out in disbelief. “No, Dario-you listen to me!” Mauro spoke.

“That man has been controlling us for way too long, and look where we’re at?”

“Wasn’t it just good when it was just the two of us?”

Dario felt sorry towards his uncle and wished for nothing more to give him a happy life. He felt terrible for dragging his uncle into this, but he had no choice. “What about mom’s dream?” Dario wondered as he thought back to his mother’s last words.

Take back what was supposed to be yours and punish them for your father’s death.

“You promised her to get revenge for your father’s death, and he turned out to be alive, so all of that is not necessary anymore!” Mauro lost his patience. “Your dad is taking it too far, and I can’t take this anymore, so please!” He pleaded.

“Give Christian what he needs and let’s leave, just the two of us-you know just as good how much your dad has changed.”

“Changed how?” Christian wondered. He could sense there was no way to get through Dario himself, but maybe his uncle could. Mauro walked towards Dario and placed his hand on his shoulder.

“It’s not about giving you what you deserve anymore. He made it all about himself and has been hurting. many others in the process-you know that.”

“Uncle Mauro.” Dario sighed. “Don’t make this hard for me.”

“You’re making it hard for yourself. Your cousin came here in peace. Listen to him.”

“Uncle,” Dario muttered. He took a deep breath and looked from Christian to Mauro. Initially, he had no plans to betray his dad, but his uncle had a good point. Berto Lamberti had changed, and his intentions. were not the same anymore. All Dario wanted was to matter to the Lamberti’s. He never wanted anyone to get hurt.

“Listen, you don’t want to hurt your dad, and I don’t want to hurt my uncle. We want the same thing.”

Christian spoke. “And I’m sorry for what I did to you all those years ago. I was immature, stupid-

selfish, but I won’t make the same mistake anymore.”

“What do you mean?” Dario asked, confused. “It means I’ll help you get the respect you deserve. All you have to do is tell me what he’s up to so we can stop him together.”

“Dario, listen to him.” Mauro jumped in. Christian prepared himself to feel weak after apologizing, bur that was not the case. He genuinely felt bad for him and could see that Dario had no one else to turn to All he relied on were Berto false promises.

“And if I do help you, how do I know you won’t hurt my dad?” Dario asked. “I can’t lose him too.”

Christian finally had the feeling Dario was slowly coming around and did not want to ruin this opportunity.

“Dario, i haven’t even told anyone about him and I’m keeping this smaller than this has to be-

because I have no desire to get rid of my uncle, but I’ll do whatever necessary to defend my family,”

Christian told him.

“I know you care about Serena, and so do I, and I know he told you he wouldn’t hurt her, but he hurt his own nephew. Do you really think he cares about her?”

Dario thought about Serena and just the thought of her getting hurt was enough for him to reconsider his decision.

“I’ll help you and tell you everything I know,” Dario spoke as he took a deep breath. If there was one thing he didn’t want, it was for Serena to get hurt. “Just promise me one thing.”

“Anything!” Christian spoke, surprised. “Tell me what you want.”

“I need you to promise me that you’ll protect my uncle.” Dario requested. “Don’t worry about me,”

Mauro. chuckled, but Dario shook his head.

“Don’t listen to him. I need you to protect him, I’m willing to help you and I’m willing to tell you everything, but all of you have no idea who you’re dealing with.” Dario explained. “He won’t just sit back and do nothing if he finds out about this.”

“Deal.” Christian spoke. “I’ll make sure your uncle gets all the protection he needs. All you have to do is tell me everything you know.”

Dario let out a relieved breath and pulled out a chair. “In that case, you better make yourself comfortable.” He told Christian.

“Because there’s a lot we have to discuss.”

“It all started several years ago.” Dario started. “After my mom’s funeral, I saw this man with this mask stalking me, and I told my uncle about it.”

“Turns out that man was my dad.” He continued. Christian observed the slight smile on his face and figured Dario must’ve been happy to see his dad was still alive.

“He told me he had been hiding out because his own father tried to kill him-”

“That’s not true,” Christian spoke. “Whatever he told you is not true, our grandpa is a lot of things, but he would never kill his own son. Do you know how much he cried for your dad?”

“Maybe you should let me finish,” Dario scoffed. Christian listened to Dario and kept his mouth shut to listen to the rest of the story. “He told me that there was an explosion and that he gave his life to safe Lucio, but no one returned for him-”

“Because my dad was the heir to the family business, and he was close to dying.” Christian spoke.

“He chose to save his brother. That was his own decision.”

“I’ve heard otherwise.” Dario doubted his words. “My dad told me that your grandpa left him there on purpose-he told me that he looked him in the eye while he reached out for his hand and walked away Christian got light-headed as flashbacks about Vince went through his head. Christian had a good reason for deciding to save his brother instead, so he was pretty sure his grandfather also had a good reason. Especially after seeing what kind of person his uncle turned out to be.

“Dario, tell him everything.” Mauro invited himself into the conversation. “You have to tell him.

everything.”

Dario took a deep breath and looked into Christian’s eyes as he slowly took in his uncle’s words. If he was going to be on Christian’s side, he had to tell him everything. “My mom…convinced him to ‘borrow’ money from the family, but your grandpa found out and made him choose between her and the family…he chose the family.”

“Yes, and he lost his position and got forced into an arranged marriage-1 know that.” Christian shrugged. “That’s old news.”

“No, that’s not it.” Dario sighed. “There’s much more to the story.”

“He persuaded me to follow his orders and made us the face of the Orlando’s,” Dario explained.

“But everything belongs to him, including all of the men. I was just the face, and that’s it-”

“How did he get them to follow his orders?” Christian questioned. He knew his uncle must’ve meant business if the man could control people from afar behind a mask.

“I already told you, he’s not a match for you.” Dario sighed. “Do you know how many minutes it took for him to recruit Luca?”

“One,” Dario spoke. “It took one minute, and he’s not the only one who is jumping at an opportunity to betray you.”

“Yes, I know,” Christian chuckled. “Fortunately, Johnny is not like Luca, and he would never ever betray me, but uncle Berto knew that, so he never involved him in any plans. Right?” He asked as Dario nodded