Chapter 174

“Serena.”

I yawned and slowly opened my eyes, only to find myself in bed. “What, how did I ended up here?” I asked, exhausted.

“Oh my god, Siena!” I suddenly called out as I sat up straight, Christian pulled me back and laughed at me while I wondered what I had been doing for the entire night instead of taking care of the baby.

“Siena is fine, crazy.”

“Huh?”

“You fell asleep yesterday, remember?” Christian freshened up my memories. I sat still for a moment so I could come to my senses. “You drank a lot, so I had to carry you upstairs and take care of you, like always” “Oh yeah, that’s right,” I spoke, embarrassed as some flashbacks from last night went through my head.

“Yes, and you were very heavy” Christian smirked. I gasped in surprise and hit his chest as i denied his accusations. “No, I’m not!” I told him. “Stop lying!”

Couldn’t he be nice for once?

Christian let out a laugh and protected himself before he held down my hands. “You need to get ready. He smiled.

I reached for my phone and laughed at Christian’s silliness. “It’s five in the morning. Please tell me you’re kidding?”

“No? I’m serious,” Christian told me as if I was crazy. I took a good look at him and noticed how he was fully dressed. It was crazy how early he got up, but that was typically Christian. The only annoying thing was that he expected me to do the same.

“I think it’s better to tell your grandpa everything when Dario gets there, right?” I tried convincing him, but all he did was roll his eyes. “He wanted me to be there early, so I should at least be there to calm him down, right?”

“Y-yes, yes, sorry.” I apologized. It was a bit selfish on my part, and I was the one who told him I wanted to be more involved.

“You go and get ready. I have some…stuff to take care of Christian gulped. He was about to leave, but I held his wrist and gave him a hopeless look. “Please don’t tell me you’re checking up on her again.”

Christian closed his eyes and let out an annoyed breath while he released his wrist from my grip.

“Serena, we already had this conversation. I’m responsible for her, so I won’t abandon her until I know she’s okay.”

“I’ve had it with you and your unlogical ways.” I scoffed, annoyed. “Enzo can walk again, so can Gina. He’s even going outside nowadays-so can Gina!” I snapped at him. “She can walk from the bathroom to the -bed, so she can walk from the room to a fucking taxi and go home!”

“Yes, I don’t have time for this.” Christian sighed as he walked towards the door. “Hello?” I called out. “So you’re just going to ignore me again?”

I grabbed the first thing I could find and threw a plastic bottle at his head, but he was already out the door before it could hit him. The two of us getting along was just for a little while. “Asshole,”

My angry thoughts got interrupted by the sound of my phone, and I grew a big smile on my lips as I read Dario’s name and a good-morning text. At least someone was willing to talk to me.

My hands moved towards his number, and I was hesitating whether to call him or not, but I could not stop myself and ended up dialing him anyway.

“Serena?” Dario spoke, surprised. “You left me hanging yesterday, so I’m surprised to hear from you.”

My cheeks were flushed as I thought about his message from yesterday. Was that heart emoji necessary? He didn’t even address it, so perhaps it was a friendly heart after all.

“I’m sorry, a lot of stuff happened after I left.” I sighed. “Long story short, Christian did what you told me he would do, and he saw your dad,” I explained. “So did your grandpa.”

“Franco saw my dad?”

“Yes,” I confirmed. Apparently, he even fainted and even I feel bad for him.”

Dario let out a laugh before I was hit with complete silence. “Dario?” I called out his name. “Yes, I’m sorry.” He apologized. “I’m just so nervous. I haven’t closed a single eye.”

It was to be expected. The Lamberti’s obviously traumatized him the same way they had done to me, so I knew perfectly well how he felt. The only difference was that I had Christian to protect me back then, but things had changed. In case anything were to happen, Christian would be there to protect him.

“Don’t be nervous. Franco and Lucio are really excited to meet you-and the Lamberti’s are okay.” I reassured him. “You’re funny, handsome, charming, and kind-so just be yourself, and you’ll be fine.”

1 slammed my hand in front of my mouth at the sudden compliments and mentally smacked myself while Dario’s laughed. “You clearly have a lot to say about me.”

I could almost feel his smirk through the phone and wondered if he even knew what he was doing.

Was it even his intention, or was he just a natural flirt?

“Dario, I have a question for you,” I spoke. He was a good friend and someone I liked listening to, so maybe he could give me some advice about Gina.

“Gina has been staying at our house because Christian claims he doesn’t want her to be traumatized, but she seems alright to me!” I told him. “She can walk, she can eat-I even heard the bitch laugh-

“She went through a lot, Serena.” Dario interrupted me. “He’s right. Stuff like that can be traumatizing. I’m sure he has his reasons for wanting to protect her.”

It felt as if my heart had shattered into pieces as I expected for Dario to at least get my point, but it seemed like even he was unable to understand me.

“But she shouldn’t be there.” He spoke to my surprise. My eyes widened as I took in Dario’s words.

“I’m sure Christian can find her some professional help and send her back home. There’s no reason for her to be there.”

“Right!” agreed. “That’s what I told him!”

“So what do I do?”

“That’s easy.” Dario chuckled. “You grab her by her hair and tell her to leave by herself or you throw her out!” He advised me. “She has some nerve for even cracking a smile in that house after what she’s done!”

“Right!” I smiled to myself. At least there was one person who got me. Dario was right, I had to deal with the situation myself, and I didn’t need Christian’s permission to do that. This was also my house, but surprisingly enough, he made the rules on his own and expected me to be okay with it.

What was the point of wanting me back if he was going to fall into his old routine and keep doing whatever Christian felt like doing?

“Dario, I know exactly what to do now-thank you.” I smiled while he laughed at my enthusiasm.

“Serena, you should go and get some more sleep-it’s not good to be up this early.” Dario sighed.

“How are you going to take care of a baby if you’re not even fully awake yourself?”

Those were my exact thoughts.

“I want you to tell that to Christian.” I rolled my eyes. Taking care of Siena wasn’t easy, and even though Carmen was here, Siena wasn’t her daughter. She was my daughter.

Christian was a great dad and had no issue waking up in the middle of the night to take care of Siena, but waking up early had always been part of his daily life.

“Serena, I don’t want to get on my cousin’s bad side.” Dario laughed. “He’s surprisingly nice, and I wouldn’t want to risk that.”

“Aren’t you risking it right now?” I asked in a teasing tone. I mean, you’re talking to me, so.”

“Yes, we’re just having a friendly conversation.” Dario spoke. And you’re the one who called me, so.”

My head turned towards the mirror so I could take a look at the blush on my face. He wasn’t wrong.

I was the one who called him. “Listen, I have to go, and I’ll see you later, okay?” I spoke in a desperate attempt to end the conversation.

“That’s okay, I’ll see you later, Serena.” Dario laughed as if he could see right through the phone.

My tone was enough for anyone to notice how flustered I was.

“Okay, bye.” I spoke in a hurry and ended the phone call.

I took another look in the mirror and let out a surprised gasp. “Why am I blushing?” I whispered, surprised.

I took a shower and did my makeup in the hopes of killing some time. I was ready to get out of the house and didn’t want to deal with Christian’s mood swings. He would at least treat me like he loved me whenever there were other people around.

I felt embarrassed as I looked at the final result of my dress-up party and wondered who I was doing it all for. Dress, heels, makeup, and curled hair, for what?

My heart almost dropped when I walked out of the closet and saw Christian sitting on the bed with Siena in his hands. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to acknowledge him or not, so I rolled my eyes instead and let out a scoff.

Christian heard me and placed Siena on the bed before making his way over to me. “Serena, I don’t want to argue with you.” I mimicked his usual tone and waited for him to say something, but this time that was not what he said.

“Not this time, Serena.” He spoke with a severe look on his face. “You told me to be honest and to tell you whenever you’re taking it too far, so here I am.” He spoke, sarcastic, “Whenever I lose control and yell at you, you tell me to stop it-but whenever you yell at me, you just keep on going and expect me to accept it,” Christian spoke. “I’ve never thrown a bottle or anything else at you-”

“Wait, hold up.” I laughed out loud. He couldn’t be serious. “Let’s go back because I don’t think I heard you correctly. I am taking it too far?”

“Yes,”

“No, Christian!” I spoke angrily. “You are taking it too far!”

“I agree. I shouldn’t have thrown the bottle at you, and I do lose my cool sometimes, but what do you expect me to do when you have her in the house?”

Christian turned his head to look at Siena and took a deep breath. “Serena, please, let’s not make this any more difficult than it has to be.”

“Why are you with me?” I asked as also my eyes moved to Siena. She was in her own little world and played with her hands and feet without even noticing something was wrong. As far as she was concerned, we were a perfect little family-just like Christian wanted. If he was with me because of fear of me taking away Siena, then he could forget about it.

Don’t cry, Don’t cry.

Those were the only words going through my head, but I couldn’t help myself and did nothing to stop tears from leaving my eyes.

the “I’m with you because I love you!” Christian spoke. He stepped forward and moved his hand to my cheek while he looked me in the eye. “I’m with you because I love you, not because of a baby-but because I want to make this work, and I want to be with you.”

“You don’t love me as much as I love you,” I whispered as a tear rolled down my cheek. I had one simple request for him and that was to stay away from Gina, but even that was too much. Christian wiped away my tear and shook his head, denying my accusation.

“That’s not true. You know that’s not tru He defended himself. “Do you really think I was prepared to leave my entire family to be with someone I don’t love?”

Good point. Christian loved his family, and he was willing to leave them just to be with me, but it didn’t change a lot. I loved him more than he loved me, and that was a fact.

“Then why won’t you listen to me?” I cried. “I know that you’re in pain, but can’t you see that I’m also in pain?”

“Can’t you see I’m suffocating?” I asked, broken. It was beyond me how he was able to see through everyone’s pain but mine. Did I not matter?

“But my dad-”

“No, stop it.” I sighed, defeated. If it wasn’t Gina, it was Lucio, and I was slowly getting sick of it.

What about my feelings?

“Enough about your dad. I know he’s dying, but there are also other people dying-not everything is about him.” I spoke in a calm tone. I didn’t want to anger him, but I was sick of living in a lie, and it was time to stick up for myself.

“You don’t have to do everything to please him, just because he’s dying.”

“W-what?” Christian stuttered. He released his hand from my cheek and took a few steps back while he looked at me as if my words weren’t the harsh truth.

Christian was speechless and froze up while he was waiting for me to apologize-but I was not in the wrong, so it wasn’t going to happen. “You’re scary.” He suddenly spoke up and glared at me. “You can talk trash about me all you want, but I won’t let you disrespect my father.”

“Very well then,” I shrugged. He clearly wasn’t going to do anything about Gina, but I would. I had enough.

Christian was shocked by my answer and unsure what to do as I made my way to the door. If he knew the real Serena, he also knew that I wouldn’t let it rest.

I turned my head one last time and stared into Christian’s eyes, wishing he would beg for my forgiveness, but it didn’t seem as if that was going to happen.