Chapter 177

Dario opened up about his childhood and, of course, let out the part about Berto because of Lucio’s presence.

He shared everything about his mother, whose family abandoned her because they thought she was crazy, how she raised him all by himself and how Mauro dropped his entire life to take care of Dario because no one else wanted to.

Throughout the entire story, Franco had a guilty look on his face, and I could tell that he was embarrassed by his actions. “Words will not be enough to apologize, but I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me,” Franco spoke.

Dario placed his hand on top of Franco’s and gave him a nod. “I know my mom…could be a bit much, and I know you did whatever you thought was necessary, but I want you to know that I’m nothing like my mom.” Dario suddenly spoke.

It seemed like his uncle finally had a good talk with him and told him the truth about his mom, who was so hungry for power. “I miss her a lot, and she’s still my mother-but I understand now.” Dario smiled while he looked at Franco and Lucio. “And I forgive you, all of you.”

“And you.” Dario chuckled. Christian looked up with a concerned look in his eyes and anticipated Dario’s words. “I’m sorry for everything.” Dario apologized.

“I’m sorry for getting under your skin, provoking you, trying to ruin this family…my family,” Dario spoke. “It’s still so much to get used to.”

“It’s okay, don’t worry about it.” Christian showed him a smile. He seemed sincere, but the idea of him being kind to Dario was strange and even scary. “And you,” Dario smiled at me.

Don’t blush, don’t blush.

I held in my breath and prayed he wouldn’t say anything stupid, which would make me fall from my chair. “I want you to know that I never used you, and I genuinely consider you to be my good friend.

I like working with you, and I hope we can continue to work together…but under the Lamberti name this time.” Dario spoke. I was not too fond of everyone’s eyes staring at me, so I lowered my gaze and nodded my head while I wished for him to end the conversation.

“I’m sorry about…everything.” He spoke one more time. I knew what he meant by that and had a feeling he was talking about pushing Christian to swear at my family, telling me about Gina, spreading the video, trying to sabotage Beau, and so much more.

“It’s okay,” I spoke as I finally found the courage to look into his eyes. “I forgive you,”

“That’s good.” Dario smiled. It was time for him to break eye-contact, but he didn’t. “Of course, the two of you should work under the Lamberti name. You are both family!” Lucio luckily interrupted us.

He spoke a bit too loudly and let out several coughs. Christian immediately jumped up and stood by his -side to give him water while everyone else was full of worries. “That’s enough, dad. You need to rest before everyone gets here-come on!”

“I’m fine. It’s nothing!” Lucio laughed. Lucio was so good at putting up a front that it was hard to believe sometimes that this man only had weeks left. He wasn’t thinking about himself, but he was always thinking about others.

“Uncle.” Dario smiled. He stepped closer and grabbed both of his hands. “I would really appreciate it if you’d take a nap…for me?”

“Sure.” Lucio suddenly agreed. “If you want me to take a nap, I’ll take a nap!” He laughed.

Christian gave Dario a grateful smile while Mauro cleared his throat as he stepped closer. “I’ll take him,” He smiled. Lucio let out an impressed laugh and leaned back in his wheelchair. “Sure, why not!”

“I’ll be back later!” Lucio called out as Mauro pushed him out of the room. “I don’t know where he got the energy from.” Dario chuckled. Franco gave him a warm smile and stood up to give him another hug. “From you, of course, he’s not even like that with Christian.”

I was surprised by Franco’s choice of words and turned my head to look at Christian, but he did not react. He was either not jealous or just was doing a pretty good job in hiding it.

“So now that it’s just us, it’s time to tell you the full truth, grandpa.” Christian finally spoke, while Franco already prepared himself and moved over to his chair to hear the story.

Dario went through everything and told him how Berto had been the one pulling strings, while Franco every bit of couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Not my Berto.” He gasped, surprised, and just like that, hope he had left to reunite with his son had shattered.

“Enzo, you also went through a lot.” Franco sighed. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t be here for you.”

“That’s okay.” Enzo chuckled. “I’m alive, and I feel fine “And what about the girl?” Franco asked Christian. “Something like that could traumatize her. We want her doing anything crazy, so you should keep her in check while you still can.”

“I am,” Christian answered. I felt uncomfortable just by thinking about her and felt even worse knowin kicked her out, but I wouldn’t allow her to be there for another day.

“Christian took excellent care of her, but she’s leaving today.” Enzo suddenly spoke. I felt my heart stop for a split second and watched as Christian gave him a surprised look. “Is she? We hadn’t discussed that.”

He knew, Enzo knew, Of course, he knew, he heard me yell and so did the nurses.

“Yes, she told me that she needed a break. A vacation.” Enzo shrugged and gave me a wink. It was nice of him to do that, and I would play along with his game, but the thing was that I didn’t care whether Christian would find out or not.

Yes, keeping it a secret would’ve probably been for the best, considering all the shit we had to deal with- but I wasn’t embarrassed, and my actions were justified.

“Oh well.” Christian spoke. “I don’t think she was in any state to leave-”

“There’s another thing we have to discuss.” I reminded Christian. Gina was old news and Berto would not touch my daughter’s money. Over my dead body. “Yes, grandpa.” Christian began.

“Siena’s money-you have to tell us where it is,” Christian spoke. Franco’s eyes got big as he stared at all of us with a startled look on his face. “W-why?” Franco asked.

Christian took a deep breath before he grabbed Franco’s hand to give him the news. “The money uncle Berto is after…it’s Siena’s, and as her dad, I really can’t allow that.”

Exactly, we were her parents, and we couldn’t allow that.

“He’s been asking everyone questions about the warehouse, and I know that’s where you’ve been keeping the money.”

Franco let out a sigh before he placed his hand on his heart and closed his eyes. “He’s after the money?” Franco breathed. “So you mean to tell me that after all these years…he’s still after the money?”

Dario made his way towards Franco and placed his hand on his back to calm him down. “Grandpa, breathe.”

Franco looked up after hearing the words, grandpa, and held Dario’s hands. “What is he planning on doing with the money? Tell me!” He desperately asked.

“He’s going to expand his empire and remove this family business from existence,” Dario told him.

“The first instruction he gave me when we got here was to drive all of you crazy-so he could look for the money, and he succeeded.” Dario shared. “He didn’t tell me much about it, but all I know is that it’s in the warehouse.”

“It is!” Franco spoke. “It is at the warehouse, but I have no idea where-”

“I know, grandpa, we’ve figured. I know you’ve been looking for it, but you must have an idea of where it is, right?” Christian asked. Franco shook his head and seemed stressed just by thinking about it..

“It’s not the money we’re looking for. It’s the key!” Franco suddenly spoke. He reached to grab something from his pocket and pulled out a picture. “Wow, grandpa, you’re prepared!” Enzo laughed.

Franco placed the picture down on the table while everyone made their way around it. “I know exactly where the money is. The money is right here!” Franco pointed out. Our eyes moved towards a picture. with the exact location of the club I used to work at.

“So it’s been there all this time?” Enzo Co. ed. “Why do I suddenly feel stupid?”

“How do we get to it?” Christian asked. “How do we get to the money?”

“I told you,” Franco sighed, exhausted. “With the key. The key is in the warehouse-but I have no idea where.” He explained. “But my late friend who hid it for me was a reasonable man, so it can’t be far. He hid it somewhere, but if I could only find out where-

“Okay, well-we all need to double our efforts because uncle Berto will blow up the fucking place.

Both the warehouse and the club.” Christian spoke, irritated. The idea of it pissed him off, and I understood his feelings. The people working there were all people with families and their lives were also in danger.

We got interrupted by a knock on the door, and Franco quickly hid the pictures. “Sir!” A man spoke as he popped his head through the door. “The guests are starting to arrive!”

“That’s great!” Franco spoke. He slammed his arm around Dario’s shoulder and pulled him closer.

“Come on. It’s time to introduce my grandson!”

Dario looked back and gave me a bright smile as Franco pulled him out of the room while Enzo followed them. My attention turned to Christian, who was obviously not in the mood. “Are you okay?” I asked and stroke my hand up and down his arm.

“I don’t know.” Christian sighed. “The key makes everything so much more difficult.”

I let out a relieved breath and gave him a reassuring smile. As long as Dario wasn’t the problem. I could take it.

1 brought my hand to his cheek, forcing him to look me in the eye. “We’ll get through it, and we’ll find it together. We always do.” I reassured him. “Today is supposed to be a happy day-so please, smile!” I told Christian.

He rolled his eyes and stared at me, but his frown quickly changed into a bright smile. “You’re annoying. do you know that?” Christian laughed. I felt blessed to see him smile and leaned my head against his chest.

“Don’t do that. I don’t like it when you call me annoying.” I told him. I knew he wasn’t serious, but I felt as if I was being annoying at the times, so it wasn’t exactly helping. Christian let out a laugh and planted a kiss on my forehead.

“It’s like your head is getting bigger by the day.” He teased me. Yes, it wasn’t very kind-but him making this comment meant he was in a good mood again, so I was willing to give it a pass.

“Won’t you look at that!” Christian pointed out. I turned around and looked through the glass door, so I could see what he was talking about. Dario got hugged from left and right by the Lamberti’s, and they seemed to accept him with open arms. “He deserves it. He’s been through a lot,” I smiled.

Dario was attractive, but seeing him in a good mood made me gush even more. He turned his head to look at us and showed us a satisfied smile before he turned back around.

“Cute.” I chuckled but could almost disappear when I realized I made this comment in front of Christian. What was wrong with me?

“Should I see Dario as a threat?” He suddenly asked. I turned around to look at him and wrapped my arms around his neck. “You don’t have to worry about anything. I love you.”

“You sure?” Christian smiled, relieved. He brushed my hair to the side and looked into my eyes as if he was waiting for me to tell him that it was all a joke. “I love you, and I only love you,” I reassured him.

“And I love you, Siena, and our future babies,” Christian spoke with a teasing smirk on his face.

Future babies?

“Your uncle is trying to destroy you, and you’re thinking about more babies…now?” I frowned. “You just won’t drop the subject, will you?”

I had a slight change of mind, so it wasn’t as if I didn’t want to have more children-but it just wouldn’t be ideal at the moment. “It’s going to be the Fabio situation all over again…we can’t have more children now.”

Christian let out a laugh and pulled me into a tight embrace. “I was just kidding, don’t worry about it.”

“There are much worse things to worry about,” Christian changed the tone in his voice. I released myself from his embrace and turned around to see what he was talking about, and he was right.

There were more important things for us to worry about.

Starting with Luca, who was glaring at us as if we were the problem.