Chapter 216

The room was silent as a grave as we all stared at each other. Beau glared at Johnny while Johnny looked at Luke, Carmen, and his younger cousin, Kenzo—while I couldn’t take my eyes off Dario.

I knew he had to be there for the conversation, considering any feud within the family business also involved him nowadays, but it was still difficult to be in the same room as him.

It was hard enough, pretending to be happy while I felt miserable. I felt broken, but I would not allow myself to show it. How could I sulk about Dario? Where would that leave Christian and Siena?

“So.” Christian cleared his throat. “First of all, Kenny—I would like to thank you for going against our evil uncle to protect the family business,” Christian told Kenzo. “We still failed...but that’s not important right now.”

Seeing Christian talk to three teenagers was extremely uncomfortable and obviously, something he wasn’t very good at as he wasn’t very compassionate. “It’s no problem. I was glad to help.” Kenzo smiled while he stared at Carmen.

I could see right through him and could smell his fear from here, but the poor boy was trying to hide his feelings for a girl who couldn’t care less. Carmen sat with her head glued to the floor and seemed close to walking out. It was mainly because of Johnny, and I could not blame her for being traumatized. It’s not every day someone who is supposed to protect you is willing to sacrifice your life for their benefit.

“Look, I think we can all agree that a lot has happened, and most of it shouldn’t even have happened—and...”

Christian frowned his eyebrows at me while I gave him an encouraging nod. “I want to say that I’m sorry for failing you, every single one of you, and I take full responsibility for everything that happened—and it won’t happen again.” He apologized. “I’m sorry, and now that I’ve apologized...I hope we can all move on?”

It was silent for a second before Beau scoffed at Christian’s apology. “I want you to look at Carmen, and I want you to think about your apology. Is that the best you can do?”

“Beau, please.” I pleaded, but Christian stuck out his hand to stop me. “No, let him continue. I’m listening.”

Beau took a deep breath. “I already said everything I needed to say.” He spoke. “I’ll stand behind you because of Serena and Siena—but that’s it.”

“Very well then,” Christian spoke, annoyed, and turned around to face Johnny. “Johnny come on, you know what you have to do.”

“No, no, no,” Johnny repeated with a surprised look on his face. “I’m not going to apologize for doing my job—I won’t,” Johnny stated.

“I brought Luca to my dad, so we could get them together and get rid of them, and when you weren’t working along—I got so angry that I couldn’t think clearly, and I would’ve done it again...for the family.” Johnny spoke without a single stutter.

I felt shocked and disgusted with his choice of words, but I knew my expectations were too high.

Yes, Johnny had always been nice—but he was still a Lamberti. He wasn’t even close to being a saint, and we all shared different views from each other. Even though his family was messed up—

he was actually willing to kill his dad and Luca.

My eyes moved from Beau’s clenched fist to Carmen, who was shaking, while Luke and Kenzo tried calming her down.

“So you just won’t admit to your mistakes?” I spoke for the first time, after seeing the devastated look on my sister’s face. “Are you really that selfish?”

Johnny seemed regretful as he shook his head. “I’m sorry, Serena, I tried to keep them safe, and I told Christian to cancel the party—but he didn’t listen—“

“So my siblings should pay because he didn’t listen to you?” I finished his sentence. I had expected Christian to jump in, but he didn’t utter a word. It brought me back to when Cesca and Gio talked crap about me while Lucio didn’t have the guts to stop them. If this was his way of leading a family business, then maybe he wasn’t supposed to be leading one.

“Christian, say something,” I whispered as I slightly nudged his shoulder. “You said he owed them an apology!”

Christian seemed uncomfortable, and it was probably because he was in the middle of all of this. “I —“ He sighed with a hopeless expression on his face. “I—“

“Yes?” I furrowed my brow. He most likely didn’t expect it to go like this. He probably thought we would all hug it out and move on, but it was so much bigger than that.

“Look, Serena.” Johnny stepped forward. “My job is to protect Christian, no matter what—and nothing will get in the way of it. Not even these little brats—“

“That’s it, one more word, and I’ll kill you!” Beau snapped as he lunged forward. This time Christian took action almost immediately and rushed in front of Beau to stop him.

It was a good thing we went to a separate room, and it was a good thing I decided to leave Siena with my parents, as all we could hear were the two yelling back and forth at one other. I looked back at Dario to see if he would interfere, but he leaned against the wall with an unimpressed look on his face.

“Aren’t you not going to do anything?” I managed to call out Dario. Whether I wanted to talk to him or not, this was going too far and it had to stop. Dario stretched out his arms and took an exhausted breath.

“Everyone, shut up!” He yelled out of nowhere. We all froze up and stared at him as it was unusual for him to lose his temper. Even when he had called me out for my desperate behavior, he did not yell at me like that.

“You know, I’m looking at all of you, and all I can think of is, where the hell did I get myself into?”

Dario paced through the room. “Are you guys serious? Do you guys think this is some after-school club or something?” He spoke in disbelief.

I felt terrible for Christian because Dario was correct. Ever since Lucio had fallen ill, there was no unity, and Christian was partly to blame. He was supposed to lead them but clearly wasn’t himself and all he cared about were his cousin’s feelings—because he did not want to hurt him.

I told him that the only reason his family could walk over him was because he let them, and he listened to me and told me I was right—so why was he holding himself back? He surprisingly took a step back and let Dario handle the situation.

“Johnny.” Dario began. “This has been going on for long enough—but I’m not Christian, and I won’t let you disrespect the Alfonzo’s, so apologize.” He demanded before he turned to Christian. “I’m sorry, no disrespect.”

“No...none taken, do your thing,” Christian encouraged him. It almost seemed as if he felt at ease with the idea of not having to do anything.

Johnny, as stubborn as ever, shook his head.

“No, I won’t.”

“Apologize, or I’ll make you apologize,” Dario spoke in a threatening tone. I didn’t know whether it was because he held an actual position, but he seemed different. He seemed more serious and determined.

I supposed Johnny could see it as well because this time he turned around to face Kenzo and the twins and didn’t hesitate. “I’m sorry,” Johnny said. “If you really knew me, you would’ve known that I wasn’t actually going to do anything.”

“And you!” Dario looked at Beau. “I understand that you’re angry and hurt—but you need to learn to get over things. I don’t know what they did to you at the Garcia’s, but it’s time for you to lose that mentality.”

Beau seemed shocked. “I need to get over things?”

“Yes, you need to get over things.” Dario nodded.“What Johnny did was wrong, but you would’ve done the same if you were in his position—and don’t tell me you wouldn’t because we both know how far you’re willing to go to protect Serena.”

Beau lowered his head, unable to say anything—because Dario had a point. The harsh truth was that any of us would’ve done the same thing. “I won’t forgive him,” Beau whispered. “I won’t.”

“I’m not telling you to forgive him. I’m telling you to keep it together.” Dario stated. It was not a request, but an order—but it somehow seemed to be working.

“Listen!” Dario continued. “After we’ve caught my dad—you can all slaughter each other for all I care—but we’re not going to beat him like this, and I won’t let any of you cause Christian any more stress.”

Everyone looked at Christian to see if he had anything to add, while he seems impressed with Dario. “I agree.” He spoke. “I mean, all of you are giving me a hard time.”

All of you?

“You see!” Dario pointed out. “He has a baby and a fiancée to take care of, his father is dying, he has to lead a business, he has to deal with my uncle—and now you’re letting him deal with this?”

“No, of course not,” Johnny mumbled.

“Do you really care about your cousin as you claim you do, or do you just want him to jump off a bridge right now?”

“Bridge?” Johnny spoke flustered. “No, I don’t.”

“That’s what I thought because we all want the same thing, right?” Dario looked at everyone, only to get no answer in return. “Right?” He repeated himself. The way he spoke to them as if they were little children was embarrassing, but perhaps a good strategy.

“Mistakes were made and what happened is unfortunate—but I swear to god.” Dario sighed.

“You will not ruin this business, and you will not ruin uncle Lucio’s day. I won’t let you do that—I won’t!”

Dario’s outburst seemed to be working, and he somehow managed to grab everyone’s attention.

“So when we go out there, we will forget about all of this, and you will all grow the hell up and put a fucking smile on your face and take the damn picture for Lucio, okay?”

Dario waited for Beau and Johnny to give him an answer, but all the two could do was glare at each other.

Dario chuckled. “Why don’t I hear anything? Christian, did you hear anything?”

“I didn’t hear anything.” Christian shrugged as he stood next to Dario. Both of them looked at each other before they looked at Beau and Johnny.

“Okay, I hear you,” Beau spoke. Johnny cleared his throat. “Yes, okay.”

The two shot each other one last glare before storming off, and that enough prove that this was far from being finished. Knowing my brother, he would take his revenge one way or another—but at least not for now.

“And you three!” Dario addressed Carmen, Luke, and Kenzo. The three widened their eyes in surprise. “W-we?” Kenzo spoke.

Dario forced the three to stand up and wrapped his arm around their shoulders. “Yes, let’s take a walk.” He spoke. “We need to have a talk.”

Christian and I were the only ones left behind in the room. “Are you okay?” I asked as I slowly rubbed his back. “Yes, fine.” Christian smiled. “I just thought that he was supposed to be the nice one.”

“So did I.”

“He’s really good at this, isn’t he?” Christian commented. Dario was good at his job, but just like Dario had changed—Christian had also changed, and I would be lying if I said it didn’t bother me.

Yes, I wanted him to be more kind—but not like this.

“Why didn’t you speak up?” I addressed the situation. Christian chuckled and cupped my cheek with his hand as he stared into my eyes.

“You mean why I’m weak?” Christian frowned his brow with a smirk on his face.

“Well...yes?” I admitted. I would’ve never had the nerve to say it out loud, but he did it for me.

“I’m not weak, Serena,” Christian told me.

“I’m just simply recharging my energy for when we need it the most.”

“Wait, what does that mean?” I asked suspiciously. He wasn’t going to do anything crazy, right?

Christian planted his lips against my forehead. “It means you don’t have to worry about me.”

“Come on, Luca should be here soon.”