Blazing tales

"There is no friend as loyal as a book."

-Ernest Hemingway.

"I will tell you a secret. Old storytellers never die. They disappear into their own story."

-Vera Nazarian.

"No story lives unless someone wants to listen. The stories we love best do live in us forever. So whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home."

-J.K Rowling.

Get a tissue paper and your mug of coffee and red velvet cake as we dive into the story.

Kindly vote and comment, thanks.

This chapter will be dedicated to Wattpad asamaoh oa_judith Agathi_bw BlackPearl_4044

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Dinner was fun and like a family reunion as Mrs Bailey joined us on the table discussing how she misses painting her cat's claws and knitting her little jersey during free time.

Mom shared her business details with us. How she has completed another latest design that is a hot cake in the market. The demands are now more than the supplies, so she mostly ends up so busy trying to make ends meet.

Father talked about how good the family business is expanding and how he can't wait to handover project worths billions of dollars as soon as I begin a college education.

We had Italian delicacies for dinner. Granny made sure we tasted her mouth-watering Caprese salad with pesto sauce, focaccia bread and pasta carbonara. This are native foods I haven't tasted in a long while. She also scolded us for not praying before eating and led the prayers.

Granny is highly spiritual and believes majority of the world problems is caused by the disobedience of Adam and Eve. Our first parents.

After dinner that lasted for an hour, mom gave the excuse of going to her room to complete a particular design on her laptop that she will be joining our story session in some minutes. Dad left to make some important calls and promised to be back in some minutes as well leaving just Granny and me in the living room.

We settled comfortably in a red love sofa right in front of the furnace that balanced the temperature of the room. The maids brought succulent red velvet cakes in small trays and steaming hot cappuccino coffee for us except dad, whose coffee was black coffee with no sugar.

I rubbed my palms together and took a long sip from my cup of coffee.

"I see you are excited about today's story." She smiled at me brightly revealing her semi brown teeth.

"Of course nonna, it been long we did something like this. I miss your interesting tales."

"Well, you shouldn't be that excited because I am going to be telling you about your family history." She let out an exasperated sigh.

For a moment, she looked weak, tired, stressed and old. Where is the active and ever-smiling grandma I know?

Her countenance changed as she hugged herself delicately. The sadness drained through her rather than skating over her skin.

"Grandma?" I called. "Is everything alright?" I queried with furrowed brows and touched her slumped shoulders.

"You are about to find out, Zucca." She nodded and warmed her palms near the fire before staring at me with a faraway look as she revived her deepest and darkest memories.

"I hale from the poorest background in Italy. My parents were stark illiterates and I had to combine menial jobs to sponsor myself in school." She started while I gasped in surprise. I never knew anyone in my family was ever poor. Forbes has declared us as one of the richest billionaires on the planet.

"I used to work in an Italian restaurant as a chef. I worked so hard there that the owner saw me as a family. Such a poor sweet man."

"A powerful ruthless business tycoon. Arnold Gray used to visit the restaurant every day just to eat pasta and drink coffee. He would sit alone by the glass side and make several calls all day and soon we became acquainted." She smiled, living in her memory once again.

"He loved my pasta and most especially my coffee and he never failed to leave heavy tips underneath his mug so I can pick it when I'm packing plates." She inclined her head and leaned back on her chair. Mom and dad walked in looking slightly unruffled as dad had a huge lipstick stain on his pyjamas.

They settled on the couch and ate from their cakes while cuddling.

"One day he stopped coming. A week went by when I longed to see him, he still didn't come. Two weeks passed by without his presence so I gave up on him." She nodded her head repeatedly and took the first sip from her coffee.

"I closed late from the restaurant one day and was attacked by robbers. I prayed to God to send an angel and he sent Arnold to me." She continued praising God.

"I was more than happy when he came. He told me he had sealed the deal he came to Italy for and will be returning to New York. He said he saw how diligent and hardworking I was and he wanted to take me along with him as his employee since he has become addicted to my coffee."

"The pay was huge, he gave me a scholarship. It was too great an opportunity to pass so I accepted it."

"When he was sad, my coffee healed him. When he was tired, my herbal tea soothed him, and when he was sick, my Italian made pasta and soup cured him."

"We became more than an employee and an employer. And later on, I discovered I had fallen head over heels in love with him."

"But the problem was that he was ruthless, a playboy, and loved changing women the way he changed his bedspread." She frowned.

"Then I had a lover that always came looking for me and Arnold chased him away in anger and that was when our love story began. he was a proud, arrogant, egoistic, wealthy, loving, caring, kind, serious-minded, goal-getter, foodie, handsome, playboy back then, the complete package." She said while a smile tugged at her lips.

"He was a Greek god, and no amount of description and do justice to his look. Perfezione!" She blushed.

"What did she say?" Mom nuzzled closer to dad and he whispered in her ears. "Perfection!"

"Should I talk about his flawless tanned skin, or do I describe his curly blonde locks. Do I explain his tall physique or should I start mentioning how beautiful and mesmerizing his electric blue eyes were? How about I tell you how well sculptured his jaws and pointed nose are? Would you like me to explain how his muscles glisten when he finishes showering? Perfezione!" She exclaimed while we all chuckled. The fire crackled.

"We got married after a year of dating and it was the most beautiful moment of our lives." She grinned like a kid.

"Well, your Grandpa is a quick baby-making machine and we had our first beautiful bouncing baby boy, Daniel." A gasp of shock came from me and mom. Granny was at the verge of tears and dad simply looked anywhere but us.

If dad has a brother, that means I have an uncle. But where exactly is the uncle?

"The joy of having my first child was inexplicable. I became the happiest person on earth and your Grandpa was the happiest father on earth."

"Three years later, we had your dad. Everett, the latest addition to Gray's family."

"I lost my parents on their way to visit us. In a plane crash." She added and sniffled as her face stretched in sorrow.

I shivered, bile rose in my mouth as I struggled so hard to swallow the bitter truth.

"I moved on after some months and decided to start up my own business. Abigail agro-industry." She continued.

"Arnold bought a land for me to start commercial farming and I started with cash crops." The furnace grew hotter as the fire rose higher.

"Business was good so I started selling to agro-based industries, I also exported pieces of cotton and my industry grew bigger. I decided to create employment for the negroes and used them as labour workers."

"Within a few years I became very wealthy and known, so I expanded my business by practising other branches of agriculture. Like horticulture, fishery, apiculture. I bought a zoo and started a wide life conservation and soon tourist began paying money to see the various species of wide animals."

"My business became the envy of many as I contributed a great deal to the Gray's fortune."

"My kids were equally flourishing in their academics. Daniel was already in high school as at then."

"So what happened next nonna?" I queried since she had all of us attention wrapped around her fingers like chocolates have nylons wrapped around them.

"The storm came. The real-life Halloween that scarred me for life and remained evergreen in my memory happened next." Steaming tears cleansed her red cheeks. Few droplets remained, forgetting their way as the path was swept from beneath them, Consequently blurring her vision with waves of sadness and displaying her broken encounter.

"A loud gunshot was heard and the worst happened. Our security alarm blared and our team of bodyguards rushed out to fight the invaders." The salty release calmly flowed into her mouth so that she could taste her sorrow.

"It was like a marvel scene as real war happened in our house taking the lives of the employees with them. They barricaded the house and gained entrance to the house. They carted away with all gold and jewellery accessories and also collected a sum of twenty million dollars."

"Wow! They should be sued." Mom blurted out, her hands flew to her mouth in shock.

"We had a lot of money indeed but the money aspect wasn't what truly hurt me." Grandma's eyes shifted between mom and me.

"Everett, though very courageous acted stupidly." She smiled and shut her eyes tightly as tears rained down her cheeks.

"He was used to watching action marvel movies so he held the leg of a robber and began punching. Though feebly, but it was the hardest hit he could deliver."

"I tried to pull Everett. Arnold whispered his name, I tugged at his shirt but he just didn't yield, he didn't budge." Her green eyes stared at father for a while before continuing her tale.

"The robber shoved Everett so hard on the floor that he began to bleed. Arnold was pissed and angry, blinded by rage he began a combat with the robber who later shot him twice in the head." She hiccupped and washed her sorrow with the mug of coffee.

It was too much to bear, I wiped my tears and pulled her in a hug. Mom joined the hug with her red puffed face as she pats nonna's back repeatedly.

"You can stop now, it's enough," Mom advised but grandma shook her head and continued.

"I watched in shock as my husband cold body lied on the floor and his electric blue eyes became instantly dulled." She narrated and wiped more tears.

"I went mad with rage. Anger bubbled like a larva in my system as I stared at the pillar of my life on the floor. At that point, life seemed useless and unworthy because I wanted to go after Arnold to look for him in the spiritual world." She scoffed.

"I held the robber's clothes and told him to shoot me as well. My children wailed heavily in the background as the world looked like a dark horoscope. A villain's lair. I needed to leave immediately because I felt my sanity slipping into thin air."

"I shouted and slapped the robber repeatedly. He shouted at me and pushed me to d ground next to my children." She smiled.

"I shut my eyes tightly as he pointed the gun at me. I was ready to embrace death in all its glory. The trigger was pulled and I waited for the pain to take me away."

"How many seconds does it take for one to feel to impact of a bullet. Seconds? Minutes? Because I waited that long and nothing came."

"I opened my eyes and saw Daniel as the victim of circumstance. He took the bullet for me." She sat there smiling, dominated by profound sadness, fatigue engraved on her worn face. She warmed her shivering hands against the crackling fire. The solemn walls reviving memories of the losses she has encountered.

"I will go to sleep now." She whispered and began taking little feeble steps up to her room.

No one said a thing. No one knew what to say. Silence engulfed the room as the fire blazed at the tale.

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~~~So I will just drink another cup of coffee and avoid sniffling too much~~~

~~~Well, I have been writing this chapter since yesterday and it was a bit difficult at first because it felt like I was writing a double story. A story in another story~~~

~~~See you in the next chapter which I hope to rewrite today.~~~