Female Novel
Chapter 139
Chapter 139
“Testing him?” Isobel frowned. “Why would be testing him?”
That was the same thing I wanted to know. “Who knows.” I sighed. “Beau always does everything witha reason, so we’ll see.”
“Enough about me. How is the baby?”
“Annoying.” Isobel chuckled. “It’s annoying me, physically and mentally. I’m scared.”
Those were the exact words I once used to describe myself with. I reached out my hand so I couldcomfort her. “So you don’t want to be a mom?”
“That’s not it.” Isobel shook her head. “It’s just that my mom never took care of me, so I have no ideahow to take care of babies.”
“Trust me. I get you.” I sighed. Isobel opening up so quickly made me think about Dario and howmysterious he was. He was so outspoken, and I didn’t know anything about him. No one did.
“So you and Christian seem to be getting along?” Isobel commented with a smug smile on her face.Apparently she could see which I couldn’t, because if anything this situation was extremely awkward.“Well, we’re not arguing, so there’s that.”
“Look, there they are,” Isobel whispered as she pointed at Christian and Beau, who came walking downthe stairs. “Is she clean again?” I asked and looked at Siena, who was in a cheerful mood.
Siena was the happiest around Christian.
Isobel’s thoughts couldn’t be any worse than mine. I knew stuff like that was to be expected, but Sienabeing so attached to Christian while I was the one who carried her worried me and made me scared ofwhat was about to come. Would she even like me in the future?
“Yes, she is-but I don’t think Beau is ready to become a dad.” Christian chuckled. “Isobel, it seems likeyou’re on your own.”
“What do you mean not ready? She pooped on my hand!” Beau complained as Christian let out alaugh. It was clear the two of them bonded over diapers.
“Look at you. You seem to be getting along.” Isobel smiled, excited. It made me wonder about whatkind of conversation they had. Just a few minutes ago, it seemed like the two were going to kill eachother.
“What did you guys talk about?” I wondered as Christian sat down next to me. “You don’t have to knoweverything. You’re allowed to give your brains some rest sometimes. Christian spoke while I lookeddown. embarrassed. “But if you really want to know, we spoke about you.”
“About me? What about me?”
“Nothing, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Beau spoke. “Christian, you must be busy now thatyou don’t have a personal assistant anymore.”
Isobel covered her mouth with her hands and laughed while Christian rolled his eyes. “I thought we’djust discussed not to do this anymore.”
“Oh no, I have good intentions this time!” Beau reassured him. “I heard you don’t have a personalassistant anymore, so how about you let me work for you?”
“What?” I spoke, confused. “You just wanted to kill him a second ago, and now you want to work forhim? Do you even know what you want?”
“Why would you want to work for me?” Christian asked. “You’re an Alfonzo. Letting you work as mypersonal assistant would be so downgrading. You’re supposed to carry on the Alfonzo name with you.brothers-”
“What brothers?” Beau asked as everyone around the table went quiet. Marcello, Emilio, and Lukewere the sweetest souls in the world, but for some reason, they just didn’t have a bond with Beau. Itwasn’t that difficult for me to get along with them, but Beau was clearly struggling. “I don’t care aboutmy brothers, I care about Serena, and I don’t feel like following around Emilio-so I want to support you.”
“Random, but I think the job suits him.” Isobel shrugged. “It’s a good way to keep an eye on him, so hedoesn’t do anything stupid, right Beau?” Isobel chuckled.
So that’s why Beau tested him. He was planning to distance himself from the family business andwould probably encourage me to do the same. He would encourage me to stand behind Christian. “Iappreciate your offer, but won’t this damage your family?”
“I don’t care.” Beau chuckled. “You plan on getting Serena back, and I plan on keeping an eye on you.Besides that, you clearly need the help.”
“I do.” Christian commented. “But I have another offer for you. You’re too good to be my assistant. Howabout you be my advisor?”
“What?” Beau spoke. “Do you want both of our families to kill us?”
“Yes,” Christian confirmed. “I want both of our families to kill us-but I honestly think it won’t even be thatbig of a deal, and it could even keep them satisfied.”
“Could it?” I wondered. “Yes, the Alfonzo’s can keep an eye on the Lamberti’s and the Lamberti’s cankeep an eye on the Alfonzo’s-that’s how they will see it.”
“I’ll think about it.” Beau smiled while Christian laughed at him. “Now you’re making it seem like I’m theone who asked you for help.”
“That was not the job I asked for,” Beau spoke. “I specifically asked for the other job to play it safe, butI’ll
think about it.”
Christian turned his head to look at me and shrugged his shoulders. “He’s just as confusing as you, butfor some reason, I don’t love him.”
My cheeks flushed red, and I avoided eye-contact. These type of comments weren’t working.
“Enough with the business talk. Beau and I have another surprise.” Isobel announced while Christianand I gave each other a look. “Are you having twins?” I asked. “What?”
“No, thank God, I’m not.” Isobel laughed. “I just wanted to say that Beau and I are making you a cake.”
“What?” Christian and I both spoke, confused. I bet he expected for it to be some kind of bigannouncement, just as I did.
“Fine, I’m having twins-but Serena!” Isobel called out as she glared at me. “Ruined the surprise!”
“Wait, what really?” I gasped, surprised. “Yes, we wanted to tell you first, isn’t that great?” Isobelsmiled. I felt terrible for even thinking this way, but it made me feel jealous. I was happy for Beau butalso a bit.
jealous because his life seemed to be working out.
“As if one child between the two of you wasn’t enough already.” Christian smiled and pulled Isobel intoa hug. “Congrats Beau, I’m happy for you” I congratulated him, but I was still jealous. There was noright way to explain how I felt, but I knew it was wrong. Beau was not my competition. He was my twinbrother.
“Are you okay?” Beau asked. “Yes, fine!” I lied as I stared at Christian. This was supposed to be us. Itold him I didn’t want any more children-but Christian did. Seeing a smile on Christian’s face made mesmile, and all I could think of were his words.
You don’t want to see me with anyone else.
He was right. I didn’t. If the thought of my twin brother having twins made me jealous, I couldn’t survivea day if Christian would end up with someone else. Our eyes met, and he gave me a warm smile. Icould still not understand how the same person with that warm smile could cheat on me.
I knew he loved me because he had shown it to me with not only his actions but also his words multipletimes-but he still cheated on me. Men were ridiculous. “Serena, can we talk?” Christian asked andgrabbed my hand..
“So Beau and 1-we’re just going to clean the dishes,” Isobel spoke while Beau gave her a disgustedlook. “What, why?” He asked. “He invited us. Shouldn’t he do it?”
“You’re so annoying at times. Can’t you just read the room?” Isobel rolled her eyes as she pulled himaway.
Christian and I stared at each other as I waited for him to say the first word. “So.” I mumbled.
“Do you want me to grab Siena so we can get some fresh air?” Christian suggested. “That’s a reallygood idea.” I agreed. “We have a lot to discuss.”
We made our way outside and it made me think of the past. The first time we did that was at thesleepover. We weren’t together back then, but we were really close friends. Best friends.
“She’s so energetic today.” I laughed at Siena, who was fighting for Christian’s attention. “It’s becausewe look like a family again.” Christian smiled and kissed her cheek.
It felt like each time I commented on something, I only dug my own grave even further. “So I thoughtabout therapy.” Christian smiled.
“And to be honest, I feel like shit. You gave me a solution, and I ran away from it, and if I really wantyou back, I have no right to do that. So if therapy is what you want, I stand behind you a hundredpercent.”
“Wait, what?” I laughed. “Are you serious?”
“Yes.” Christian nodded his head. “I’m desperate, and I want you and Siena to come back home. Iwent. against my grandpa today.” Christian spoke. “I told him I don’t want the family business or thefamily if 1 can’t have you-”
“Christian, stop it.” I sighed. I didn’t want him to finish his sentence because I wasn’t able to go againstmy own family. I was not like him. “I love you, but it’s not just our families-you hurt me, and I still needsome time to get over that-”
“You love me?” Christian asked. I hadn’t even noticed my words until he called me out for it. “Yes, I loveyou, and I want us to be together again-but we shouldn’t rush things this time. We can’t just jump into arelationship again.”
“I understand. I’ll wait.” Christian spoke, excited “Take all the time you need. I’m just happy to hear thatyou still love me.”
He was so happy to hear those words, but I had never stopped loving him. It teas the other wayaround.
“So what did you and Beau discuss?” I asked. I was going to get my answers, one way or another
“He promised to kill me if I would ever hurt you again and said that I’m on ‘probation’ as he likes to callit” Christian chuckled. “But he also said that he will stand behind me as long as you stand behind me.”
“I don’t think he’s human, but it’s nice to know you have someone like that around you.”novelbin
“It is. I’ve never felt a stronger bond with anyone, and he’s the only one who has never disappointedme.” I sighed. The smile on Christian’s face had vanished, and he must’ve misunderstood my words.
The bond between Beau and I was different and it was to be expected, it was because he was my twin.
“So about Dario.” I changed the subject. “There’s a lot to unpack, but he’s insane.”
“That’s what I told you.” Christian shrugged. “But please tell me, what did you find out?”
“For starters, the code to his office is your birthdate.” I began while Christian had a confused look onhis face. It was the same confused look I had when I found out about that.
“His wall looks as if he’s planning to execute someone, the pictures in his drawers are truly sick and fullof mainly you, your grandpa, your dad and Luca and Johnny, papers about all of the Lambertibusinesses— oh and he has this huge vault, but I couldn’t get to it-
“So he’s not as soft as he looks like,” Christian spoke. “I was able to get some information out of mygrandpa, but not much. All I know is that he compared you to my uncle’s first wife. She was apparentlyhis downfall.”
Downfall? Wasn’t that word a bit too harsh?
“You don’t think I’m your downfall, do you?” I asked, embarrassed. Christian shook his head and heldSiena’s hand. “The two of you are my life. How could you be my downfall?”
“Exactly.” I nodded my head. “I’m sorry, but your grandpa doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
“Anyway I was thinking. Maybe I can try and open that vault so we can find out more about his aunt-
“Thanks, Serena, that was all,” Christian stopped me from talking. “Just focus on your charity.”
I looked at him full of disbelief and could not understand how he had the nerve to ask me for help, onlyto tell me that he didn’t need it anymore. “Dario is insane, I get that-and I also get that you’re lookingout for me, but don’t you want to unravel this mystery together?”
“Dario is twisted, and I don’t want you to get hurt, Serena.” Christian sighed, but those were not thewords I was looking for. “But we have to find out what’s behind that vault, don’t you think?”
“You’re not getting involved, and that’s final!” Christian raised his voice. “And you’re not going therealone anymore, absolutely not!”
After hearing about Dario’s worrisome office layout, Christian had a change of mind and didn’t want meto do anything at all. He was so confident and told me Dario would never hurt me, but all of thatconfidence had vanished.
“Christum, I will be opening them vault wasn’t just about him anyt
You can po with Man tomorrow. He found a lead-if yem pratio ant to play Sherlock. I’ll let you fortp himout, but you’re not ripening the
#har mai hic tene with that mondt
“Fine, but give me one good reason why I shouldn’t open that vault. Who knows what we’ll find in there
“That’s the thing. A vaoli in an office? I’m not worried about what we’ll find in there, but more about whowe’ll find in there”
“No baby today?” Marc pouted as I stepped into the car. Just as promised, I would be joining Marc tofollow up on his lead on Dario.
“You don’t even like Siena.” I laughed as I couldn’t shake off the image of Marc’s unfortunate look everytime he saw her. “It’s not that I don’t like her. I just get tired of her staring at me all the time.”
“She’s a baby?” I commented. “Anyway, I’m also happy I get to spend my day with you.”
“Yes, wow.” Marc sighed. “You’re not even supposed to be here, but yet you are. I don’t want you to getinvolved, and neither does Christian.”
There it was again. How could they expect me not to get involved when the issue did concern me? Iwas the one who was around him, so I wanted to find out more about hirn-even if it meant going as faras digging in his past. “You’re unfortunately going to have to live with it-now what are we doing again?”
“You’re unbelievable.” Marc rolled his eyes. “It took me a while, but I managed to find one of Dario’s oldmaids, she has been with Mauro for a very long time, and she lives in a nursing home.”
“Nursing home?” I questioned. I knew all too well how things like this used to go in horror movies.“You’re going to ask an old woman about Dario? Are you insane?”
Maybe.” Marc shrugged. “But this is our best chance, I feel bad for saying this, but she’s easy tomanipulate.”
“I guess.” I mumbled. I felt terrible for sticking my nose into Dario’s life, but I just couldn’t shake off thethought of his office and the weird obsession with the Lamberti’s. I always thought I was good at
reading people and thought Dario had a good personality. I had to get to the bottom of this. “Did youhear about the office from Christian?”
“You mean that he’s so obsessed that he even uses him as his password and stuff like that? Yes.” Marcchuckled. “It freaked him out.”
“What, it did?” I asked. Even though I could read the look on Christian’s face, he never told me, and itwas probably because he didn’t like seeing me stressed. “Yes, of course, it did, he was so certain thatDario wouldn’t hurt you-only for you to tell him that this man has a wall full of weapons–
“That’s not so different from you guys-with the business you’re in.” I interrupted Marc. It almost seemedas if I was defendinf Dario, and I didn’t know why. There was no excuse for his weird obsession withthe Lamberti’s, but I was still hoping for the best. There had to be an explanation.
“You know, you can really get annoying sometimes.” Marc laughed. “I used to like you better in thepast.”
“So did Christian” I sighed. I bet he liked me the most when I could not stand up for myself, but I hadchanged a lot. The old Serena wouldn’t even run away from Christian after the betrayal. “How was yourdate? I heard your brother gave him a hard time.”
-“Yes,” I replied. “He gave him a hard time, and then he asked him for a job.”
“I heard,” Marc spoke. “How did he went from personal assistant to an advisor in just a few seconds? Ifeel a bit betrayed.” He chuckled.
“Well, don’t.” I sighed. “It’s not certain, and I honestly don’t know what to make out of it. I don’t want tomake things worse between our families.”