Female Novel
Chapter 182
Chapter 182
“Serena, you need to relax,” Carmen told me. “Siena is with her dad. She’s not with some stranger-justbreathe and wait until he gets here.”
“I can I pouted. It had been hours, and Christian wasn’t responding to any of my calls or texts. He didn’teven give me an update about Siena, and it was freaking me out.
Not being with Christian or Siena made me realize how boring my life was and that I didn’t really haveanything going on for me. Enzo left to do whatever he was doing, and hanging around my sister, whowasn’t exactly the smartest, became annoying at times,
I leaned back on the sofa, but just when I was about to close my eyes, I got interrupted by the sound ofa
car.
“Is that Christian!” I jumped up and grabbed Carmen by the shoulder, who stared at me with big eyes.“Move!” I told her and forcefully pushed her aside so I could run out the door. “Is there somethingwrong. miss?” One of the men spoke in a hurry, but I shrugged him off and ran over to the car.
It seemed like the mansion was just as heavily protected as at the beginning, which was probablybecause no one knew where the hell Berto was hiding.
I left a few inches between me and the car, so Christian couldn’t run me over and looked as he openedthe window. “What’s wrong with you?” He chuckled.
“You didn’t answer any of my calls!” I attacked him as I stepped closer, but what I had not expectedwas to see Dario in the passenger seat. He noticed me staring and shot me a wink, which made melower my head.
Don’t blush, don’t blush.
“H-hi?” I stuttered and took several steps back. Christian finally parked the car and went to the back tograb the baby while my feet were glued to the ground.
What was he doing here?
Why would Christian even bring him here?
“Hey, Serena.” Dario suddenly interrupted my thoughts. I looked down at the shadow on the groundand. slowly raised my head to meet his eyes. “H-hi!” I tried to sound as cheerful as possible. “What areyou doing here?”
“What do you mean?” Christian called out while he grabbed Siena. “You knew I was going to be withhim today, am I not allowed to invite my cousin?”
“N-no, no!” I shook my head while Dario laughed at me, “So I’m welcome here? You don’t want me toleave?” He teased me.
All I wanted him to do was to stop smiling, so I didn’t have the urge to stare at him. “Stop staring at her.You’re making her feel uncomfortable!” Christian interfered as he made his way towards us. Dario hada surprised look on his face and took a step back. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay!” I smiled at him. My eyes moved to Siena, who desperately tried to get my attention andleaned her head towards me. “Siena!” I called out as I grabbed her from Christian’s hands.
She let out a squeal and gave me a head bump. “Weird baby.” Christian commented.
“I thought you said you were the favorite parent.” Dario chuckled. “I am!” Christian frowned. “She’s justlike that because she hasn’t seen her all day.”
“Sure.” Dario let out a laugh.
“I looked down at their empty hands and wondered what they had been doing all day. “Where’s Beau?”
“He got summoned back home, of course, like always. Christian made fun of him. “Yes, you just lookedat your phone and ignored Serena’s calls while Beau…” Dario shook his head. “That girl calls himevery ten minutes-that’s an issue.”
“You ignored my calls?” I spoke, surprised. Christian was close to sweating and seemed nervous. “No,of course not!”
“What if I was close to dying?”
It was unlike Christian not to pick up the phone, and it made me wonder what he was really up to and ifit had to do with the reason why he looked through all of my stuff this morning. “So what were you guysdoing?”
“The mall!” Dario spoke while another answer left Christian’s mouth. “Hospital!”
“Uhin?” I laughed, confused. “We went to the mall, and then we went to the hospital.” Christian sighed.“Come on, let’s go inside.”novelbin
“What about your stuff? Did you really leave the mall empty-handed?” I asked as I looked behind me,but Christian turned me around and led me inside while Dario followed us. “I know you’re up tosomething!” 1. gave Christian a suspicious look.
“Serena, I was thinking-how about we hold a charity auction and let you be the price?” Dario suddenlysuggested. “One day with Serena, how does that sound?”
“What?” I asked, confused. It was obvious they were up to something, but I had decided not to ruin thesurprise. “We’ll definitely get back at that.”
Christian slammed his arm around Dario’s shoulder and whispered something in his ear while the twoof them left me behind. It was strange to see that the two who wanted to choke each other seemed tobe getting along, and I didn’t know whether to feel happy or anxious.
now that
The thing which I liked the most about Dario was that I could discuss everything with him, but now thetwo were getting close, I was afraid he might turn out like Beau. One of Christian’s puppets.
“Why are you guys so weird?” I asked while I walked after them with Siena in my arms. “You’re the onebeing weird.” Christian spoke.
We walked into the living room, where Carmen stood as still as a statue with her hands behind herback and stared from Christian to Dario. “She gets nervous around men,” I explained to Dario.
“No, I do not!” Carmen defended herself. Dario stepped forward and reached out to hold Carmen’shand, which she accepted. “There’s no need to be nervous of me. Think of me like your older brother…you’re an adorable little girl, did you know that?”
“Little girl, right.” Carmen sighed. “Serena, I’ll take care of Sisi-she’s literally yawning in your cheek, soit’s time for her to take a nap.” She rolled her eyes before she grabbed Siena and walked away withoutsaying another word.
“Did I do something?” Dario asked, worried.
Dario was so different from Christian and perhaps a bit too honest. While Christian didn’t want to letdown my httle sister and treated her with special care. Dario didn’t know how the mind of a 16-year-oldworked and crushed every dream she had.
topeless.”
“Hopeless,” Christian sighed. “Can I get you something to drink?”
“Water works.” Dario smiled. I scrunched up my nose at the word ‘water’ and looked at him with adisgusted look on my face. “What’s wrong?” Dario asked while Christian made his way to the kitchen.“Serena hates water. She says it’s tasteless.”
“Is that so?” Dario laughed. “Your skin looks really nice for someone who doesn’t like water.”
“Skincare,” I told him before I pulled him to the sofa and forced him to sit down. “Anyway-how was yourday with Christian and Beau?”
“Beau?” Dario laughed out loud. “All I can say is that I feel sorry for your brother. He’s put himself intotrouble for the remaining years of his life.”
“Are you talking about Isobel?”
“Yes!” Dario gave me a nod. “The rest of it was definitely a rollercoaster, and I learned one thing today,no children for me…ever.”
“No?” I smiled, but he seemed pretty serious about his statement. “Christian had to change Siena’sdiaper in a public restroom!”
“We did that too!” I told Dario as I thought back at the time when I gave him a city tour. He was all aboutSiena back then and pretended to like children. “That’s right, we did.”
“So how many points do you give Christian? Is he a good dad?” I wondered. Christian rushed over withwater in his hands and sat down on the opposite side of us. He gave Dario a threatening glare andwaited for his answer.
“He gets ten points.” Dario smiled. “It’s interesting to see how he genuinely enjoys doing all of that stuff,and I’ve never seen someone change a diaper with a smile on their face, but to each their own. Iguess.”
I looked over at Christian, who shrugged his shoulders and felt grateful for having him around. I neverhad to teach him about anything, and other than his error of swearing around children, everything elsecame so naturally to him.
“How did you like Gio?” I continued my interrogation. Dario’s expression changed, and he pulled aweird face. “He’s…interesting.”
“Yes, I agree-he’s something.”
Out of all the brothers, he was probably the most interesting one. He was challenging to read, and 1couldn’t tell whether he was just being sarcastic or an asshole. It depended on the day.
“Right, because the two of you are so ordinary.” Christian jumped to his brother’s defense. “One hadthe desire to ruin me, and the other one used to stalk me at the club-”
“That’s not true!”
“Used to stalk me at the club-and deceived me-” I got up from the couch and jumped on top of
Christian so I could cover his mouth with my hand. “She did?” Dario laughed. “I’ll have to hear thatstory.”
Christian bit my finger and pushed me off so he could finish his conversation with Dario. “She did. Shetold me she was hungry for my attention-” Christian ranted while I decided to let it rest so he could livein a lie. Changing stories to fit his own narrative was his favorite thing to do.
Dario listened to Christian’s story with a surprised look on his face, but I didn’t even have the power todefend myself anymore. I decided to let it rest, and all 1 could look at were Dario and Christian, whoseemed to be getting along perfectly fine.
There was no jealousy, no competition, no argument-just two cousins who got along, and that’s exactlywhat it stayed like for the entire evening.
We all got along perfectly fine and had the time of our life until Christian brought him back home. Itmade me realize that I had been worrying about nothing.
Everything went so smoothly, so why wasn’t it like that from the start?
And most importantly, wouldn’t it be much easier if they could both work together as the head of thefamily?