Female Novel
Chapter 186
Chapter 186
Christian
“It looks like it’s just you and me, Siena.” Christian smiled while he carried Siena out of the car. “Andus,” Dario spoke.
Christian forced a smile onto his face and gave Dario a nod. “And…you two.”
He knew his 60 hours to complete everything started the Serena left, so they didn’t waste any time andrushed towards their first destination-Franco’s house,
There was a lot to take care of. There was Carmen and Luke’s birthday party, which would betomorrow evening, finding the key and transferring the money. Not knowing anything about Berto’swhereabouts only made him more nervous because he knew he was probably up to something. Heknew that he would eventually come back for not only the money but also Luca.
“Maybe if you gave Siena to her mom.” Beau began. “What’s the point of keeping her here if you’regoing to make your grandparents watch her.”
“No.” Christian shook his head. “What if something happens to the baby like an allergy or something,and I’m not there to help?”
“I need her by my side, and I don’t want Serena to be stuck with a baby.”
“Yes, just imagine.” Beau spoke sarcastically. “Which mom would want to be stuck with their baby?” Hemuttered as he walked past Christian and made his way inside. Christian stopped in his steps andlooked at Siena, who unfortunately did not have any say in this.
Seeing the tears in Serena’s eyes as she said her goodbyes to Siena was painful to look at, but he onlydid it to help her. He did it so she could enjoy her time.
“Are you okay?” Dario chuckled while he patted his shoulder. Christian looked at his cousin andthought. about Serena’s suggestion to share the family business.
He still hadn’t quite figured him out yet. He could see how much he cared for Serena and that he wasclearly holding himself back for the sake of his trust, but he could still not understand his intentions.
“Do you think Beau’s right?” Christian asked him. Dario gave Siena a pinch in her cheeks andshrugged his shoulders. “It’s just for two days, not two weeks, and I’m sure Serena will survive.” Darioencouraged him.
“Just imagine what it would be like if she brought the baby along.” Dario began as the two made theirway inside. “Knowing Serena, I don’t think she’ll want to be stuck in a room while the others go out andparty
“Party?” Christian spoke, surprised. It was one thing that hadn’t crossed his mind. “Of course she’sgoing to party. I mean, come on!”
Christian felt flustered as he followed Dario to the living room and thought about the consequencesuntil he realized he was in no position to say anything.
He knew he lost that right a long time ago.
“Is that Siena?” Christian’s grandma, Maria, gasped as she made her way over to the baby. Shefocused her attention on the baby before she smiled at Dario and pulled him into a tight hug. “And mygrandson,” She spoke proudly.
“How is your uncle doing?”
“Uncle Mauro is fine,” Dario told her. “He told me to thank you for the cake recipe. He’s really intobaking. these days, so-”
“What about me, grandma?” Christian interrupted the two while he rolled his eyes. He wasn’t jealous.because he knew Dario deserved all the love and attention he could get-but he didn’t want to getignored either. If anything, he admired Dario for how they treated him.
“I’ve seen your face for decades. Stop.overreacting.” She laughed while she grabbed Siena from hisarms. “Are you going to be okay?” Christian questioned, while Maria gave him an offended look.
“I’ve raised eleven children in total, and so has your grandpa. We’ll be fine.”
“If you say so,” Christian sighed as he walked in further. “Did you see Gio’s son? He looks just likehim.” Christian commented. Even though he loved Siena, he would love to have another child, and hewould love to have a son who looked just like him. “I did see him, and you’re right.” Maria smiled.
“Your grandpa told me you send Serena away on vacation, is that true?”
“Well, it’s definitely not fake news,” Christian spoke. “It’s good to see you all at peace again. All thisarguing was not good for my blood pressure.” Maria sighed. “Do her parents know about this?”
“Parents?” Christian frowned. The idea of calling Matteo and Lita to ask for permission to send Serenaaway had not even crossed his mind.
“She’s a grown woman. I’m sure she called them along the way.”
“Sure.” Maria smiled. “Anyway, your grandpa is waiting for you upstairs-he seems really stressednowadays, so I’m happy you took your time to visit him.”
Christian felt guilty. Maria did not even know that her eldest son was still alive, but it was all for thebest. The longer this news remained hidden, the better it would be for Lucio’s health-and Christian
hoped that his uncle Berto also felt the same way.
“I’m kind of sad that you are leaving me,” Maria spoke, “All you kids run off to is grandpa, grandpa,grandpa-I’m also alive!”
Christian let out an awkward laugh and looked over at Dario, who got the message. “I’m actually hereto visit you, grandma!” Dario made up on the spot. The last thing they wanted was for her to suspectanything.
“Oh?” Maria laughed, surprised. “In that case, we have a lot to talk about.”
“Yes, the two of you do,” Christian spoke as he stuck out his hands to grab Siena, but Maria turnedaway. “She doesn’t have to go upstairs with you, although it sounds tempting, I’m not going to kidnapyour baby.”
“S-sure,” Christian spoke, unsure as he stared at the baby. He hated being apart from Siena, and itmade him realize how much he trusted Carmen, who had been watching her a lot nowadays.
“I’ll…just go then,” Christian spoke before he made his way upstairs. He walked towards Franco’s officeand stared at Beau, who had a lot to say to him. Christian was surprised and thought it was still amystery how Franco loved Beau a lot more than he loved Serena.
“Christian, join us!” Franco called out. Christian looked at the half-empty bottle on his desk and feltchills
throughout his body. His grandpa had been drinking.
It was what he had always done whenever things got too stressful, and Christian couldn’t blame him forit. It was one of his bad habits which got passed down to him, but unlike Franco, Christian had
unfortunately. experienced the consequences and was determined not to touch a drop of alcohol everagain.
Beau turned around and gave Christian a worried look. “I think he’s lost it.” He whispered whileChristian took a deep breath and prepared himself for what was about to come.
“Grandpa, do you know more about the key-”
“Have you already figured out what that Roberto has been up to, other than climbing out his grave!”Franco yelled out. Christian was shocked by his sudden words and closed the door.
“Grandpa, you can’t do this-not that loud!” He hissed, annoyed. Franco had a regretful look on his face.“That’s right, my bad.”
“Where is Dario? Did he already get sick of me?”
“No, of course not,” Christian spoke. “Dario is downstairs with grandma and Siena, and speaking ofSiena -how can you drink like this when you knew she would be here?”
“She’s a baby. She won’t notice anything.” Franco shrugged him off. “And besides that, I don’t even getdrunk anymore…unfortunately.”
Christian had enough of his words and sat down in front of him. “The key!” Christian spoke, annoyed.“Have you found out more about the key?”
Franco stared into Christian’s eyes as he slammed a thin pile of papers onto the table and shoved it inhis direction. “The key is in one of these containers, I’ve done some good research, and this is what Icame up with.”
Christian was surprised by Franco’s answer and the fact that he had never stopped looking for the key.Even though it was what Franco had been doing all along, things had changed this time, and he was
forced to work a bit faster.
“The vault with the cash is inside of the vault at the club,” Franco continued, while Christian did notunderstand a single word. “Vault within a vault?” He frowned.
“It’s all on the paper,” Franco sighed. “Just make sure you find the key first because it’ll probably take afew days to transfer the money.”
“How many days?” Christian wondered. There was a lot he had to do, but there wasn’t much time.
“About four days?”
“Four?”
“If you gather around, let’s say around forty men and work through the day-
“What?” Christian chuckled in disbelief. “Grandpa, these people have families!”
“Yes, I know!” Franco snarled back. “And your uncle Berto will blow up the warehouse and the club ifhe can’t get to the money, so we have to move quicker!”
Christian froze up and thought about how he had to overwork the people he was supposed to take careof.
He never wanted to be that kind of leader, not even if it was meant to protect what was Siena’s.
“Your grandpa is right, Christian,” Beau spoke up for the first time. “It’ll only be a matter of time beforeyour uncle blows up both the warehouse and the club.”
“I don’t think he’ll knock on the door to ask us for permission to enter, so you need to move the beforehe finds out the exact location.” He tried to get through to him.
money
“He’ll blow up the warehouse either way.” Franco yawned. Christian’s eyes turned big as he took in hisgrandpa’s words. “Once he finds out the money isn’t there, he’ll throw a fit like he usually does.”
“What?” Christian spoke, shocked. Franco seemed relatively calm and poured himself another drink.“We can either let him blow up the warehouse or the warehouse and the club-and I think we’ll have togo with the first option.”
“So what, we just give up the warehouse?”
Franco let out a sigh and shook his head. “You’re not as smart as you used to be.” He spoke as helooked from Christian to Beau. He had a pretty good idea of why that was, but he didn’t want toaddress it with Beau in the room.
According to Franco, it was all because of Serena. Even though he accepted her and grew to like her abit more, he hadn’t changed his mind and believed Serena would end up being his downfall.
“We’ll move everything we have to the smaller warehouse and let him live a lie,” Franco explained. “It’llbe a matter of time before he will find out he’s not going to get the money, and when that happens, wewon’t be able to use your dad as a human shield anymore.”
Christian knew very well what he meant by that. The only reason why Berto didn’t do anything out ofthe ordinary was out of respect for Lucio, but respect could only go so far.
“So what do you suggest we do?” Christian asked. He did not want to say the wrong thing or suggest aproblematic idea because Berto was still his uncle and his grandpa’s eldest son.
“I say we switch all of the containers, move them to the smaller warehouse and lead him right into histrap,” Beau suggested. “According to Dario, he plans to destroy this family and to build his own empire,
so why don’t we help him out?”
“What are you going to do with him?” Beau asked his grandpa. The word ‘trap’ terrified him because hedid not want to hurt his uncle.
“I don’t know yet, Christian.”novelbin
“So we’re really going to let the men work like dogs for some money?” Christian wondered.
“Yes, and we’ll give them a huge bonus for their loyalty,” Franco spoke as he glared at Christian.
“You find the key, and I’ll take care of the rest-you’re too…soft, too kind-hearted.”
“Whatever works for you,” Christian scoffed.
“I’ve been thinking…there must be a snake at the warehouse, and that must be how Berto haseverything under control.” Christian began. “We can’t move the containers or find the key before wefind out who that person is.”
“I agree,” Franco spoke as he went into deep thoughts. “Maybe we should ask Dario. Maybe heknows.”
“No.” Christian decided. It was something that had already crossed his mind, but Dario was just asconfused as all of them. “There’s actually a lot he doesn’t know, so I think Berto played it safe andknew there was a chance he would end up betraying him.”
“Luca?” Franco suggested. “I don’t trust him one bit, but we can always try.”
Christian shook his head as he did not want to get his cousin involved. The only thing he wanted at themoment was for Johnny to keep an eye on him. “He would probably know, but he is not going to tell
us.” He concluded. “I do know one thing, and that’s that uncle doesn’t work with random people, so ithas to be family.”
“Grandpa, can you do something for me?” Christian asked.
Franco let out a frustrated sigh and banged his head against his desk. “Do I have to do everythingaround
here?”
Christian ignored his grandpa’s complaints. “Can you write down the names of the people who did notattend Dario’s party?”
Christian had a pretty good idea that the snake must’ve been someone amongst those people.“Whoever it was, the person was probably terrified and didn’t even have the nerve to show up at theparty.
“I’ll do it right away.” Franco promised before he focused his attention on the laughter which wascoming from downstairs.
“It seems like Dario really fits in.” He smiled. Christian agreed. He did fit in and perhaps even more thanhe ever could. “He does…”
“And speaking of Dario, there is something I want to discuss with you.” Christian looked at Franco. Itwas finally time to ask the question which would change the family line and the business.
“W-what is it? He hasn’t done anything suspicious, has he?” Franco nervously asked. He was reallyfond of Dario and couldn’t even bear the thought of losing him
“Suspicious?” Christian chuckled. “No, the only suspicious thing he has done up until now has beenflirting with Serena.” He spoke as the smile on his face slowly vanished. It was supposed to sound like
a joke, but it
wasn’t.
“It’s because you let it happen in the first place,” Beau mumbled just loud enough for him to hear.Christian shrugged off his words and continued the conversation. “It was about letting him be a bit moreinvolved with the family business.”
Christian carefully observed the look on Franco’s face, but nothing had changed. “I’m afraid I don’tunderstand.”
Christian took a deep breath. “I want to share the business…with him.” He finally managed to get out.“Isn’t he the original heir in the first place?”
Franco stared at Christian and felt confused by his unexpected words. He was waiting to find outwhether this was some kind of joke, and so was Beau, who had also not expected this. “Christian,you’ve technically just met the guy-”
“That guy is my cousin who abandoned the only parent he had left to help this family.” Christianstopped Beau from talking. “Grandpa, what do you say?”
Franco felt attacked by this sudden request and thought about Lucio. Franco had retired from the family