by Serena Light
Serafina gaped at him in shock, feeling utterly objectified to know that he had been making money off her.
"How dare you," She spoke in aghast as he shrugged innocently. "I order you to stop it this instant,"
"Sorry, babe," He taunted. "I only take orders from your brother. Not. You."
Her face burned with rage as she was about to retort when Damien returned with two glasses in hand.
"Is this guy bothering you, babe?" He asked; taking a threatening step towards Alessio.
"Don't hurt yourself, puppy." Alessio cackled, enjoying this way too much. "Protecting her is my job."
"What-?"
"-Leave him, Damien," Serafina pulled him away, knowing Alessio could snap his neck within 2 seconds if he wanted to. Cupping his face she pulled him down for a kiss, catching sight of Alessio pocketing another 10 euros which were handed to him by the bartender. She instantly pulled away, infuriation bubbling in her as he chuckled at her. "He is just my brother's dog,"
"We're going home, now," She told Alessio with a devious glint in her eyes, as he surprised her knowing smirk.
"As you command, ma'am," He spoke dramatically with a low bow, making his way ahead of them as she grabbed hold of Damien's hand and led him out the club.
Eduardo straightened at the sight of them. Watching Serafina sit in the back with her date of the night as Alessio fastened his seatbelt, following the actions.
She was instantly straddling his lap the moment the car began moving, kissing him deeply before unbuttoning his shirt.
"What about the-" He began to ask as Serafina silenced him with a kiss.
"-They can't say anything," She assured him, running her hands up and down his body as his own hands wandered.
A sudden shriek escaped her as her head collided with the backrest of the front seat when the car came to a sudden halt from its high speed. Rubbing her head, she turned over her shoulder to glare at Alessio.
"Red light, ma'am," He informed innocently, pointing at the traffic light. True to his word, it was red.
Huffing, she redirected her attention to the man beneath her as they resumed their kissing, his shirt gone by the time the car started moving again. Next thing she knew she was laying on the seat with him on top, hungrily kissing her as he unzipped her leather skirt pushing it up as she wrapped her legs around his waist.
A scream escaped them both as the car violently jerked to a stop, sending them both rolling onto the floor of the car. She let out a frustrated sound, as she struggled to sit up, both her and Damien tangled in the cramped leg space.
"Need a little help down there, madam?" Alessio asked innocently without tearing his gaze away from the road, her face burning with anger when she heard the snicker Eduardo tried so hard to control, his face red withholding his laughter as he was shaking in his seat.
"Get me up!" She shrieked at Eduardo, who pulled Damien from the back of his head, resulting in a cry of pain - given the poor guy didn't have a shirt on – and forced him to his knees, giving Serafina enough space to sit up and get out from the cramped space. "What the fuck!"
"Red light," Eduardo informed, after which it turned green and Alessio drove away.
It suddenly hit Serafina that Alessio was driving at a pretty normal speed until he neared a traffic light where he sped up and the moment the light turned red, he slammed his foot on the breaks, sending both her and her date sprawling in various places. It took her two more such occurrences to catch on to his actions, finally pushing Damien away knowing that he was doing this to get them off one another.
"Could you...could you drop me at that corner?" Damien asked in a small voice, his head having suffered enough collisions in one night.
"What? No, Damien, baby come on home with me," Serafina insisted, clutching onto his arm.
"No, thanks," He chuckled uneasily, pulling away from her after catching sight of the murderous glare sent his way by the bodyguard. "I've had enough for one night, maybe next time, yeah?"
"But-" She began to say as he got out of the car.
"-Besides, I don't even know your name," Damien shrugged before closing the door of the Mercedes, the car driving off as Serafina stared gaping at the door.
The car came to a smooth halt at the next red light as she raised her arm to deliver a hit to the back of Alessio's head in her anger, gasping in surprise to see him holding her at gunpoint.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Serafina," He tsk-ed sternly as her face burned with rage, the only sound being that of her blood rushing in her ears. Eduardo staring at the man in shock, wondering if he had a death wish.
"Who the fuck..." She seethed. "Do you think you are to-"
"-I am your brother's eyes and ears who has been assigned to keep you fucking in line no matter what it takes." He told her firmly, Serafina falling back with wide eyes at his tone, never having heard that much venom in one sentence, least of all from her innocent Alessio. "Now, properly sit down and fasten your seat belt, and I do not want to hear a godforsaken word from your mouth until we are home, do you understand?"
"My brother will hear of this," Serafina grumbled, tears brimming in her eyes as she sat back, and fastened her seat belt.
"What brother? The one who was dead to you?" Alessio taunted, driving as she swallowed the lump in her throat crossing her arms over her chest and staring out the window.
A couple of times, he caught her hastily wiping at her cheeks as it made him feel a little bad, but she had been pushing him, and Salvatore had given him permission to do all this until he didn't hurt her physically, and Alessio had to wonder, did hurting her emotionally count?
The moment they arrived at the house, Serafina was quick to get out of the car, shakily unlocking her doors before stumbling in, slamming them shut behind her.
"Wow man," Eduardo muttered from beside him, both of them still sitting in the car. "That was scary,"
"Sorry,"
"No, no, don't be." He shook his head. "If Boss gave you permission, who am I to intervene?"
Sighing, Alessio watched him get out as he sat with his head thrown back a moment, knowing she was crying in her bedroom, maybe even on the entrance floor if she was in a horrible state – which he had no doubt she was in. Getting out of the car he settled down on the patio steps, Eduardo beside him as the rest of the night went by uneventfully.
In the morning, Filippo and Theo arrived to take over, the new father telling everyone that he has a baby girl. Everyone congratulated him and hugged him before heading out.
Getting in his car, Alessio made up his mind about what to do. Arriving at his destination he got out with his blazer draped over an arm as he made his way up the path and towards the white wooden door. Standing before the surface, he took a deep breath, telling himself this was for the better as he knocked and waited.
A second later, the door swung open, revealing the woman before him as she smiled widely at seeing him.
"Alessio?" Rosalie smiled at him, stepping aside to allow him entrance. "To what do we owe this pleasure?"
"Is Mr. Regnante home?" He asked her with a soft smile, the woman reminding him so much of his own mother.
"Yeah, in the dining room," She gestured the way. "Is there something you want to talk about?"
Alessio nodded, following her into the dining room.
"I came to talk about Serafina," Alessio informed, feeling guilt rise in his stomach for some reason. "She's hurting more than we realize,"
Chapter XXII: Growing Pains
Going about her cottage, the woman brushed away her chin-length white hair and went about the interior, gently humming to herself. Her dress swayed with her movements as she danced along to the music playing and just as her song finished her doorbell rang.
"Well, who could that be, Ms. Snowy?" She looked down at the little kitten before making her way to the door.
A wide smile overcame her face and her blue eyes lightened with joy at the man before her. He was the spitting image of her late hus
band with dirty blonde hair and misty green eyes; he looked just like his father when he was clean-shaven, but the stubble sported on his jaw made him look more like himself than the deceased.
"Alessio," She pulled him into a hug as he held on just as tightly.
"Hey, ma," He buried his face in her shoulder.
His mother pulled him inside the house, making him sit down as she asked him what brought him all the way to France. He had to laugh at her antics as she placed various refreshments on the table before him.
"I thought I needed a vacation then decided to come to France, dropping by to see how you were doing as well," Alessio played along. "How are you doing?"
"If you want to know whether I miss you and your brother," She called from the kitchen. "Then yes, yes I miss you two and your ruckus,"
"Hey, we don't make that much of a ruckus anymore,"
"You two have such loud presences that it's enough to give me a headache."
Alessio laughed before picking up the kitten and placing it on his lap, playing.
Soon his mother sat down with him, having made a delicious meal enough for four as if though she knew her son would be coming to see her. While they ate, she asked how his brother was doing, and how her future-daughter-in-law was faring. She even asked about how work was going and if things had settled down in the Mafia. She asked about the Regnante's in turn, Arcangelo, Rosalie, Arsenio and his family, Salvatore and his business, Marco and his education, and then when she finally asked about Serafina, Alessio could do nothing but shrug and say she's fine.
"Still have that little crush on her, do you?" His mother, Myriam, chuckled as she put the dishes into the sink. Watching her son give her a weak smile before he began fidgeting with the table mats. "Tell me,"
"Well, ...you know how she was supposed to get married-"
"-And your brother shot the groom on the wedding day on orders of her brother,"
"Yeah, so after that-"
"-You went to Brazil with her and spent the next 2 months there."
"Exactly and there-"
"-Things went too far,"
Alessio stared at his mother's back in shock as she was washing the dishes, and saying that as if though she just hadn't taken the words right out of his mouth.
"How do you-"
"-If I didn't know my sons what sort of a mother would I be?" She wiped her hands on the towel and chuckled at his incredulous expression. "I know, Alessio, I know."
"We said we would stop it once we were back in Italy, and we should have. We should have stopped, but we couldn't." Alessio swallowed as his mother sat down across from him, listening in silence. "And you know how long I've liked her, and it was all like a dream come true, waking up with her beside me or with her in my arms, it was...magical, ma. I can't describe it but I felt so good, and alive, and happy ma. I was happy." He told her with a humorless chuckle and a sad smile.
"You were in love,"
"Still am." He shook his head at himself with a scoff. "But after she found out what Niccolo did, she ended it between me and her, not that there was anything committed to begin with, and I tried telling her I didn't know, because I didn't but she said I was liar and knew all along and acted not to just to get close to her, and that's not true. It's not, I would never do anything like that to her." His throat felt choked as his voice cracked at the memory of it all.
"She's hurting, Doudou," Myriam placed her hand over his.
"I know...I know," Her son nodded. "But, ma, I thought...I thought she could return my feelings for her, but then she started sleeping around and drinking and doing drugs and I realized that she was drowning out her sorrows, and then it hit me...it hit me that she had used me. She used me to drown out the sorrow of losing her husband. And I and I and...God, I hate myself," Alessio choked out, pressing the palms of his hand against his eyes until he saw stars.
Myriam stood from her place and walked over to him, hugging him close, rubbing his back and placing a kiss on the top of his head.
"I wish I had never met her," Alessio sniffled, his voice cracking with tears streaming down his cheek. "I wish I had never met her because then there would no need to impress her. No need to want her. No need for loving her. No need for crying over her. No need for heartbreaks. No need for pain or tears. No need for forgotten promises. No need for rejected hugs. No need for crying myself to sleep. No need for acting like she cared. No need, for everything she has done to make me feel like absolutely nothing,"
"Alessio," His mother spoke quietly, the pain so tangible around her little boy that she felt as if though she were witnessing the loss of a loved one all over again. Her heart felt as if though someone had stabbed ice shards into it and then proceeded to squeeze her lungs. For once, she did not have words to comfort him, this wasn't like every other heartbreak he had to witness, right now his soul was breaking and there was nothing she could do to soothe that pain, nothing but let him cry in her embrace.
Inhaling deeply, she told her son exactly what she needed to hear when her husband was taken from her.
"I know you've lost someone and it hurts," Myriam's voice trembled as she remembered how her husband died. "You may have lost them suddenly and unexpectedly – as I did. Or perhaps you began losing pieces of them, until one day, there was nothing left. You may have known them all your life or maybe you may have barely known them at all. Either way, it is irrelevant – you cannot control the depth of a wound another soul inflicts upon you."
"Which is why I am not going to tell you tomorrow is another day. That the sun will go on shining. Or there is plenty of fish in the sea. What I will tell you is this; it's okay to be hurting as much as you are. What you are feeling is not only completely valid but necessary – because it makes you so much more human, Alessio. And though I can't promise it will get better any time soon, I can tell you that it will – eventually. But for now, all you can do is take your time. Take all the time you need."
A knock on her door had Serafina look up from the book she was reading. Getting up from the couch, she made her way to the door, momentarily taken aback to see her father standing before her.
"Dad," She gasped, taking a step back as he entered. "Hey, what brings you here,"
"Come on, sit with us," Her father cocked his head towards the lounge. Serafina looking at him in confusion and settled on the couch across from his. Her father leaning forward in his seat and rubbing his temples lost in thought.
"Serafina," He began speaking. "Why are you cutting us out of your life?"
"What?" She chuckled in confusion. "No, I haven't,"
"Baby, when was the last time you came to visit us?" He looked up at her expectantly. "When was the last time you told us something was bothering you? When was the last time you cried in our arms? When was the last time you confided in us?"
"I've been a little busy, dad." Serafina scoffed in disbelief.
"Too busy to tell us you're still hurting over Paolo?" Arcangelo asked her. "We thought you were doing better,"
"Where did you hear that?" She asked through gritted teeth.
"The drinking, drugs, sleeping around was enough of an indicator, Serafina."
"Who told you-!" Serafina raised her voice in anger.
"-It doesn't matter who told me," Arcangelo silenced her. "I know, and I will not leave until we've talked about this,"
"No, I will talk about this with you," She shook her head and stood up, marching towards the stairs and ready to isolate herself in her bedroom.
"7 years is a hell of a long time." Her father spoke up, forcing her to freeze at the bottom of the stops, her heart dropping to her feet. "7 years of commitment, of loving, of caring. Obviously, when you lose someone after 7 years of being together, you're bound to act out in ways."
"Heartbreak isn't beautiful, it isn't poetry. It isn't staying up 'till 4 am and listening to sad songs. It's breaking down in the middle of a busy street. It's seeing their face in all the people you pass by. It's feeling okay for weeks at a time
and then all of a sudden, you feel the ghost of their lips on your neck and their nails on your back and then you're choking on memories of their presence. It's waking up from dreams of them coming back and screaming in the middle of the night because your chest aches like a rotting tooth." Arcangelo told her, watching as she kneeled before the banister, her head pressed to the wooden structure, trying to regulate her irregular breathing, knowing the truth behind her father's words. "Stop romanticizing pain. Stop using people like objects. A heart isn't a cigarette – you can't just light it up and stomp it out when you're done. Don't act like anything about heartbreak is beautiful because I wouldn't wish that feeling upon my worst of enemies. Least of all my own daughter,"
Getting up from the sofa, both Arcangelo walked over to his wheezing daughter, kneeling before her and pulling her into his arms, knowing that they should have been more vigilant, should have been there for her more, should not have let her go to Brazil and instead spent time with her, and maybe, just maybe, they wouldn't be here.
"You know what your mom and I call this sort of pain?" He murmured into his daughter's hair, hugging her tight. "We call this 'growing pain' because you are both breaking and healing all at once. You're growing."
"By the time the pain leaves you completely, you are older, and wiser, experienced. You are no longer the person you once were and you never will be, you have grown and can't shrink back to what was." Her father stroked her hair, feeling her tears on his skin. "You will experience such growing pains throughout your life: from your friends, boyfriend, husband, children, everyone and anyone. But after everything, it is entirely your choice to grow bitter and resenting or to open your heart and be forgiving. Because after all the pain people cause you, in the end, they all allowed you to grow into someone stronger, someone more knowledgeable,"
"And just like every pain, growing pains end too,"
Chapter XXIII: Unrequited Love