His Promise: The Mafia’s Babies by C. Tamika
Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Christian

Christian clenched his fist in anger and made his way to his dad’s office. He did not know whether hewaSerena had hung up the phone in his ear or because she had a pretty solid reason to fear him.

No, he wouldn’t hurt her. He did not like hurting people at all and only did so when there was no otherwLucio encouraged him to do so, but the thought of hurting Serena or taking away the baby hadn’teven This is all Lucio’s fault, were the thoughts going through his head, and this time he would not bowdowninstead fix the situation as he should have from the beginning.

For the first time in a long while Christian stayed at his parents’ place. Francesca had nagged her sonabohad been neglecting his own family, leaving him with no choice but to visit. The whole week whenhe hadaddress the situation his father would eye Francesca as a way of telling him to shut up.

The mention of the situation was enough to cause a shouting match between the two of them whichhaduncomfortable situation for everyone living on the Lamberti estate. They had no idea why the fatherandalways been close seemed close to hating one another.

Lucio was a busy man and always on the move. Getting some alone time with him was much moredifficubeen a few years back. Christian sensed this was probably due to Lucio training him to get readyfor wheto take over the family business and since Lucio had already taught Christian everything therewas to leato working all day.

He was aware that his mother was a person with ears throughout the entire house and would perhapsunwas going on, but Christian couldn’t take it any longer. He had to confront Lucio.

He slammed the door open and looked at Lucio who was peacefully sitting behind his desk. “Don’tslamare expensive,” Lucio spoke, ignoring every bit of his presence and continued working.

Christian walked over to his dad’s desk and slammed his fists on the table. “Dad, I will take care of bothSbaby and this is not up for debate. I’m telling you out of respect.”

Lucio looked up glaring at his son and stood up to face him. In the past, Lucio had always laughed withtother families about how bold and disrespectful Christian could be and let him go his own waybecause but only now he began to realize that this was his creation and his mistake for letting hisbehavior slip.

“Christian, you can’t and I’m not discussing this with you!” Lucio yelled, trying to get through to him.Lucguilty for taking his distance from Serena but in the end, he believed to be doing whatever was bestfor h“Since when have you been jumping at the idea of being a dad, because as far as I know, you’venever evchildren!”

“Dad, I made her a promise and I broke it. I lost Serena’s trust meaning I will end up losing my ownchild

“I’ve never told you to make her promises you can’t keep or to call her any names, that was all on yousome for that!” Lucio yelled at him.

“If you won’t let me take care of Serena and the baby, I promise you I will walk away from this family. Iwthem, regardless of if I get your permission or not.” Christian made clear. Lucio was right, he had noplanparent but things had changed and so did he. Even Christian did not know that the baby’s life couldchanlife.

“Christian, you don’t mean that.” Lucio took a step back. He knew that Christian could care less aboutthwhich would eventually get passed down to him, but he had not expected him to throw it away thateasi“Look at my face, is it the face of someone’s who’s joking to you?” Christian spoke, not removinghis pogrowled out in anger and slammed his fist on the desk.

“Are you insane, do you honestly believe that will help Serena and the baby? I told you about whatwouldget too involved and Fabio replaces out the truth. Don’t you care about this family, don’t you careabout all are working for us?”

“You’re saying I have to do this to protect the family but isn’t the baby your family too? Do you notconsyour own grandchild to be part of this family?” Christian asked and saw how Lucio failed to remainthe coface. “Because if that is the case, then I have to aplogize but I can’t be your son anymore!”

“Christian!”

“Dad, you told me to convince Serena to abort the baby. Does the baby not mean anything to you?”Chrthrough to his father one last time after he saw the changed expression on his face.

“Is the baby not as important as Gianna and Pia, or did you also tell Dana to abort her children?”

Christian knew that it was dangerous to bring up Lucio’s only granddaughters as a comparison, but feltathe wrong. His dad had always accepted Gio’s children with open arms and promised to protect him.

“Christian, you know the situation is different.” Lucio sighed, thinking about what war would breakdownwere to get behind Serena’s identity or his best friend, Matteo Alfonzo’s reaction when he wouldreplace oudaughter had been living this way while Lucio was aware of her identity.

“It isn’t. Protecting family who has done nothing wrong remains the same, no matter the situation, soyoyour grandchild or I swear on my life that you’ll lose me!”

“You’re telling me you want to protect Serena and the baby but you’ll end up bringing her life indangerDo you realize what will even happen when the truth comes out and Fabio—“

“If I fail to protect her then he can do with her whatever he wants, I don’t care. The only thing I care foriChristian who was even shocked at his own cruel words had admitted. For Lucio, this did not help the

casmade it worse.

“And what about Matteo Alfonzo when he replaces out about Serena and you decide to hand over hisdauga piece of meat?” Lucio did a hopeless attempt to try to change his mind, but deep down he knewthat itlate.

“What about him?” Christian shrugged his shoulders. The only thing going through his mind was thebabpromise to protect Serena and to keep the baby with its mother was never intended to be a lie—but at tday, all he truly wanted was to protect the baby and would sacrifice anyone for that cause.

“Dad, it’s not forever. It’s until Serena gives birth and after that— I’ll let her go her own way, all I want isbe healthy and that’s it.” Christian pleaded and felt as if he finally got through his dad. “You claim tocareyou are aware of the state she’s living in and I know she’s a stubborn person that won’t accept anymonthe harsh way…but for the baby to be healthy I need her to be healthy.”

“Christian please tell me, why do you care so much for this baby?” Lucio wondered. Not even when itcamabout his sisters Lucio had seen the sparkle which appeared in his eye each time he spoke of, hisbaby.

“Because I’ve never realized how lonely I have truly felt all this time until I felt the happiness whenSerenwas pregnant.” Christian couldn’t help but smile at his own answer.

“I gave you my trust, I gave you my childhood, I have always done everything you’ve ever asked frommeonce— I’m begging you to not take this away from me, please!”

Lucio took a deep breath and knew that his decision would eventually backfire, but he did not want toloon second thought he would also end up regretting neglecting his grandchild and the girl he hadclaimeso much.

“Then I guess I have no choice, do I?” Lucio chuckled, confused at his own words and the drama heknew“So…are you going to tell mom for me?” Christian carefully asked Lucio who shook his headbefore the seven finished. “You deal with your mom, I’m staying out of this.” He said and focused onthe laptop in fr

“N-now?”. Christian did not get scared very easily, but if he had to choose the number one scariestwomprobably been his mom with Serena following as a close second nowadays.

“The longer you wait, the more annoying she’s gonna get,” Lucio spoke and pointed his hand to thedooChristian sighed and made his way out.

Other than his dad, Marc, Johnny, and Enzo there was no one else who he had told about thepregnancyhis best friends, Isobel and Vincenzo, or the woman who had always cared for him,Emmanuella. “Your phcommented and pointed his head towards his phone which he had just noticedwas going off.

“Serena?” He whispered to himself, making Lucio lookup. Christian was confused as to why Serenawas cpicked up the phone either way. Did she perhaps have a change of mind?

“Serena?” He asked.

“Uhm hello?” He heard a voice speak and concluded that it was definitely not Serena. “Who is this?”

“I’m at the hospital right now, the owner of this phone fainted and this is the last number she called so I“Is she okay?” Christian interrupted the woman and prepared himself for the worst. Lucio who hadclosedlistened to the conversation was just as worried as Christian.

“Yes, they told me that she and the baby were both doing fine and it’s just due to overworking butshe’lbut I overheard that she had no family and I still had her phone so I f-“

“I’m her family, please tell me where you are.” Christian sighed and felt relieved to hear that the babywaa second he felt guilty that the baby was the only thing going through his mind, but he couldn’t helphimNot long after the woman gave him the information he needed, he hung up the phone and decidedfor was enough. “What’s going on?” Lucio asked and ran after Christian who had stormed away.

“Serena fainted, don’t worry the baby is fine.” He explained and hurried down the stairs. “And Serena?”the mention of her name made Christian’s skin crawl. He could not understand how she dared to bethisthe baby in danger without thinking anything through.

All he knew was that he would force Serena to move in with him, one way or another.

“Serena will move in with me, whether she wants to or not.