No Hesitation: Book of Gio

Chapter 22: Growth.

Serin looked at the map in disbelief, and so did her sisters. Sebastian is on the floor bleeding from his head. They couldn't take their eyes off it, it was just such a sight to see. Daniel didn't think he would do that, he didn't even get to fight him for what he did to his mother. He took the way out.

They had to look at something else, so the next thing they looked for was their parents. They watched as Francesco froze and looked back for a brief moment and their mother never turned around. Then he looked at her and pulled her under his arm and led her out the room.

"Well, isn't that something?" Parish said frozen in place. Trying to make her emotions land somewhere. "He took that way out."

Francesca threw up, she couldn't take seeing that. With all this happening it made her want to take a step back from the family. If it drove people to this point of craziness.

Francesco led Serenity to his room where he got prepared at. While he adjusted the room she took in its surrounding. Looking for solutions on what to say next and how to address the fact that Francesco killed his ex-fiancé. But she found nothing but her, the kids, and family photos surrounding the room.

"I thought about you each day while I was here training," Francesco said. "That's not what you want to hear right now though. You want answers about Iana." He said looking at her who was scared to look at him. He felt the anxiety in him rise, it made him uneasy. He didn't try to reach for her hand he was scared that she would pull away. "Please sit."

Serenity hesitated before sitting down, it was too hard to place her emotions right at the moment. It was like she was numb at the news, had she known that fact beforehand—she would at least try right? She was so unsure of herself nowadays. She felt like she was starting to shut down. She needed a moment just to process.

"No." He heard her speak. "I don't want to know anything."

"You said no more secrets," Francesco said. "But I do understand you need to process this."

Serenity just stared at him for a moment, and then looked back in the air. Francesco watched her movements planning not to react to them. Then that's when he decided to put into practice his past experience.

"I'll give you some time, and when you are ready I'll be waiting." He stood up and walked out of the room. He needed to find his children, he needed to check on them. That was his priority. He found them outside. Looking stunned, Parish was the first one to see him and then followed Francesca and Daniel. Yet, Serin never looked at him, he noticed she never really looked at him anymore. Or at least made eye contact with him. Not since that diner incident that happens.

"Papa, I've never seen you like that before," Parish said. "I didn't expect that to happen." Francesco stayed silent. He didn't know what to say or do at this very moment. He didn't know how to be the family man he thought was. In the end, he did feel responsible for Sebastian's actions. If he had the mindset he had now, where he noticed these types of things. Would Sebastian still hate him?

He never understood why he felt so threatened by Francesco. He always remembered being kind to Sebastian but he always gave him the cold shoulder. And When Francesco grew older he gave up being nice to him and started going into blow-for-blow word battles with him. When all this time he was hurting and suffering. And instead of keeping it to himself, it was too much for him to bear on his own.

He felt Parish give him a hug,

"You are in your head," Parish said. "Where is mom?"

"She's in the dressing room, I decided to give her some room now that she's found out about Iana," Francesco said. "I hope she knows I would never do that to her if she left me. She isn't like Iana. She did try to use this family as a piggy bank. I love your mother and I want her to have all the space she needs until we can talk."