Adele was staring at Francesco's eyes searching for answers. He had become silent now looking at Adele with an unreadable expression. He looked like he was thinking about what she had just said or rather that was what Adele was hoping for. Finally he sighed and turned away from Adele.

He sat up on the bed and then spoke in a low tone " Sleep tight Adele. It's getting late. I have to leave you for awhile."

Adele gasped " What are you saying? Are you really avoiding me and my questions? You can't do this..."

Francesco sat on the edge of the bed and glanced at the lying form of Adele " You have no idea what you are asking me...." He then stood up " Be a good girl and go to sleep. Don't wait for me."

As Francesco started walking away towards the door, Adele got up and sat on the edge of the bed. As she saw Francesco reaching the door handle with his hand, she spoke " You can't go. You can't avoid giving me straight answers. You told me I am not to interfere with anything related to your business and I have accepted that. But this is not about your business. This is about your family. You either trust me or you don't when it comes to discussing family matters....."

Francesco kept his hand on the door handle as he turned around. Francesco's expression hardened as he demanded " Go to sleep...."

Adele objected " Why can't you answer me? You either do trust me or you don't. You weren't leaving a minute ago. Just when I started asking a genuine question about your motivations for going to Sicily and dealing with your parents, you suddenly said you wanted to leave...."

Francesco spoke " There is a reason I wish to leave ."

Adele spoke " Fine. But at least answer this question; Do you trust me or not? Tell me the truth."

Francesco let go of the door handle and walked to Adele. He made Adele nervous as he stood towering over her. He reached one hand up and started stroking her hair. He spoke coldly as he was towering over her "We have had enough arguments for one night. Don't you think?"

Adele whispered "Don't you trust me? Why cant you answer me?

Francesco spoke with a dark tone that made chills run down Adele's spine " I trust you but .......I don't trust myself."

Adele was confused " You can't trust yourself with what?"

Francesco clenched his jaw as he spoke " If you take my father's side I may lose it Adele. I don't take kindly to people mentioning him, let alone defending him. You want him at our family thanksgivings.... Don't tell me you want him at our wedding too."

Adele remained silent and bit her lip.

Francesco shook his head and pulled his hand away. He looked tense. He turned around and walked to the door. But Adele got up and ran to the door and blocked Francesco's path as she covered the door with her body. " Wait. Let's talk about this. You must learn to forgive."

Francesco narrowed his eyes and closed the distance between them by taking a long step and put his hands at either side of her head on the door. He spoke " You don't know what you are asking. Don't push me, Adele. Damn it.... I can't take it if you take his side. You already seem to be taking sides. You are making me angry Adele. You are not involved in this issue and it's good that you aren't. Don't push yourself into my thoughts and plans for my father or you may not like what you see. You don't know everything about my life. That's why you are defending my father and that is why I forgive you. It's not your fault. You are innocent and think you are trying to bring a family together. Guess what? Some families don't want to be together and are not good together...."

Adele pleaded " Please Francesco. You must forgive the people in your family who have wronged you in the past. Leave the past in the past and concentrate on the future."

Francesco was shaking his head as he took a step away from her " I find this hilarious. You.... of all the people to take my father's side. Adele you must not defend people you don't know. That is lesson one.... I have heard enough. Step away from the door"

Adele spoke pleadingly " I am not defending your father. I just want us to discuss him. I want you to make peace with your past so you can live with your future with peace too."

Francesco's tone became firmer " I must go. I need to clear my head. I have to leave this room before I make a decision I will regret. You can't bring up my parents and expect me to treat the discussion like an every day matter. This is no ordinary matter Adele. I don't wish to discuss it with you......."

Francesco was acting calm. Too calm. That was surprising to Adele. Maybe underneath there was a fire. She could tell something was bothering him on the inside and could be boiling to the surface.

Adele spoke " I know you are angry that I said anything but ..."

Francesco objected " You are wrong. I am not angry sweetheart. Unlike the topic of Angelo and the problems he caused, this matter does not involve you. You must keep out of it. It's not your fault that you are trying to interfere. You are too innocent and just want to reunite me with my family and make me have peace. It would work with most families but not with mine. You don't understand everything about my life. If you knew then you wouldn't have said anything. You must try to understand Adele, I have to go to clear my head..."

Adele spoke " Clear your head here. I am your fiancé. Tell me anything. Just talk to me. I know you would never hurt me."

Francesco stared into her eyes " Adele ....." and then without warning, he wrapped his arms around her and lifted her up bridal style as Adele wrapped her arms around his neck for support.

Francesco carried her towards the bed as he spoke " Sweetheart. Don't come after me. I need ... space."

He then was about to gently lay her down on the bed but Adele didn't unwrap her arms from his neck and spoke "Wait. Don't leave me here. Stay with me. Don't go. We can talk about this. I know you are hurting. The pain won't stop by taking revenge. Your suffering wont be over just by hurting back your father. Please tell me how you feel. You must tell me how you are planning to heal your wounds. Taking revenge won't solve anything. Taking revenge on your father won't help you heal."

Francesco closed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. He then opened his eyes and spoke in an earnest tone "Stop it Adele. I must go. I am losing it. Don't try to talk to me when I am like this..... You won't like to see me angry. Listen to what I say. Unwrap your arms from my neck so I can put you down........ I give you a choice. I leave you on the bed. If you get off the bed to come after me, then I will make you regret it. I will. I need to clear my head."

Adele trembled as Francesco put her down in the bed. There was meaning behind his words. Adele whispered " Will you really hurt me for leaving this room demanding answers..." She spoke in a sad tone as she unwrapped her arms from around his neck.

Francesco laid her down gently and then stood up towering over her. He sighed " I will punish you. You would leave me no choice. I will answer your questions but later. Be a good girl. I don't want to punish you again for the second time tonight and .... don't you dare take off my ring." He then walked away.

Adele got the hint. He needed to be alone. He looked tense and uneasy. She watched him as he walked out.

Adele felt saddened as she heard the key turning in the lock. He didn't want her to follow. Why was his family such an untouchable subject? Adele sighed and decided to get ready for bed. She went to have a shower and then got changed into her black silky night dress that came just above her knees. The room was quite warm with the fore place heat and the radiators so she didn't bother with a dressing gown or even a duvet. She just collapsed on the bed as her eye lids felt heavy and went to sleep.

It was past midnight that Francesco slowly and carefully opened the door after his grueling exercise and having a shower. He had been letting off his anger and frustrations on the punch bags in the past few hours. He had boxed his time away. He still was on edge. No amount of boxing could get him to calm down. He had tried so hard to control his rage in front of Adele. He didn't want her to fear him. Also he kept telling himself that the issue with his parents didn't involve her. It wasn't Adele's fault and she didn't know much about it so he couldn't be mad at her for bringing the forbidden topic up. But it did not bother him that much that she mentioned his parents. She was his angel. His partner in life. But, it was her intentions about convincing him to forgive and forget that bothered him most.

Now Francesco was feeling too tired to think further and was ready for bed. He turned on the light to check the room and then he froze in his spot as he looked at his angel sleeping peacefully and looking so attractive. The silky dress she had on was wearing her. She was not wearing the night dress by any means. Her rosy lips were so inviting. There was some redness on her cheeks standing out on her pale skin most likely because it was so hot in the room.

Francesco slowly walked to the bed and laid down next to her. He couldn't help admire her beauty. He reached his hand slowly to her hair and started stroking it.

Adele moved to her side and opened her eyes and gasped in her sleepy state as she saw Francesco laying on his side looking at her intensely. She murmured "What's happened? Is it morning yet?"

Francesco leaned close and kissed her forehead. He then rubbed his hand up and down her arm "I am sorry for waking you up sweetheart. It is not morning yet. Nothing has happened .... except heaven must have lost an angel."

Adele rubbed her eyes with one hand and spoke "Francesco.... Are you okay?"

Francesco took a deep breath as he nodded "I am just fine sweetheart. Except I might be finding it hard to breathe. You take my breath away. You look so angelic sweetheart even with the least effort. You are wearing this short dress but the dress does not stand out. It is you that does. You are just perfect."

Adele smiled. She turned to the bed side table and sat up as she reached for a glass of water, she had poured herself earlier. She drank the water and felt more awake now. She laid back down facing Francesco and spoke "You must be dreaming with your eyes open then. I am no angel. You must go to sleep."

Francesco reached his hand up to her cheeks and started stroking her silky strands " You know, I wish I could let you go like how your brother wishes for me to do it. I wish I could set you free. I wish I had the strength to let you go so you could return to your family so you could have a normal life away from me and my dark world but I can't do that. I am just madly in love with you. I can not imagine my life without you. You are my angel in every way. You are bringing the love that I have missed in all twenty five years of my life into my world. You do it so effortlessly by just being here with me. Even when you are here laying next to me in a deep sleep, I feel loved by you. Even when you are unmoving, silent and peacefully asleep, I can feel it. I never thought it was possible to feel so loved. Thank you for making my life beautiful. I don't think I deserve you but I am lucky to have you and selfish to keep you. My biggest fear is losing you. But I would fight for you to have you by my side and will do anything to save our relationship..."

Adele sighed "Francesco. You are not keeping me here. I am staying. I love you. I will not leave you. I will always stand by you. If I didn't intend to stay with you, there was no way I would have said yes to your marriage proposal. That is what this ring testifies or rather should testify to you. I promised you to stay with you through everything that we go through together when I accepted this ring. I will never leave you no matter what you do. That is what this ring is representing to me, a promise to stand by the man I love. Only if you don't honour your promises to take care of me and ever go on to break my trust, then our relationship will get rocky but I know we will survive the bumps in this relationship. I have faith in you. But I do feel fear sometimes.... But it is not the fear of losing you that I have. I fear your anger. I fear you losing yourself in your hate, desire for revenge and anger. I do feel strongly that if ..... you go through with your revenge on your father which I know you must be considering, you will never be the same. I am afraid of losing you that way...."

Francesco's expression turned serious as he pulled his hand away from her cheeks. He warned "Don't go there Adele. I warn you. What I do to my father is my mission alone." He then sat up on the bed and looked at the window " I am done watching the stars. I have you now. I don't need my father to reunite a family for me anymore. All those years, I needed a family and I didn't have it. My father was no father to me. He split me up from you and from my brother even for years. He sent away my mother. I can't forgive him. Now that it is too late for forgiveness and I don't need him anymore, he is back. I don't need a father anymore. I can take care of myself now..."

Adele sat up on the bed and put her hand on his shoulder " You must think about this before going to Sicily. That is why I brought it up. Think Francesco. You don't need your father but I do need him in your life so you can start healing. He hurt you but he can't do it anymore. Let him back into your life but this time he cant do anything to your life. He is family. Talk to him. He may have changed. From everything you have told me about what Alessio told you, he sounds like he is regretting his past. If he is no longer a threat to you, then you can let him back into your life. Our children will need grandparents..."

Francesco looked away " This is different to any other topic Adele. I hate my father. I don't want to hear you take his side and wanting him back in my life. I certainly don't. You don't know anything about what he has done."

Adele spoke " I know he hurt you."

Francesco spoke as he sighed " I know you want to stop me from killing him. I know you are using our kids as an excuse by saying they need a grandfather just to stop me from murdering him.... But I actually don't want to kill him. Killing him would be too easy. But he deserves to suffer. I want him to hurt over years and years like how I was. But I want my mother to have her say. I want to talk to her. I want to ask her about what she feels. I feel betrayed by how she has ran back to my father's arms after all the abuse he subjected her to but I still want to hear her. I feel betrayed by her though. I really do...."

Francesco got up from the bed and then walked slowly to the balcony window. He looked into the distance as he spoke " I looked at the stars for a decade. I am done looking at the stars and making wishes. I cant tell you what I really would do to my father if I see him on a bed as he is still recovering from his assassination. I cant tell you because I haven't decided. That is right, in the past decade I only dreamt of seeing my mother again. I knew I also was going to confront my father one day but I never thought about how my final confrontation with him would go exactly. I just knew I was going to confront him. But .... I knew what I was going to say to my mother. Maybe I was never looking forward to taking revenge on my father as much as I looked forward to meeting my mother. If I was given a choice I would choose meeting my mother one last time over getting my revenge on my father finally and confronting him, I would choose seeing my mother without hesitation. I know she would break my heart by declaring love for the man who hurt me and my brother repeatedly but I still want to see her even though I feel betrayed. I miss her Adele. I miss her so much."

Adele now had gotten up from the bed and walking slowly to Francesco. She stood next to him slowly moved in front of him. She stood on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck as she whispered " I love you..." She then attached her lips to his.

Francesco was overwhelmed. She was truly an angel. She didn't fear him. She was kissing him and embracing him. He whispered back as he pulled away slightly "I love you too, sweetheart." He then attached his lips to hers.

They, then kissed passionately and held each other tightly not letting go.