Chapter 64

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"What are you doing here?" Lorenzo asked.

"I came to meet my sisters and apologize to them." He said, straightening up, no emotion visible on his face.

Someone scoffed.
"Wow! Suddenly, you remember you have sisters to apologize to? Where were you for the last eleven years?" Alessandro asked.

Everyone stayed silent. It was just the brothers arguing with each other.

"I knew about her return. But she didn't remember anyone, so that was a relief. She won't miss me. Charlotte stayed with you all this time, I thought she hated me too." His eyes filled with tears

"I'm just here, because I got the news about Amelia getting her memories back. I couldn't stay away any longer, because I knew, she'd ask about me and-and be sad about it. And I know you don't even talk about me now, that meant, she didn't hate me like you do." He said, tears flowing down his face now.

"Well. You're not meeting them again." Lorenzo said, coldly. I looked up at him in shock.

Why is he being so cruel?

"I'm going to meet him again. You can't stop me." I gritted, but Lorenzo ignored me.

"Don't do this Lorenzo." Valentino pleaded. "I've lived in guilt for eleven years. And now that I know they don't hate me, Char doesn't hate me, I won't be able to stay away."

"I will do this, Valentino." Lorenzo said, taking a step forward, threateningly. "I don't want you near my sisters."

"They are my sisters too." He said, his voice cracked.

"Not after what you did to them and then instead of explaining everything, you decided to run away. We would've forgiven you, Val. You're family." Emilio said. "But you left us." He gritted.

"It wasn't my fault-" Valentino began, but was cut off.

"Take him away." Lorenzo ordered as I heard Aunt Alicia sobbing.

That wasn't the eldest son of the Costello family, speaking. That was the Capo speaking.

That is probably why, Valentino's own parents didn't say anything and just stood there, letting Lorenzo do whatever he thought was right.

"Wait. NO." I yelled, moving forward, but Lorenzo grabbed my arm.

"CAN YOU LISTEN TO HIM FOR ONCE?" Charlotte yelled at Lorenzo, who looked at her and raised his eyebrows in surprise. She never blows up like this. No one talks to Lorenzo that way.

"Shut up, Charlotte." Gabriel said.

"No, you shut up." she yelled. "You never talked about him. You always shut me up. Do you even know what actually happened?"

"You were too small to know what happened, Charlotte." Jace said, sadly.

"But as I grew up, I understood everything." She yelled at him, furiously.

"Please let me explain." Valentino begged. Lorenzo clenched his jaw.

"You had a chance to explain, but instead you ran away." Matteo said, holding back his tears.

"Do I need to repeat myself?" Lorenzo asked, looking at the guards, who immediately moved forward to grab Valentino. I moved forward, too, jerking Lorenzo's hand away.

Nothing could've prepared me for what happened next.

Valentino panicked as the guards moved towards him. Without a second thought, he sunk to the ground, on his knees, looking up at Lorenzo.

"Please Lorenzo. I've suffered enough." He begged, his hands clasped together and tears flowing down his cheeks.

Woah. This is going too far.

"For God's sake, Valentino. What the fuck are you doing?" I yelled at him, trying to reach him.

Lorenzo's expressions softened immediately, replaced with guilt and he motioned for the men to step back again.

"Get up." He ordered, coldly. Valentino got up, but still looked at Lorenzo with pleading eyes.

"You have no right to just walk into our lives again, after abandoning us. Now especially, when we were finally succeeding in healing the wounds you left behind." Lorenzo said, coldly.

"Please. Let me explain." Valentino begged.

"I'm giving you one chance to explain yourself. Why did you run away?" Lorenzo asked.

"I felt guilty." Valentino said, before he started telling the whole story.

Flashback


Charlotte and Amelia were out with Valentino. They went to a park, with Valentino and some of his friends. Valentino looked at his sisters, all happy and playing with each other, instead of fighting, like they always do.

Amelia was four, almost five, at the time, while Valentino was fifteen.

"Hey, Valentino. Want a drink?" One of the guys asked. He was seventeen.

"No. I can't consume alcohol while my sisters are around." Valentino declined.

"Orange juice instead?" The guy asked. Val nodded.

"Here." He said, after sometime. All of Valentino's friends took out their bottles and cigarettes.

They were planning on getting drunk and high and Valentino realized he had to get his sisters out of there soon.

The guy was looking at Valentino, now and then. He had put some drug in his drink. Valentino would be unconscious soon.

This was a planned kidnapping. This guy, was working for the rivals, who wanted to kidnap both of the sisters.

The other guys were all taking drugs and watching the two little girls play.

"Do you think, he will let me be with one of them, when they are teenagers?" One of them muttered.

The boy next to him smacked him on his head.
"Are you too high to think straight? That's a twelve to thirteen years age gap, you pedo."

"Whatever. The Costello's have great genes. All of them are too good looking and beautiful." He rolled his eyes, still eyeing the girls.

Valentino was sprawled unconscious on the ground by that time.

After some time, all of them were too high to open their eyes, except the sketchy guy and the pedo.

The pedo stood up and walked towards the girls. When the sketchy guy saw this, he rushed up and followed him.

"Hey." He slurred. Amelia and Charlotte, looked at him and furrowed their eyebrows.

They giggled. He looked ridiculous, with his hair a mess and the stumble in his walk.

"Here. Drink this." He said, offering them the drink. Seeing the chance, the sketchy guy, put the powder in the glass.

Alcohol plus that drug, they would be unconscious for a long time.

"No. Dad and Teddy said, not to take anything from strangers." Amelia said, simply and took Charlotte's hand, marching to the swings again.

He groaned and went behind them, to grab them, but he couldn't.

Francesco and Luciano reached there in time. They saw the guy following the girls and Valentino sprawled on the ground along with all the guys.

Both the pedo and the sketchy guy were never seen again.

They took Valentino home. The girls were oblivious of what had happened and were just chatting cheerfully, occasionally poking an unconscious Valentino, who was now sprawled in the backseat.

When they reached home, Valentino woke up after about two hours.

"What?" He asked, looking at the angry glares on everyone's face.

"Are you insane? You take your sisters to the park and get high with your friends?" Francesco shouted.

"Do you know, two of your friends were about to hurt your sisters? They were about to touch them?" Luciano said.

Valentino's eyes widened as realization dawned upon him.

Everyone was angry at Valentino for dragging himself and his sisters to such a situation.

But when asked to explain himself,
All Valentino said was,
"It was my fault."

And next day, he left with his belongings, because the guilt was eating him inside and the family was angry at him, for taking drugs, which he didn't.

His sisters were almost kidnapped that day. Someone almost put their hands on their innocence.

And the guilt and anger was unbearable. He just thought the family hated him.

But the family wasn't that angry on him. They couldn't have kicked him out of their lives.

He never explained himself, because he wanted to punish himself. He wanted himself to suffer.

But what he left behind was a broken family, who were blaming themselves for him walking out of their lives.

Flashback Over.

"Why didn't you explain back then?" Lorenzo asked, glaring at Valentino, who looked down.

"I felt guilty. It was my fault. I was with the wrong company and didn't even realise it." He said, staring at the ground, ashamed.

"And you chose to run away? Without explaining yourself?" Lorenzo gritted. Valentino gulped and nodded weakly.

"The whole family was angry. Everyone blamed me. I was unconscious. I hurt my sisters. Who knows, what could have happened in my presence, if they didn't reach there?" He said.

Lorenzo clenched his jaw. Before I could blink, a punch landed on Valentino's face, making him stumble.

"You little shit, you could have told us. We spent eleven years in misunderstanding, and away from each other, just because of you." Lorenzo yelled at him. Valentino regained his composure and kept his head bowed. Lorenzo grabbed the collar of his shirt.

Another punch landed on his jaw. Lorenzo seemed too angry.

"We hated you all these years for nothing? We didn't let your sister talk about you, when she wanted to because it hurt us. It hurt, Valentino." Lorenzo said, his angry voice turning sad, with each word.

Valentino rubbed his jaw a little and stood straight again. Tears were flowing down his face while he refused to look into anyone's eyes.

"I still don't remember, Charlotte." I said, worried.

"Don't worry. I could've forgotten too, if it wasn't the reason he left. We were too small to take that seriously. And you didn't know he left." She said.

"I'm sorry." He mumbled. "You were all angry. I thought you'd never want to see my face again."

"We were angry. But we were not angry enough to not let you explain yourself or kick you out. But you saying, it was your fault and running away, isn't that supposed to prove you're guilty?" Uncle Henry said, his voice shook. Valentino just stood there, tears flowing down his cheeks, afraid of facing anyone.

"What else would we have guessed when we found you high with your friends, one of them trying to assault your sisters, who were both toddlers, another being involved in a kidnapping and you being so guilty and running away?" Emilio said, almost in tears.

Okay. I want to hug Valentino to death now.

He's such a dumbass. Ruined eleven years of his life.

"Yeah. We thought you didn't care about your own family. You kinda abandoned us." Alessandro said.

"I wanted to punish myself. To suffer. I would've died, if something happened to them."

Lorenzo stepped forward, standing before him, looking very intimidating and scary due to him being taller. He grabbed his ear in his hand, shocking Valentino and everyone around.

"Listen here, Valentino. You do NOT try to punish yourself. You ruined eleven years of your life, which you could've spent with your family and made us suffer along with yourself. If you had explained yourself that day, this wouldn't have happened, because clearly, you were not at fault."

"Charlotte was too small back then, but when she was old enough to understand what actually happened, everyone had stopped talking about you." Dad said, guiltily.

"It hurt, Valentino. It hurt to talk about you." Lorenzo mumbled, frowning and pulling his ear, earning a painful groan from him. "It hurt to see one of us move away and walk out of our lives."

Valentino, held Lorenzo's hand, that was on his ear, his eyes clenched shut.

Lorenzo clenched his jaw, still glaring at him and pulled his ear again.

"Oww.. It hurts, Lorenzo." Valentino grumbled, his other ear turned red, most probably from the embarrassment of getting his ear pulled like a little child.

Lorenzo let go of his ear, while Valentino rubbed it, like a little child.

Can't blame him. Lorenzo is strong. It must have really hurt.

Without another word, Lorenzo pulled Valentino into a hug.

Everyone was shocked. Because he was furious a second ago and now he was hugging him tightly.

Valentino started shaking and we heard sniffles.

Much to everyone's shock, his sniffles turned into sobs.

His sobs spoke on their own, that he had definitely suffered too much in the past eleven years.

Staying away from everyone, especially Charlotte, must have felt like the heart being ripped out.

"I'm so sorry." He sobbed. Everyone stood silent. Only things that could be heard were his sobs and sniffles and his failed attempts to breath.

Lorenzo rubbed his back, looking like he was going to cry any second.

He was really hurt. Of course, they were close. All of the oldies.

Slowly, Alessandro, Emilio and Matteo joined their hug too, completely hiding Valentino, who wasn't ready to let go of Lorenzo anytime soon. His arms were wrapped around Lorenzo, his coat clutched tightly in his fists.

Aunt Alicia was hugging Uncle Henry, who was holding back his tears.

Charlotte was hugging Jace while, Alex rubbed her back.

It was painful to hear Valentino crying.

I felt a hand on my cheek. I looked away from the Eldest brothers. Grayson stood there, wiping my tears away, while smiling at me. He hugged me to his side.

"Nanna went home some time ago." Roman said. "You need to meet them."

"But run before Nanna gets to her Rifle." Alex said.

Valentino finally calmed down after what seemed like forever. He kept apologizing again and again.

The whole family met him, one by one.

Aunt Alicia and Uncle Henry didn't let him go for so long. She kept kissing him all over his face and muttering about how he looked weak and slim, how she was going to make him strong and fit again.

Just mother things, I guess.

He hugged Charlotte, then pulled me in too.
"I'm sorry." He said, again.

"Don't. It's okay." Charlotte said.

That's not the right way to say it, Charlotte.

"I'm going to punch you to your house, if you don't stop apologizing." I said.

Valentino chuckled a little and said,
"You two have swapped personalities. Charlotte was supposed to be the mean one."

I chuckled.
"Little princess is too sweet and befriends trashcans." I said, sweetly.

Charlotte pinched my stomach.
"Don't be mean. We both know, you care about those trashcans too."

I flicked her forehead for the pinch.

"Okay. Don't fight now." Valentino laughed.

And that's the first time, I saw tears in everyone's eyes. Everyone was happy yet emotional.

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Sending love and positivity your way.
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