Gracious

12

The knocking on the bedroom door snapped Grace out of her thoughts. She knows who's knocking, it's a matter of does she want to answer the door. The hurt coursing through her is telling her to keep the door shut but for some reason she ignored it. She got up from her spot on the bed to unlock the door, to confirm that Alessandro is standing there.

"Grace," He reached out for her but she moved out of the way. He tried looking her in the eye but she kept her head down, not trying to show the lip he busted. "I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me. I got so mad that I couldn't control my emotions, I'm sorry,"

She nodded at him then turned to leave him in the doorway. He's not used to her being so quiet, he had gotten rid of this Grace years ago and she became herself. Before she was completely out of his grasp, he put his arms around her pulling her back to him.

The hug shocked Grace, Dro hasn't been himself. Dro and his bipolar behavior is normal but to this extent, to actually put his hands on her, never. He's been thinking about how his mental health has been on the decline, understandably, the past four years. As he hugged her he kept whispering about how sorry he is and how it'll never happen again. Within his arms, Grace felt safe for some reason her body just seemed to relax into him. He is all her body wants and knows, if he could just let go of the past. It's been four years since he was last seen, everyone assumed he was dead.

"Dro please let me go," Grace faintly said.

"Okay, I'm sorry again," Dro let her go and watched as she quickly changed into leggings and a work out shirt.

"We have a meeting starting soon," She informed him. "I meet with Reno and Tarzan on Zoom to go over our legal business. When it's time to discuss our- your other businesses they come here,"

"You've busted your ass for the last four years, it's your businesses too," Dro said. Grace just looked at him, not saying anything. "Grace,"

"Let's go," She simply said as she headed out of the room to her office. 'Maybe he really did get hit in the head a little too much' is the first though to pop up in her head. They checked on the children doing their daily assignments before continuing to her office. "Hey, have you thought of therapy?" She asked. Those words were all too familiar with Alessandro and as much as he'd like to deny, he put his pride to the side since he didn't want to be a hypocrite.

"Yeah, maybe," He looked down at her into her pools of big brown eyes and couldn't fight the small smile that came onto his face when looking at her. "I guess I can't say no since I harassed you about it before,"

"I was gonna bring that up if you had denied," Grace smiled at him then turned back around, now in front of her office. "I don't think anyone should know about you yet,"

"Grace," Alessandro sighed. He agrees with her but he misses his family too, everything was stripped away from him in an instant.

"Soon but not now. I just got you back, sorry if I want to be selfish," Grace told him then opened the door to her office and headed to the elegant chair that sat in front of her triple monitors. The alert for zoom already binging on the computer, with one click the session started revealing Tarzan and Reno.

"Hey Gracey," Tarzan teased. "Figlia finally got you in training," The first to point out her lip.

"I guess so," Grace simply said. Reno began the breakdown of how much each business has made in the past two months. The numbers had Dro's eyebrows to the ceiling, his mouth slightly open due to the numbers almost doubling from the ones he read last night. He still couldn't believe Grace had done this much work in the four years he's been gone. When people saw him they immediately knew the family association and didn't want to involve illegal drugs with their names but Grace walks around with his name and people put trust in her to run businesses legitimately, even though she fabricated the truth the get her way.

"Why do you keep looking up? Are you alone?" Reno asked Grace towards the end of their meeting.

"Yeah aren't I always," She gave them a small smile. "Just a lot on my mind, sorry guys,"

"Word on the streets are that two DeNiro daughters have been murdered. I also heard that he could be involved with Alessandro's death," Tarzan said. Grace didn't move, she'd rather not show her emotions to these men right now.

"I haven't seen his piece of shit father in years now. Do you still talk to his sister?" Reno asked her. Grace hasn't spoken to her since Dro's "funeral". She figured it'd be best to keep her distance even if she had nothing to do with it.

"No. Not since the funeral," Grace revealed which made Dro's turn his gaze towards hers. The two of them were friends for years so he couldn't imagine how Grace could cut her completely off.

"Well, we can look into it more when we get there at the end of this month. Renee wants a full European tour," Tarzan rolled his eyes but Grace paid it no mind. He would move mountains for her little sister. So when he complains about things he could say no to, she ignores him.

"Okay, ciao," She smiled then quickly hung up the zoom call. "End of the month?!" She looked at Alessandro with big eyes.

"I don't see the big deal," He shrugged. Grace looked at Alessandro sideways with pure confusion written on her face.

"It's already the middle of the month. We have two weeks at most together before everyone knows you're alive," She didn't want to make it seem as if he couldn't come out of hiding and back into his role. She simply wanted more time with him to herself.

"Grace, I have missed my other family too. I know you want me to yourself but I want to see them too," Alessandro told her but she didn't acknowledge him. Her mind drifted somewhere else. Somewhere dark, somewhere she doesn't want to return because of the depression that comes along with it. It's better for her to block out all feelings on that end.

"Okay, what you say goes," She got up from her desk and headed to check on the kids. By now they're probably doing their own thing with painting or dancing. Rico stood in front of his easel with a wide smile, filling the white canvas with bright, bold colors that made her heart warm. He's happy. Meanwhile, Alessa sat at the edge of her bed staring off into space. Alessandro followed her to check on the kids but when Grace asked to talk to their daughter alone, he didn't get upset. He knew it was something only she could handle.

"What's wrong?" Grace asked their beautiful brown eyed daughter.

"I don't know mommy, I want to be happy to have my daddy but I'm just scared. What if he leaves us again?" The words coming out of his 4 year olds mouth made his mouth drop. His disappearance caused this much of an emotional turmoil within his kids. He had noticed Rico's previous paintings that just held such pain and a darkness he couldn't describe. Now Alessa with her doubts about him being able to stay in their lives.  His heart broke a little.

"He won't leave again baby. I know it is hard and it's a lot but he loves us okay?" Grace's sweet voice broke him from his thoughts. He witnessed her kiss their daughters head and then she headed back towards him at the door.

"I'm sorry, she doesn't understand what's going on," Grace apologized for their daughters comment.

"Why do you have to apologize? If that's how she feels that's okay, I just have to do everything in my power to allow her to trust me," He smiled at the love of his life and the frowned. "Grace I'm sorry for earlier. I really don't-,"

She held up her hand causing him to stop talking. "Make that be the first and the last time you ever do something like that again. I vowed to never, ever let a man put his hands on me ever again," She looked into his soul without blinking. He couldn't do anything but nod his head.

Grace certainly has gotten scary.

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Don't kill meeeeeeeee. I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorryyyyyy. Life just continued getting busy and I couldn't handle everything at once.

This is chapter 12 which means that there's only 8-10 chapters left. Yes, this was a short part 2 so I hope y'all like it.