Is This Happiness

83

CARMEN

"Family meeting!" I shout, jumping down from the couch. I felt that it was necessary to stand on it as I called out to everyone. Waving over Arlo as her head peaked in from the hall. I watch as her head turns back, waiting for Adrik to follow her. Jason follows in from behind them and I grimace at the sight of his face.

"Ow." I nearly puncture Luca's ear drum from screaming as loud as I did. I sigh heavily and put a comforting hand down onto his shoulder, whispering a sorry. He smiles up at me cheekily playing it off. Hands slamming down onto mine, smacking me away.

"Was that necessary?" Stefano pulls me halfway onto his lap. Lips meeting my cheek, I slowly start to push off of him. We haven't talked about our exchanged words last night, but he hasn't stopped apologizing any chance he could get. And every time i'd feel the urge to just roll my eyes, but I dismiss it.

"No but it was fun, right Luca?" I ask him knowing he would agree with me. Speaking of exchanged words. Him and I, maybe even Stefano should sit down and talk about what went down in Boston. I know what happened to Giselle was traumatizing to watch. He lost the woman who's been by his side all this life.

It's obvious Luca doesn't want to speak about the topic seeing as he hasn't said a word. But maybe he's spoken to Stefano about it. Hopefully he has and i've just not heard of it yet. Regardless, he deserves to know what kind of work his father does. A diner shoot out isn't exactly normal. Not for a business man as he's perceiving to be anyway.

"Luca, why don't you.." Stefano starts, being cut off by his already adjusted son. Turning his head around to look at me and back at his father. Luca scoots off of the couch, fixing his shirt as he stands.

I swear the boy is more like me than his own father. His own blood. Luca didn't seem to be phased by a thing, much like me. We both lived day by day and I can already tell the boys got a sweet heart. He gets that from his father. I don't care what anyone says. Stefano is a teddy bear. With me at least.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll leave." He joked, standing up and running over to the front door. He's been going over to the neighbors all morning, being hauled back by his irritable father.

I get that he wants to make friends. He said he never did at any of the schools he went to growing up. But at the same time, it's reasonable for Stefano wanting spend time with his son. Some part of Stefano is terrified of Luca wanting to get away from him. I can see it in his eyes. I can hear it even clearer in his voice.

"Jacket!" I shout as his hands reached for the door knob without one. Managing his shoes but forgetting a coat.

"Bossy! I love it." Jason teased, dropping down onto the shaped part of the couch. Spreading his legs and laying straight out. I watch as Arlo falls down onto his arm purposely. Having him jump up as he yanked it back. Jason goes in to hit her before Adrik grabbed his wrist.

"Before you leave Jason. I want you all to sit and tell me exactly how we got here." I announce, clapping both of my hands together. Happy to finally be able to force the truth out of everyone in the room. My eyes cast around.

Jason's leaving for New York.

Everyone's bound to have grown suspicious at how much time Jason has been distanced from Giovanni. If he doesn't get back sooner than soon, it'll only make Giovanni believe he should question more. Jason's hopefully going in and coming back out with all of Giovanni's knowledge of our location, or anything for that matter. Giovanni's plans, or aspirations.

The same doesn't exactly apply to Arlo or Adrik. Giovanni relies more on Jason it seems like. But something tells me the couple intimidates the man.

"Let's start from the top. How did you guys find Jason? When he was brought in for the text messages, where was he?" I encourage, stepping forward to start up the conversation.