The Devoted Gentleman (EDITING)

Prologue

The sun was a bit hotter than usual that day, the sounds of the wave crashing again the seashore and the soft blow of the wind made it the perfect time to go for a dip in the water. There were not as many tourists as usual at the time, perhaps it was due to their timing of arrival, they had come right before high season, merely because both Chiara Consiglio and Grazia Bellafiore Valenza were not fans of a huge crowd.

In their bathing suit, they slowly walked into the pool and started swimming around. The feeling of cold water against their skin were all the rewards they needed. They had walked all the way there with the children and they felt like they deserved it. Meanwhile the kids had just arrived right behind them with Chiara's older brother Dante, who guided them like a shepherd. Unfortunately for them, their husbands, Gianluca Saverino and Antonio Valenza could not come along with them because of their own businesses. Thus the women were left on their own.

It was a large family trip, not only did two of Italian's high society favorite ladies were present, but they also brought along their children, nieces and nephews. Among the youngsters, three of them were best friends, from Chiara's side were her two children Alessio and Valentino Saverino. Her older brother came along with them to make sure there was still a man figure present during their trip because watching over six young children was no easy matter, and he himself brought his only son Pietro.

Grazia herself brought her three children, the eldest was her son Luca, followed by her two daughters, Valeria and Ginerva Valenza. Among the children, there was an obvious closeness between Valeria Valenza and The Saverino Brothers. Since they had a close age gaps between them, it was much easier for them to get along, Alessio and Valeria were both fourteen years old and Valentino was thirteen Comparing that to Luca and Pietro who both were seventeen and had developed a sense of maturity and did not feel like grouping themselves with the youngsters. On the other hand, Ginerva who was only eight years old at the time.

The three were almost always seen together, the adults did not bother too much with it because they thought those kids were just developing an ordinary friendship between each other. Although they had to admit, as young as they were, Alessio and Valeria did look good together. They were both good looking and intelligent children. No one would be surprised if one day they would end up together, the mothers had had some talks about pairing the two together. Though they would still give the children a chance to choose on their on.

They were playing on the side of the pools, constantly dipping their toes in and back out again. Valeria and Alessio were good swimmers, they had entered the water and joined the rest of the family, Valentino, however was a bit of a scaredy cat, he frowned as he splashed the water around with his feet.

"Hey, why don't you join us?" Alessio spoke mockingly. He knew his younger brother was not a good swimmer, he had nearly drowned himself in a pool before and that left a trauma inside him. Chiara hushed her eldest son, because she knew it made Valentino felt inferior. Alessio did not bother to listen as he teased him by swimming around further and shouted his way to Valentino.

"You don't have to jump if you don't want to." Valeria swam closer and looked up to his face. Alessio saw Valeria near his brother and made his way to her, wrapping his arms around her shoulder, Valeria turned her head and saw Alessio grinning at her.

"Then, I will take her instead." He wrapped his arms around her waist and dragged her further from Valentino. Alessio knew his brother was also very fond of Valeria, just like he did, and he wanted to tease him, but what happened afterward was never expected.

Valentino, feeling upset, jumped into the water merely from impulses, which was a bad move considering the fact that he could not swim. Moved by audacity, he tried to move his arms and legs to follow his brother and Valeria, Chiara who witnessed that was starting to get alert, he called out Valentino's name and asked him to go back to the side. Yet there was no respond as Valentino kept on trying to swim his way through. He should have listened because what Chiara had been worried about since the beginning eventually happened, Valentino was starting to act all weird. He stopped swimming and instead created a messy splashes around him. In other words...