Chapter 68- ROMANO BLOOD

'Did you do what I asked you to do?" Signora Carina asked her son in a less than friendly tone, she spoke to Leonardo as though he was a business partner rather than her very own son. Leonardo swallowed the lump in his throat, swallowing all the emotions that he felt and the fact that he felt like crying.

Taking his tears back, Leonardo did not want his mother to see that he was emotional so he opted to smirk.

'Are you not going to greet your own son? I mean, I expected this reaction from father but certainly not you mother" he reminded his son, choosing to try one last time to get his mother's love once more. Leonardo watched as his mother rolled her eyes as though nothing he said mattered to her as she crossed the hands over her chest.

'Leonardo, I ask again, do you have the papers?" She reiterated and this time in a less than interesting voice, a sign that she wanted nothing to do with him and her main objective were the contract.

Leonardo has spent years studying the human body, he looked into his mother's eyes one last time and realized that there was no way in speaking with this woman. She had made up her mind that money was more important than family and he was not going to stand there and argue with her about it.

Without saying another word to his mother, Leonardo reached for his suitcase and put out the contract and handed it to his mother. His heart broke as he saw his mother's eyes widen and her smile as well. Never had she seen her this happy in his life.

Without waiting for Leonardo to fully hand it to her, signora Carina grabbed it out of his hands and looked at the first page. Her smile depicting a villainous villain who was glad to get her hands on treasure. She looked away from the contract and looked at her on and her smile disappeared.

'Is this is a game? Are you trying to cheat me Leonardo? You will never live a happy life again if you try and cheat me!" his mother warned him. Her warning only making Leonardo angrier than he originally was.

'You can look at the papers and clearly you can see that it is not fake. I got your contract and you've got your lands" Leonardo angrily explained to his mother but deep down he was hurt that his mother would suspect him of trying to cheat her.

She handed the paper to her father who took it and placed it in his own file. As he watched his mother work Leonardo, he realized one and that thing was that his father was clearly the follower and all along his mother was the puppet pulling his strings.

'Well then, we have a deal you can live your life and we can take our lands"

'My wife's lands" Leonardo corrected his mother, not afraid to show them that he was angry. He had gone through a lot to get ahold of those papers, even if it meant lying to his wife.

'Point of correction, it is now our lands" his mother corrected him, not ashamed to admit that they taking something that did not belong to them originally.

'I guess you and father have fulfilled your aim, you wanted to get me and here I am married, and now you get bonus points, you got the lands that you have wanted from her family"

'Please Leonardo stop crying about things, I mean we got our lands and you got a wife and a baby on the way, isn't that right?" Leonardo was taken aback that his mother had mentioned his wife's pregnancy, knowing full well that he had not spoken to her about it.

'How do you—"

'No need to ask me how I know this, I know everything that happens" his mother explained to him, not the least bothered that she knew.

'You know what? I'm not even going to bother asking how you found out. I have to go home, I have a wife to get to" Leonardo tried walking away but his heart could not stop eating him up and neither could his mind stop bothering him as he thought of the promise that he had made to his wife. Leonardo stopped himself just as he was about walking past his mother, standing in between his mother and father, Leonardo turned around to face his mother.

'We would like to invite you to our wedding" Leonardo blurted out. Looking at his mother's facial expression, he could see the look of shock appear on her face.

'I thought the two of you are married, I mean we were all there weren't we not?" Leonardo let out a frustrated breath, the last thing he wanted to do was stay in this office longer with parents who had no emotions, but he knew that he had to simplify things for his parents to understand

'Avena and I are having a real wedding this time, because this time we are in love"

'And why are you telling your father and I this?"

'I just want to make my wife happy, her family is not here and I thought that it's best that I invite you two"

'You still consider us family after what you've done" His mother pointed out to him and this had Leonardo rolling his eyes and fuming with anger.

'If it were up to me, you would not even be at our wedding. This is not for me, I consider this as a gift to my wife. She simply wants to have my family at our wedding, even if that family would do anything to betray her for money. Have a nice day, I have to go" he tried walking away, only for his mother to pull him by the arm.

'How did you get the documents? I mean how did you get your wife to sign these papers?" His mother asked him, looking at him suspiciously. Leonardo swallowed the lump in his throat. Leonardo thought back to how he convinced his wife to sign the contract and he felt guilty that he had to gone an extra mile to lie to her.

'That is for me to know, it has nothing to do with you. Enjoy the lands, while you can"

'I may not know how you got the papers to the properties, but I can assure you one thing, the Romano blood runs in your veins and you're just as manipulating as the rest of us are" his mother's words sunk deep into him as Leonardo realized that he had done exactly what his mother had said. The last thing Leonardo wanted was to admit to his mother that some of that evil, vile and manipulating blood had caused him to make his wife sign the papers that he had offered her.

'I am nothing like the rest of you" Leonardo responded to his mother, while trying to convince his mother that he was nothing like them. Signora Carina moved closer to her son, looking up at him and into his eyes as though she was studying him

'You can run as much as you want, you can deny who you are as much as you want but you will be a Romano as long as you live. I mean, what if your wife finds out that you are a murderer?" His mother's cold words ran down my spine as Leonardo realized that his mother has spoken of the unspoken.

He had long tried to keep the secret hidden, with only a few people knowing and he did not want his wife knowing that the man that she's so much love with is nothing more than a murderer.

Clenching his fist beside, Leonardo's muscles tensed as fear gripped him. He had always known that the secret might come out but the last thing he wanted was the secret to come out now, not now when had finally been able to live past it.

'There's no need for you to threaten me, you got what you wanted. Now leave me alone, you are free to come to the wedding if you want and if you don't, then please do not show up" Leonardo turned on his heel and walked out of his father's office. Even as he walked out of the mansion, he could still feel his mother's words running down his spine.

Leonardo entered his car and let out the breath of relief but even that could not help the fear rising in his body, taking his head, Leonardo slammed it against the wheel twice as hard as he could.

'Dammit!" he yelled as tears ran down his eyes. Leonardo was overcome filled with emotions and fearing that he was once again about to fail.

The woman that he had seen in the office was nothing like his mother, the woman that he had seen in the office was just a woman who wanted nothing but you ruin his life, even if she had the lands or not. He started his engine and drove out of the property.

Leonardo drove, a feeling of unsettled wind filled him as he remembered how he gotten his wife to sign the papers


Flashback

Leonardo walked into his room, holding the documents in his hands. Leonardo watched his wife as she carefully tied her hair in a bun and looking in the mirror. Almost as though she had felt his presence, Aurora turned around, smiling at him and Leonardo could not help but feel guilty.

'Finally you're back from work, I missed you the entire day" Aurora told her husband as she smiled at him as though she were a kid in a candy store. But as quickly as she smiled, her smile also went away as soon as she realized that her husband was not smiling back at her.

'Did something happen at work?" Aurora asked her husband, she lifted her hands and touched the side of his face.
Seeing his wife so upset and worried had Leonardo snapping out of his own world and plastering a smile on his face.

Do not show her that you are upset. Leonardo kept thinking to himself, at this point he would do whatever it took to make sure that his wife was always happy.

'No it's nothing. Work was very busy and in between planning the wedding, it got a little bit hectic" he lied. Aurora wrapped her hands around his waist and placed her head onto his chest, listening to his heart beat.

'Everything is going to be alright, just take it one step at a time" Aurora assured her husband.

'I mean, we do not have a lot of time, we literally have five whole days until we are married" Leonardo explained but he stopped himself as he saw that Aurora was smiling at him.

He knew that his wife is right, but even as he thought of the five days being so close, Leonardo also felt that so much could go wrong in five days.