Chapter 74- SURPRISE

'Mr. Leonardo, is this you?" Leonardo heard a familiar voice, he turned around and his eyes glow brighter. He knew this face from somewhere and now that he thought about it for a few seconds or more, he realized just who it was.

'Do you remember me?" The older man asked him, with a bright smile on his face as though he had seen another son of his.

With all the happiness within him, Leonardo stood up from his seat and hugged the older man. Leonardo hugged him, not just because he knew him from when he was younger but mainly because Leonardo felt as though he needed some sort of family closure.

'Of course I remember you, you were our driver back in Sicily" Leonardo pointed out, unable to contain his excitement upon seeing the old man.

Letting go of the old man, Leonardo looked into his face and he was much older than he remembered. Leonardo remembered a time where he would have this man drive him wherever he wanted to, as he was Leonardo's personal driver when he was younger.

'It has been a long time and look at you all grown up. I guess you're no longer the naughty boy that you were" Mr. Brown joked and Leonardo laughed, by far the longest laugh that he had had in a while. Looking at the older man, Leonardo's eyes filled up with tears.

Leonardo remembered that day as though it had happened just yesterday, seeing Mr. Brown had opened up old wounds and now his past was back to haunt him, because it was Mr. Brown who drove him home that fatal day.
Leonardo remembered the time when the cops had come to the house and taking Mr. Brown away for questioning but even after the intense questioning, Mr. refused to put the blame on Leonardo.

'My boy there is no use in crying" Mr. Brown came in closed the space between them and pulled Leonardo into his embrace once more. He felt warmth of a fatherly embrace that he had so much craved ever since he was a young boy.

'I will always regret what I did that day" Leonardo cried into the older man's shoulder and Mr. Brown quickly let go of him and looked into Leonardo's eyes.

'Don't ever say such about yourself again. I think you should sit down, we need to talk" Mr. Brown advised Leonardo, both men pulled out their seats and sat down for the conversation.
Leonardo listened carefully as the old man spoke about how his life had changed since he had left Sicily. He told tales of know he moved into this small town, where he brought a small house where only he and his wife had lived as empty-nesters.

'I see you have a wedding band on your hand, when did you get married?" Mr. Brown pointed at Leonardo's ring finger and he smiled. Leonardo laughed and threw his head back as he realized that the old man had been staring at his ring finger all along.

'Nearly seven months now, but we are about to renew our vows in two days' time" To Leonardo's surprise, the older man's smile grew brighter than he had expected.

'It's nice to see that you are finally happy, you know you never fit in with those rich snobs anyway" Mr. Brown commented and his observation had come as a surprise to Leonardo whom raised a questionable eye brow ta the older man.

'Come on, I was just like"

'No you were not, you were different, you had a heart and you were more generous than they were. You were not defined by money and you cared about people"

'Hope you are not saying that make me better, because if we were to honest with one another we both know the crime that I committed all those years ago"

'Enough!" Mr. Brown yelled at him, slamming his hand against the table so much that it shocked Leonardo.

'Why do you punish yourself so much?" Mr. Brown asked him, in a now calmer tone.

'Because I killed someone, I killed the woman, I killed a mother and I killed a wife"

'I think you should stop doing this to yourself" Mr. Brown pleaded with him as Leonardo played with both his hands looking nervous.

'I think it is best that we not speak about this, otherwise more people might find out that I am indeed a murderer" Leonardo told Mr. Brown who in turn stared at him as though he was studying his facial features.

'Please do not pity me, a lot of people have been having pity me for quite a while. I'm about to remarry my wife in the next two days and all I could think about is that someone might reveal my truth to the rest of the world. I can't even dream of having a peaceful night" Leonardo told Mr. Brown, blinking away tears.

'You really do love this woman, do you?"

'I love her with every fiber in my body"

'I can see that, I can see that you love her deeply" Mr. Brown responded and then there was silence between the two men as though each waiting for the other to speak.

'Come to think of it Mr. Brown, since you live in town, would you mind coming to my wedding? I mean, it's not like my wife and I have a lots of people coming, considering that my parents won't be there"

'Your parent's won't be there! Well that doesn't surprise me at all. Of course I'll be there, I mean after all you done for me and my family"

'No need to mention it, you too have done a lot for me and it's because of you that I'm a free man" Leonardo responded but all he could see was sadness in Mr. Brown's face as he said that.

'I have to go but I have a gift. This gift will only be given to you on your wedding day"

'Why not now, why later?"

'Some things are better revealed to you when the time is right. See you on your wedding day" Mr. Brown bid Leonardo a farewell and simply left

Leonardo sat in utter silence as his mind tried to piece together what it was that Mr. Brown had in mind for him as a gift but the more he thought about it, the more his head hurt and he gave up.

***
'Where are you taking me?" Aurora asked her husband, looking up at him as they walked. While also making sure to keep her attention on the road and her husband at the same time. Still walking besides his wife, smiling as he was not about to tell her the surprise.

'If you keep asking me that, it will ruin the entire surprise" Leonardo told his wife has he held onto her hand and they walked towards their destination. It was now getting dark and the sun was setting but his surprise for his beautiful wife was not too far away.

Not knowing what her husband had planned for her made Aurora fearful of what was ahead of the. She knew her husband was always the surprising type but with things as rocky at as it was right now, it was best that she find out before they got to their destination.

'Can you at least tell me" Aurora pleaded but only for Leonardo to ignore her completely. The smile on his face reassured her that everything was in order because if Leonardo was upset with her, he would not have smiling in such a cheerful manner. With only two days left until the wedding day, two days left until Ricardo would try to ruin things for them.

They stopped on the sideway and she Aurora turned around, she saw that they had stopped at a local restaurant where it was rumored to be very hard to get a reservation.

'Please don't tell me that you got us a reservation at La Costa because this place is one of the most expensive restaurants in the area and I will not have you spending so much money for us to eat a bite-size meal" Aurora warned him, slightly irritated that Leonardo would bring them there.

Leonardo watched carefully as his wife complained about the cost of the restaurant and how everyone was stuck up and all he could do was to stare at her, because she was truly beautiful when she was angry.

'Are you even listening to me?" She stomped her foot on the floor and complain to him.

'Yes I am listening to you, but I can't help but smile at how you how cute you look when you are upset" He teased her but then stopped when he saw that her irritation was not replaced with a saddened face.

'I know you're trying to give me one of the best evening before our wedding but this doesn't mean that you should spend an arm and a leg to do so. I get that we have the money but it doesn't mean we have to spend it all in one go" Aurora tried to reason with her husband but from the look on Leonardo face, she knew that there was no way that he would listen to her.

The look on his face was one of a man that had made up his mind and he would not turn away from it, that she had lost the battle as she let out a sigh.

'You're not going to listen to me are you sure?" Aurora asked, knowing what his answer would be before he even answered.

'No I'm not going to listen to you, because the surprise is not the restaurant, it is what is in the restaurant that is a surprise" Leonardo responded to her and walked into the restaurant, leaving her to follow him and wondering what it was that he was planning for the evening.


Aurora turned to look at her husband, who was speaking with someone who looked like the manager of the restaurant. She turned around to find that the entire restaurant was cleared out, unaware of what was going on she grabbed onto husband's arm and pulled him aside.

'What happened to all the people and why we are the only people here?" She whispered to her husband.

'Relax, I had everything sorted out. All you have to do is to enjoy yourself and have fun" He tried to call his wife, but it seems as though the more he spoke and tried to calm her down, the more worried she was getting. By that time, Leonardo had given up trying to lie to her and calm her down.

'You want to know the truth, well the truth is that I have booked out the entire restaurant just for us" he confessed his wife. Leonardo watched as she stared in shock but not the good kind of shock, she slapped him lightly on the arm and he was surprised by her actions.