Alessio

I was too on edge to sit still. Katherine had left, and I hadn't followed her I had practically opened the door and gave her a kick out myself! I knew that if I should be angry it should be with only myself, but still I could focus on nothing myself looking for Sergio again. My own brother had slept with my wife! She may not have known but he did.

I went first to the control room to see where he was on the cameras, he was still here, Padre had made sure of that to this point.

"I have a gun." Aria said calmly the moment I opened the door. Sergio was seated in a chair and Aria was kneeling on the floor between his legs, calmly wrapping gauze around his split knuckles.

"You shouldn't be taking care of him right now, don't you know what he's done?"

She didn't even look over her shoulder, I took a single step forward and she rose immediately and crossed her arms over her chest. "Go up to your old room, I'll handle him." She said to Sergio.

"It's fine, I'd love another round. I'm not afraid of him, or anyone." He boasted and came to his feet only slightly too slow.

"I will remind you both I have a gun." She said firmly.

"You wouldn't kill me, why don't you go home and let us handle each other." I began approaching again and Sergio tried to move past her.

She put her arm out to stop him. "No, I probably wouldn't kill you. But I could shoot you in the foot, or the knee, or the shoulder, or even there, there, there, or there without killing you." She motioned from one spot to another. "And I will ask you again, please go upstairs." She said again to Sergio.

I clenched my fists not willing to accept that they couldn't make contact to his face again, but I didn't press her bluff. She waited until Sergio had gone sufficiently far before motioning towards the chair he'd been sitting in.

"He slept with my wife, my own brother!" I yelled and motioned towards the empty doorway he'd left through.

"You have no brother." She reminded me calmly.

"That's not funny Ari, how would you feel if-"

"You don't get to accept him as your own only to make your story more dramatic, but refuse to accept him when anyone else implies such to make their story less dramatic. Either he is your brother always, or he is not. Which is it Alessio? Will you accept your brother again now? At the root of your hurt? Or will you continue to imply that he does not and has not lived these past years?"

I grunted and took the seat and put my head in my hands. "This was a mistake. This was a huge fὑcking mistake."

"Gee, ya think?" Ari replied dully and took my hand and poured disinfectant over it.

I pulled my hand away. "Stop. Stop trying to take care of me Ari!" Her eyes rose to meet mine. She didn't look hurt, or angry, or confused. She just watched me with a knowing look for enough seconds that I finally lowered my hand and surrendered it to her again.

"Tonight, why were you acting the way you were, acting as though you and I were, I don't know. Something more."

"Because Kate asked me to."

"Since when did you make a habit of doing as asked?"

"Since she was clearly on some sort of ledge and she needed answers, obviously, they weren't coming from you. I've been on the receiving end of your silence Alessio, it's not a great place to be. If she thought me pressing you was going to help her to get what she needed, who was I to tell her no? I mean think about it, apparently she didn't even know I existed before this month and she finds out you have an ex-fiance and that you've kissed her just months before your wedding? Clearly I owed it to her this."

"I may have kissed you but she slept with-" I hesitated, choosing his place in my life again. "Sergio."

She stared at me for a few minutes before lowering my hand. "So she slept with Sergio? What does that mean?"

"That I have to kill him!"

"For your relationship Alessio. What does it mean for your relationship? Did you let her leave because it is over? You can't forgive her, won't?"

"I'm angry Ari, what am I supposed to be?"

"Is your relationship over? Will you fight for it, regardless of what she has done with Sergio?" After some time of intense staring, I shook my head.

"It can't be over."

"And you will pursue her?" I nodded. "Good, then you should probably know that she didn't sleep with him."

"What? How would you know? Is that what he said? He's lying, he doesn't want you angry with him."

"Sergio is honest with me Alessio. And I know because I was there. She was here on our estates, they called Sergio because his number was on her cast-"

"Why? Why would his number be on her cast if they hadn't-"

"Because you took her to dinner and spent it arguing with me instead of tending to her. She needed a friend, she had certainly not found one in you." She said harshly and I grumbled a complaint. "Sergio was there and he felt bad, he knows what it's like to be on the outs of the Genovese family too."

"Can we please not turn this into another Sergio lecture? I can't Ari, I really can't right now."

"She had it out with guards, they called him, she tried to sleep with him and he said no. Not ten minutes later she got sick. I know because I was there, I helped him to take care of her until we could calm her down and get her to sleep."

They hadn't-

"Regardless of how you feel about Sergio you are still his brother, and she was drunk. Even if I wasn't there to witness it all, I would believe him when he said he did not. Alessio, he may like Kate as a person, he may feel compelled to protect her from you, and that whole family, but he isn't interested. Not like that."

"She said we had rushed this. What if we are too far gone? What if-"

"What if is exactly what you are going to live with for the rest of your life if you don't at least make an attempt. Is this the worst thing you've done? Have you been through worse?"

"I did try to kill her friend once." I offered thoughtfully. "And my men shot her father...I left her for two years too now that I think of it..."

"So you've been a real dick in the past too. I'm shocked really."

"She may have already left." I admitted.

"Then you best not make the same mistake twice." She replied calmly taking gauze and wrapping it several times around my hand as she had Sergio's. "Don't let her go."

"What am I supposed to do Ari? Shut down the airport? Chase her across the country? Have her car tampered with?"

"Fight for her." She said and let go of my hand. "You fight for her the way you never fought for me Alessio, because if you don't you will lose her."

I let a noisy rush of air out of my nose. "I don't understand you Ari."

She shrugged. "You never have. Maybe that was our problem."

No, our problem had been her leaving me, I thought that was clear. I stood up and took my phone out and paused just before calling. "Aria-"

"I'm fine Alessio. Don't make a big scene out of it, just call her. That's why you're here right? Because you needed someone to tell you to call her?"

"I was here to kill Sergio."

She let out a thoughtful hum. "You had a gun in your hand when he said he'd been with her, and I imagine you have one now, yet you never even drew it."

Maybe our problem had been Aria understood me too well. "What if she doesn't want me anymore?"

She stood up at this and fixed the collar of my shirt, followed by straightening my tie. "Alessio Genovese, you are not the kind of guy girls say no to."

"Katherine isn't the typical kind of girl either."

"Well, how are you going to know if you don't call her? Why did you let her leave in the first place?"

Because I was an idiot. I watched Ari begin to pack up her medical supplies, it had been some time since she'd had to bandage me up. This would be the last time. I called Katherine.

"Helloooo?" Kate cooed into the phone.

My shoulders sagged with relief, she'd answered. That in itself was a surprisingly good sign. Usually when she was angry with me she acted on the silent treatment. She did so poorly and I always gave it back to her ten times as well but that was all meaningless now. The important part now was that she was not shutting me out. "Katherine." Out of instinct, habit perhaps, my tone came out much too harsh and I had to quickly correct myself lest she hang up right away. "Baby. Where are you?"

"Oh look, it's my lying cheating boyfriend." She said obviously to someone else. In the background someone chuckled. "Hi lying cheating boyfriend."

I frowned. "Who is that? Where are you?" It was probably the fὑcking rat come to save the day from mean ole Alessio, as usual.

"Like you care. Where are you. Oh wait, I already know, under Aria. Never really picked you as the bottom in a relationship but whatever." Her words slurred together and my temper was quickly diluted, though my concern rose.

"Are you drunk?"

"No. Not that it's your business."

"Katherine. Please, it's not what you think."

"Are you with her now?"

"W-what?"

"Did I stutter?" "No, but you did slur quite a bit."

"I'm hanging up."

"Wait don't, yes I am. But-"

"You're with who right now?"

Through gritted teeth I answered. "Aria." My eyes skirted the room and landed on her, she acted as though she wasn't hearing the conversation.

"Then it's exactly what I think."

"It's not we..." I watched her for another few moments. Katherine yawned over the phone. "Come back to me Katherine. I will tell you anything, everything I've kept from you."

"No you won't."

"I told you baby, we weren't like you and I. Aria and I that is. We weren't in love." I kept my eyes on Ari as I spoke softly but firmly. "It was a business arrangement. To unite our families as one, decided long before we were even born it was planned out. We didn't love each other it was just...all we knew." Her eyes finally rose to meet mine.

"I don't even know who you are." She was definitely drunk, her words were a jumbled mess.

"Of course you do. Where are you Katherine? I'm coming to get you."

"No."

"Yes. You are drunk, and who the hell are you even with?" I began pacing back and forth, Ari disappeared into the bathroom.

"I haven't had anything but water." She yelled through the phone.

"Where the fὑck are you Kate?"

"I don't know, where ever Dante is taking me." She said in the tone that he knew she'd rolled her eyes through.

I stopped on a dime. "Dante?"

"Yeahhh."

"How do you even know Dante?"

"Uh, he's the driver. Duh."

"Dante is not a driver Katherine."

"Then why is he driving." She sounded frustrated at my failure to understand this simple logic.

"Katherine listen to me. You have to remain calm, and focused. Alright? Can you do that?"

She sighed impatiently in response.

"Dante is, well whoever you think he is, he's not."

"Dante." I heard her say, it was obvious shed lowered the phone to talk and had a mocking tone. "You are apparently not who I think you are." He chuckled in response and then Kate was talking into the phone again. "And who may I ask is the oh so mysterious Dante?"

"He is like myself, he has the capacity to be a very dangerous man when he chooses to be, I don't know why he would be-"

"Dante are you a very dangerous man? "

"Hmmm...I don't believe so. No Miss Santoro, I don't believe I am."

"Katherine!" I snapped and smacked my palm down on the dresser.

"Ciao

Alessio." Dante purred over the line.

"What the hell is going on?"

"You've grown stupider than I remember old friend. All these weeks and you still haven't figured out where that bomb stemmed from, aye? The Moretti family sends their regards" I gritted my teeth, hand clenched into a ball, in the background Katherine groaned something about not feeling well.

"You?"

"Prendimi se ci riesci." Dante said and the called ended suddenly.

(Catch me if you can)

On impulse I hurled the phone and threw my freshly bandaged fist into the wall. "Son of a bitch, son of a fὑcking bitch."

Aria came out of the bathroom with her brows scrunched together. "Didn't go well."

I grabbed her by the shoulders. "Where is he taking her?

"What?"

"Where the fὑck is he taking her?" I yelled.

"Let go. I don't know what, or who you are even talking about!" She yelled back.

"Your. Fὑcking. Brother. He has her. Where the hell is he taking her? Why?"

"Dante?"

"Do you have any other?" I yelled and shook her.

She shoved me off and yelled. "I don't know!"

"How the hell did he get her?" I cursed to myself and my hands flew up to hold my head. "This is my fault, I shouldn't have let her go, I should have been watching, I-"

"Calm down. We will find them." Aria assured me and took out her own phone.

I paced back and forth before groaning. "I can find them. She's going to hate me, but I've kept a tracker in her phone"

"Well let's go then." She said simply.

"Ari I can't ask you to-"

"He's my brother. He listens to me. I can't let you go at it alone. Come on, I'll drive."

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TGIF!

Hope all are well especially those in PR! I'm HOPING help is finally on the way!

So much drama drama dramaaaaaa. Aria brought up a really good point, Alessio literally had a gun in his hand when Sergio told him (lied to him) that he'd slept with Kate and rather than shoot him he'd THROWN the gun to the floor and attacked him. Somewhere deep inside he's got to be a big softy who loves his brother, right?

But speaking of brothers...Aria's is causing quite the meltdown for poor Alessio right now.

Anyway, don't forget to vote and comment!

Also wanted to note I reuploaded HWTC to wattpad, frankly I CAN'T WRITE A FREKAING QUERY for that thing, I know it's uniquely written and deep AF but every query I write it comes off as another cliche rockstar story and it's so much more than that...so right now I give up on traditional publishing it and have decided to share it with you guys again! A lot have asked to read it again, a lot have never read it before. Do it now!