His Promise: The Mafia’s Babies by C. Tamika novel Chapter 216

The room was silent as a grave as we all stared at each other. Beau glared at Johnny while Johnny looked at Luke, Carmen, and his younger cousin, Kenzo—while I couldn’t take my eyes off Dario.

I knew he had to be there for the conversation, considering any feud within the family business also involved him nowadays, but it was still difficult to be in the same room as him.

It was hard enough, pretending to be happy while I felt miserable. I felt broken, but I would not allow myself to show it. How could I sulk about Dario? Where would that leave Christian and Siena?

“So.” Christian cleared his throat. “First of all, Kenny—I would like to thank you for going against our evil uncle to protect the family business,” Christian told Kenzo. “We still failed...but that’s not important right now.”

Seeing Christian talk to three teenagers was extremely uncomfortable and obviously, something he wasn’t very good at as he wasn’t very compassionate. “It’s no problem. I was glad to help.” Kenzo smiled while he stared at Carmen.

I could see right through him and could smell his fear from here, but the poor boy was trying to hide his feelings for a girl who couldn’t care less. Carmen sat with her head glued to the floor and seemed close to walking out. It was mainly because of Johnny, and I could not blame her for being traumatized. It’s not every day someone who is supposed to protect you is willing to sacrifice your life for their benefit.

“Look, I think we can all agree that a lot has happened, and most of it shouldn’t even have happened—and...”

Christian frowned his eyebrows at me while I gave him an encouraging nod. “I want to say that I’m sorry for failing you, every single one of you, and I take full responsibility for everything that happened—and it won’t happen again.” He apologized. “I’m sorry, and now that I’ve apologized...I hope we can all move on?”

It was silent for a second before Beau scoffed at Christian’s apology. “I want you to look at Carmen, and I want you to think about your apology. Is that the best you can do?”

“Beau, please.” I pleaded, but Christian stuck out his hand to stop me. “No, let him continue. I’m listening.”

Beau took a deep breath. “I already said everything I needed to say.” He spoke. “I’ll stand behind you because of Serena and Siena—but that’s it.”

“Very well then,” Christian spoke, annoyed, and turned around to face Johnny. “Johnny come on, you know what you have to do.”

“No, no, no,” Johnny repeated with a surprised look on his face. “I’m not going to apologize for doing my job—I won’t,” Johnny stated.

“I brought Luca to my dad, so we could get them together and get rid of them, and when you weren’t working along—I got so angry that I couldn’t think clearly, and I would’ve done it again...for the family.” Johnny spoke without a single stutter.

I felt shocked and disgusted with his choice of words, but I knew my expectations were too high. Yes, Johnny had always been nice—but he was still a Lamberti. He wasn’t even close to being a saint, and we all shared different views from each other. Even though his family was messed up—he was actually willing to kill his dad and Luca.

My eyes moved from Beau’s clenched fist to Carmen, who was shaking, while Luke and Kenzo tried calming her down.

“So you just won’t admit to your mistakes?” I spoke for the first time, after seeing the devastated look on my sister’s face. “Are you really that selfish?”

Johnny seemed regretful as he shook his head. “I’m sorry, Serena, I tried to keep them safe, and I told Christian to cancel the party—but he didn’t listen—“

“So my siblings should pay because he didn’t listen to you?” I finished his sentence. I had expected Christian to jump in, but he didn’t utter a word. It brought me back to when Cesca and Gio talked crap about me while Lucio didn’t have the guts to stop them. If this was his way of leading a family business, then maybe he wasn’t supposed to be leading one.

“Christian, say something,” I whispered as I slightly nudged his shoulder. “You said he owed them an apology!”

Christian seemed uncomfortable, and it was probably because he was in the middle of all of this. “I—“ He sighed with a hopeless expression on his face. “I—“

“Yes?” I furrowed my brow. He most likely didn’t expect it to go like this. He probably thought we would all hug it out and move on, but it was so much bigger than that.

“Look, Serena.” Johnny stepped forward. “My job is to protect Christian, no matter what—and nothing will get in the way of it. Not even these little brats—“

“That’s it, one more word, and I’ll kill you!” Beau snapped as he lunged forward. This time Christian took action almost immediately and rushed in front of Beau to stop him.

It was a good thing we went to a separate room, and it was a good thing I decided to leave Siena with my parents, as all we could hear were the two yelling back and forth at one other. I looked back at Dario to see if he would interfere, but he leaned against the wall with an unimpressed look on his face.

“Aren’t you not going to do anything?” I managed to call out Dario. Whether I wanted to talk to him or not, this was going too far and it had to stop. Dario stretched out his arms and took an exhausted breath.

“Everyone, shut up!” He yelled out of nowhere. We all froze up and stared at him as it was unusual for him to lose his temper. Even when he had called me out for my desperate behavior, he did not yell at me like that.

“You know, I’m looking at all of you, and all I can think of is, where the hell did I get myself into?” Dario paced through the room. “Are you guys serious? Do you guys think this is some after-school club or something?” He spoke in disbelief.

I felt terrible for Christian because Dario was correct. Ever since Lucio had fallen ill, there was no unity, and Christian was partly to blame. He was supposed to lead them but clearly wasn’t himself and all he cared about were his cousin’s feelings—because he did not want to hurt him.

I told him that the only reason his family could walk over him was because he let them, and he listened to me and told me I was right—so why was he holding himself back? He surprisingly took a step back and let Dario handle the situation.

“Johnny.” Dario began. “This has been going on for long enough—but I’m not Christian, and I won’t let you disrespect the Alfonzo’s, so apologize.” He demanded before he turned to Christian. “I’m sorry, no disrespect.”

“No...none taken, do your thing,” Christian encouraged him. It almost seemed as if he felt at ease with the idea of not having to do anything.

Johnny, as stubborn as ever, shook his head.

“No, I won’t.”