Francesca Romano

Chapter 40 | Family Dinner

Francesca's pov

I pulled into my aunt's driveway right behind my mom as I recognized her husband Scott's car pulling in behind me. It was a beautiful home, two story, normal with only a fence separating it from other homes. I got out of the car and pulled down my dress as Scott walked up to me. I put on the best smile I could and hugged him. It was awkward. We pulled away and just stood there staring. "Nice necklace." He said pointing. "Thank you, one of a kind." I told him and his eyebrows raised, leaning in to touch but I pulled away closing my eyes. That night was flooding my head.

"Francesca come." My mom called out to me. I smiled at Scott, and grabbed my phone from my seat before shutting and locking my car doors. I walked up the driveway with my mom and walked to the front door with her. Scott unlocked the door and walked in calling out to Katerina. She was fixing the table with the foods and clearly fake flowers as she turned around and kissed Scott. Their kiss went on for so long, I cleared my throat to pull them away.

"Francesca I'm so glad to see you, take a seat." She pulled a seat out for me and I took a seat. "Same goes for you Kat." I told her. "Vanessa, where's my nephew? I'd like to talk to him." My mom sat down next to me as Scott and Katerina sat in front of us, holding hands. "Not everyone wants to deal with you tonight, sis. Love the new home though who paid for it?" She said through a fake smile. Katerina started plating our food and Scott poured wine. "How are the kids, Kat?" I asked her. "Good they're with their grandparents." She sat down and looked over at Scott. "Which child's grandparents? Can't keep up with the different fathers you know."

I hit my mom on the leg as Scott cleared his throat in an attempt to change the conversation. "We are moving soon." I took a bite of the food. "That's good where?" I asked. "Padua. It's a beautiful place." He answered. "So I've seen." I whispered. "You've been?" My mom asked. "Yeah um on business." She narrowed her eyes at me before Kat took another swing of insult at her. Them being passive aggressive to one another was just another day.

Katerina was always jealous of my mother, never knew why. Childhood problems maybe. Katerina was a beautiful girl, worked a good job and finished college. Decent homes. That could be a reason to be jealous of my mom. Most of Kats kids were the same age as me and even older still stay home along with her underage kids. All of Kats homes were all two stories with nothing more than five bedrooms. While her sister sat in a four story, nine bedroom, and professional kitchen home, for most of her life that she paid for on her own. Katerina had middle class money and never had a problem getting a man under her belt. Keeping them was the issue though.

I sighed and looked around unamused with my surroundings so I stepped into my head for a moment. I picked at my food as I started to wonder. "Doc." I twirled my fork on my plate as everyone's voice faded. "You're beautiful, doc." Crossed my legs underneath the table. "Come on doc, humor me." I closed my eyes and took in a breath.

"At least all my ex husbands didn't kill themselves to get rid of me." I heard Kat say. "Excuse me?" I scoffed.

"Sorry to disappoint my beautiful niece, but the heart attack of your father  was because your mother was a bother." She smiled at Scott who was obviously now very embarrassed. "Vincent was a horrible man." My mom said as she turned damn near red in the face. "Before or after you turned him into a drunk?"  I sat there. Ashamed like I would when it was my father speaking. Just thinking. "He was abusive. Had his anger issues. Brought horrible men into my home."

"The home he paid for? He was a man, he's allowed to do as he pleases." Katerina says through a breath, smiling. "You have a lot of nerve." I told her. "For a woman who knows so much about my mothers relationship, you know nothing of yours. When Scott walked in here smelling of beer, cherries and women, you said nothing." She straightened up and Scoot looked at me with horror in his eyes. "All ten of your previous husbands cheated, unlike my father who never looked in another woman's direction. He may have hated my mother but his loyalty stuck. So what is it?" I asked her to lean back in my chair.

"What is what?" Her voice breaking. "What's wrong with you? As far as I know your mouth isn't pretty so why would the lips between your legs be?" Everyone around me gasped as I started to stand up. "Katerina, let's do this again huh?" My mother started grabbing her purse and I turned to walk away before I stopped in my tracks. "Now I've only been to the Filthy Money part of Padua, but I hear the other half ain't so pretty. We both know which side I won't be seeing you on."

I winked at Scott and walked out following my mother. She made it to her car and leaned on it as I walked up to her. She sighed and smiled as she looked at me. "I gave you that filthy mouth didn't I?" I chuckled and shrugged my shoulders. "I learned from the best." I told her. She turned and opened her car door to get in. "Ma, who were the horrible people dad brought home?"

"Let's go home, Bambino."