Maria

Chapter 18

Oh no.

I quickly made my way downstairs to meet my mom.

"Aye mom.... where you been?" I ask her nervously hoping it would distract her.

"Where have I been? Are you kidding Maria? Who are you?" She turns to look at Stefano and I automatically jump in front of him.

"His name is Stefano Montella." I say calmly.

"Montella!" She looks scared and begins to walk around the house, searching the nooks and crannies frantically but then she had stopped dead on her tracks when she met Luca's eyes in the kitchen with a glass of wine in his hand.

"You," She starts, "What are you doing here?" She exclaims while angrily strolling her way up to him with her finger pointing directly at his face. I debate whether or not if I should stop her before she does anything she'll regret later on.

Nona appears out of the corner and looks at my mom with resentment and annoyance.

"Rozanna come with me to the study room," Nona says while crossing her arms, "we need to talk." She concludes. It's weird seeing her take on a serious form but both me and mom knew she meant business.

"But wh-what why?" She seems very out of place and jittery.

"Come." She leaves the kitchen and my mom hesitantly follows Nona down the hallway to go into the study room.

What could she be doing? I slowly trail behind her too but it wasn't until they reached the door that Nona appeared and said,

"I think it's best if everyone leaves, I'll talk to your mother." She gives me a convincing smile, which I hope can indicate something good. She closes the door slowly as I catch a glimpse of my mother pacing back and forth the room with her hand covering her mouth. She seems very worried but why?

I let out a long sigh, I was hoping that wouldn't happen. The one thing that didn't want to happen, happened. Well the plan of having more people around to ease the tension didn't necessarily work and now we can't even have desert.

Why was she looking around the house? What could she be exactly looking for in that moment that was so important? I don't know, these are all questions that I have but don't know the answer too. I'm tired of being left in the dark, I just want to know the answers, I just wish at one point someone can just sit me down and tell me everything that I need to know so I'm not as clueless as I always appear to be.

I drag my feet down the hallway to see all 3 familiar faces looking confused at me.

"Guys, I think you guys should leave." I give them a shy smile.

"What happened? Why did your mom freak out like that?" Angela questions.

"I'll tell you later but for now let's just say she isn't happy that you guys are here." I shrug as I make my way towards the front door, hopefully giving them a successful hint that I would like them to leave at the moment.

"Are you going to be okay?" Stefano asks - concern wiped across his eyes. I couldn't help but chuckle, he's asking me if I'm going to be okay? As if he actually cares. I couldn't also help but notice the glare Luca was unintentionally giving to Stefano and Angela's jaw being dropped to the floor by his thoughtful remark.

"Yea, I'm good." I run my hand through my hair and look at my feet.

"Okay well if you say so, we'll be on our way." Angela says sadly. After a series of 'byes' and 'goodnights' Angela and Stefano left. But Luca stayed behind, I had to do some more convincing to him in order for him to leave.