Chapter 3 3: The Mute Explanation

One Month later.

Fiorella's pov

"My lady, are you okay with this dress? It seems so tight!" The lady that was dressing me up noticed.

"It's tight," I manage to breathe out.

"How can that be? I had this dress made for you." Dante sneered.

I probed my mouth like a child. "Can it be that I've gained so much weight? Over the past months?"

Dante giggles. "Fiore, I'll be playing basketball with my friends from New York; one of them is Italian but grew up in New York. Let's go together,"

"Yes, Dante. But who are these companions?" I asked, looking puzzled at Dante because he has never mentioned anything about any friend from American that is also an Italian.

"He was my senior back in New York. He's a legendary business mentor. I didn't tell him the exact time, though, but I decided to take you here early. This is my father's basketball courtroom," Dante smiled.

"You should have allowed me to stay home a bit more; I'm so tired and hungry too," I pout my lips.

"You're hungry?" he looks shocked at me. "But you ate a lot at home," He added. He walks closer to hold me. "Anyways, we can enjoy this few hours to ourselves. Let's go and eat," He winks at me.

"Yey, I'm so happy; thank you a lot, Dante," I giggled.

A few minutes later, we placed our order at his family restaurant closer to the courthouse. We order red wine and a beef sandwich. I looked at the food in disgust.

"Can I get something else?" I frown.

"What is it? Why? But you liked the beef sandwich since we were little; why are you looking so disgusted by it now?" Dante furrows his eyebrow, still surprised at my word of hate. "Open your mouth; you'll like it, remember my mamma used to make them when we were little," He reinforced.

By the smell of the beef, I felt a pool of disgust switch in on me. I felt nausea and also felt like vomiting. "Take this shit away from-" I gulp as a saucy liquid forms in my throat.

"What's wrong? Fiorella..." Dante immediately called, looking worried at me.

I started throwing up on the floor, I couldn't help it, neither could I hold it in any longer.

"My lady, are you okay?" Her maid that follows them around looked afraid at her actions.

"There are medical services at the basketball courtroom; how can I carry you there, my lady?" She sounds worried. Dante was looking so confused, not knowing what to do or what to say.

"No need for that," I wipe the drool off my lips with my handkerchief. "I'm just feeling slight nausea after perceiving the beef in the sandwich. I'll be fine after I get some rest. Thanks, Lisa," I manage to smile at her.

She returned the smiling gesture. "Oh okay, it's perfectly normal; when I was pregnant with my second child, I would get sick even at the smell of food and delicacy that I loved the most," She tooth a grin.

Preg...Pregnant? No, this is impossible...how could I be so foolish? My eyes are shocked as my heartbeat accelerates. I turn away, looking terrified at Dante.

"Fiorella!" he exclaimed immediately ran out; he ran after me.

-

Where am I? I struggled to get up; I felt so heavy; I managed to open my eyes, but it stopped midway at the white wall. Everything in the room is all white.

"Where is this place?" I stuttered. I turn to look at my side to see my mamma looking out the window. "Mamma?" I struggled to call.

She slowly turns around with a peep of anger swirling in her eyes. "Whose child is it?" She asked.

Hearing this, I cringed, looking shocked at my mother's angry side. How will she believe me if I tell her that I don't know who it is? Will she believe me? I don't know who the father is. Should I tell her that when I woke up in the hotel room that I was alone?

"Ma, I don't know. I should've told you what happened the day I left to get Dante, but I was scared that you wouldn't believe me at all if I've told you. I don't know who that man is. I lodged at the hotel room that Dante always stays in when he is closed from school. I was expecting him that day, but he called that his flight was delayed. I felt sad, and I drank up the bottle of wine that I had prepared for us, but when I woke up in the morning, I felt so sore down my womanhood. I didn't know who that man was. I swear," I cried out in disbelief.

" Fiorella dear, why are you so naive?" She looks at me like the sinner that I am. She walks closer to me with a pitiful face as tears rush down her face. She holds my shoulders. "Dante will never accept this child. Get rid of this child right now, and you will be happy as you used to," She added.

"Get rid of the child?" I look disappointed in her.

"Dante said you both can still get married if you cut your ties with the child's father. He will accept the child, but you will still bore him his children too," My mother voiced out, trying to convince me.

"He...he did say so?" I stuttered in disbelieve. I burst out in tears. "Dante knows about it already? He knows now. He would never accept me again...nothing is going to be the same ever again,"

Immediately I raised my head. My eyes landed on a shocking figure. I cringed.

"Signora Mancini?" I stammered. "Mamma," I added.

"Signora Aria Mancini?" My mother said, looking puzzled at Dante's mother.

Signora Aria Mancini, a forty-three-year-old fashionista woman. The birth mother of Dante, she is a very vibrant politician and very well educated.

Still in shock. "You're not fit to call me that, Fiorella, if it were not for the good friendship with your late father and your still alive grandfather, do you think that you're fit to get married into the Mancini family? I didn't expect you to repeat the same mistake of life your mother made," She frowns in anger as she continues.

"Everybody knows that your mother, here, had you at an early age. As a teenager, she gave birth to you, and now she didn't even know who your real birth father is until now." She roars.

"Why did you say that about my Mamma?" I looked surprised at how Dante's mother could badmouth my mother right in her face.

Dante...it turns out that in your mind that my family is a low class. This is how your family sees my family.

Suddenly, that same girl that was saying trash about my mother and me a month ago walked in with a smirk on her face as she pats Dante's mother on her shoulders.

"It's okay, Aunty. It's a good thing that she was caught this early. Otherwise, Dante would have been nursing another man's child, and also he would've still treasured her and even raised the bastard child for her," She frowns.

Dante's mother turns to look at the lady. "Mira, from now on, I approve of you to be the new fiancé of Dante," She announced. With this, she smiled with a nod.

Zelmira Ancelotti, daughter of an upper-class politician family, a twenty-four-year-old cosmetic surgeon, model, and a spoilt brat. She's a family friend to the Mancini and has been eying Dante since childhood.

I get it now. My family is a laughingstock of the whole of Sicily. I get it now. I'm nobody, but how is that my fault?

I raised my head to see Dante staring sadly at me without a word. "Dante...We're done! We're over," I voiced out.

He looked shocked at me. He rushed up to me on the bed. He held my shoulders. He seems like a madman. He shook me to wake up from my dreams. "Why do you love him so much? I just left for five years, and you're already in love with someone else? Fiorella, what happened to the love you had for me?" He sniffs are tears drops from his eyes.

"I don't care about your betrayal of the past, as long as you stay with me and remain loyal from now on. We can still start over. We can still have our very own baby, my kids; I want them to have you as their mother," He talks faster, which is not his normal state.

"I'm so sorry, Dante. I'm not going to get rid of this child. I am the one that made this mistake, I was being too naive about everything, but as for this child that is inside of me, I can't get rid of it. If my mother had done the same with me, I wouldn't be here today; you would never have heard of me. Despite everything, my mother never gave up on me. Since I've given it life, I won't give myself the right to take its life away," I look down at the hand that I placed on my still yet flat stomach.

"Fiorella?" Dante whispered in a depressed state.

"Dante!" I called, looking up at him, who had tears running down his face. "if I tell you that...that I had never betrayed you, will you believe me?" I asked.

"Fiorella...I-" He stammered. He was looking so lost in my eyes.

"Will you believe me?"