Return
POV: Leonardo
I see Elena jump in fright when she hears a male voice behind her.
But I know that voice, I could never forget my father's voice.
I walk towards him as if I were seeing a ghost.
"Dad?", I whisper, not believing what I'm seeing.
Please, let it be real.
He smiles softly and I hug him without thinking.
It's been eight difficult years away from the man who taught me how to play ball, how to shoot and how the family business worked.
And now having him back is like completing the family. As if an important piece had returned to its rightful place.
He hugs me back and I can feel his body tense, he groans in pain and asks me not to hold him so tightly.
My mind screams with worry, he could be hurt and I didn't even notice.
I don't know where he spent those eight years, but I know he must have a great explanation. Because one thing I'm sure of: he would never abandon his family without a reason.
POV: Vicente
Elena's words pierce my mind like a knife.
We swore we would be a family to her, but we left her aside.
Yes, we have things to solve and we have to end the American mafia soon, but what if in the process we lose our Sorella?
Is it really worth it?
"Elena, we're sorry if you've been feeling lonely, but this is our life," Uncle Salvatore says.
"So what's the point of valuing family above all else if you can't have time for them?" she asks irritably and everyone understands the guilt I'm feeling.
"She's right, that's not what I taught my children," the voice of someone I thought I would never hear again reaches our ears.
Elena is startled to see our father standing behind her.
Leonardo is the quickest to get over the shock and walks towards the man who disappeared eight years ago and now returns as if nothing had happened.
"Dad?" His voice is low and for a moment I see the scared boy that Leonardo once was.
I carefully analyze my father's posture and behavior.
I don't know where he has been all these years, but I know that a man can be corrupted in many ways.
He looks alert, expecting an attack, his body is thin and I see him breathing hard as if he is in pain.
Leonardo hugs him tightly, he was the one who suffered the most of all with the disappearance of our father and I know that seeing him now can be emotional.
"Calm down, son," my father asks and Leonardo steps away.
Grandma hugs my father after Leonardo, she cries for her son's return, and we all know how hard it was for her to lose my father.
"It's okay now, mom," he calms her down, "I'm home now."
I look at the whole situation and cross my arms with a thousand questions running through my mind.
Are you really at home, dad? And why now?
POV: Luca
I'm not happy about anything that happened today. Seeing Elena at school with Christopher Sinclair made me angry.
How can he have the audacity to approach my sister in the middle of a dispute between our families?
In fact, we haven't gone to war with them yet because we're working to get proof that they planned the attack at the party.
We have to present this proof to the other mafias before we declare war.
But them approaching Elena, who doesn't understand the danger of the situation, infuriates me.
And to make matters worse, my father decides to come back after eight years.
He just arrives as if he still belongs to this family.
I know I should listen to what he has to tell us, where he's been all these years, but my mind is already blocking out any story he might come up with.
Can someone tell him that we don't want him here anymore? That we don't need a father anymore.
POV: Sandro
I forget the whole argument we had with Elena.
I see my father interacting with Leonardo and Grandma, I just don't know how to react.
I missed him when he disappeared, but since I was a child I started to see Lorenzo not only as an older brother, but also as a father.
Now I look at this man standing in our living room and I don't know if I should call him my father. I don't know if he still has a place in my life after so many years.
When he walks away from Grandma, he looks around the room identifying each of the children he abandoned.
I follow his gaze and see Luca angry, Vicente reading every move our father makes, Leonardo happy and Lorenzo with the cold expression as always.
My father looks at me and I see that he is trying to understand what I have become, who I have become.
"You have all grown up," he says and I see tears in his eyes.
I am surprised by this. We hardly ever cry, and if we do it is in our room or hidden from others.
Lorenzo approaches him and hugs him.
I see him whisper something in our father's ear, who responds and hugs him tightly. They both stay there for a while and I realize that it is to confirm if this is real. If he really came home.
When they separate, I see Lorenzo's posture relax as if a weight has been lifted from his shoulders.
Can I trust this man as much as Lorenzo? Why has he only come back now? And most importantly, can he really take on the role of a father to me?
POV: Lorenzo
Seeing my father reminded me of the day he left.
I remember the conversation we had before he left the office, he was beaming because he had received a clue about the twins' whereabouts.
His jet was already waiting and he had left me in charge to take care of the twins and the business.
I already had some idea of how to organize and manage most things.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of my brothers and everything else," I said as he walked out the door.
After eight years, he returns and now stands in front of me.
I see that he is thin and with alert eyes, he assesses each son he left here and that they are now grown men.
When he looks at me, I walk towards him and hug him.
"I took care of everything, Dad," I tell him because that was what had been stuck in my throat for years.
"And you did a good job, son," he says and I feel a weight lift off my shoulders.
He steps away from me and I relax.
I see Sandro look at the two of us and then I nod at him.
I can see in his eyes that he is struggling to put our father in the right place in his mind.
My father takes the initiative to talk to everyone and each one reacts differently.
When everything calms down, everyone sits down and I see my father standing in the living room looking for the only one who didn't come to talk to him. Elena.
She is standing in the corner of the room watching everything, I see that her barriers are up again and this sets off an alarm in me.
My father walks over to talk to her, but I step in front of him.
"When Elena is ready, she will talk to you," I say coldly so that he gets the message.
I see hurt in his eyes, but we have matters to resolve first.
Starting with where has he been all these years?