"In simpler words you're tapering the company's focus?" Marcelo Bravucci looked at his son Giovanni with notable surprise on his face.

"Not exactly, papà," said Giovanni. "We need to keep diversity at all costs but I'm streamlining supply chains mainly to wine importing countries. Starting with the UK, Germany, China and of course the Netherlands. Aiden's husband is the best person we have to dampen hard grounds, especially in some parts of Asia."

"Sounds like you thought everything through." Marcelo nodded. "Keep me posted. I suppose the hospitality industry is working just fine for you and your spouse, son?" The older man turned to address Aiden.

"So far we don't have any compla—"

"Where the hell is Aiden?!" Leonardo was like a hurricane approaching.

"Tell me your brother is not headed this way." Marcelo looked at Giovanni and scratched his silvery beard. He knew how his other son could turn into a lethal nuclear weapon whenever he was pissed off and right now...

...It was late for all of them.

The study door burst open revealing a not so pleased Leonardo. Aiden immediately rose from his seat and the next thing he knew, he was being slammed into a wall.

"Why was I shown a footage of you having a chat with Seth and the next thing he's...gone?"

Aiden was naturally cocky, but right now his demeanor was starting to rub Leonardo in the wrong way.

"Are you going to talk or we're going to have to do this the hard way?"

Aiden let out a rage prompting chuckle. "I don't know whether I should be getting turned on or be extremely pissed off right now."

"You're forcing me to hurt you Aiden." Leonardo's grip painfully tightened. "Still want to act Mr. Tough Guy with me?"

"What is this Leonardo?" Marcelo pitched in only to be redirected by Giovanni who shook his head at him.

Marcelo sighed and left it at that. Boys will always be boys after all. Sometimes the testosterone needed to be unloaded and roughing each other up was the easiest way.

"I don't think you want to have this discussion here." Aiden stated casually. "But since you want to play rough..."

"Shut up." Leonardo snapped then to the other two he said. "Sorry to cut your meeting short but Aiden is now engaged in another one."

"Yeah, yeah we all figured." Marcelo stated leading himself out of the study and leaving the boys to themselves. "Just try not to murder each other in here. I hate the smell of blood."

"Will you two cut the crap!" Giovanni ordered as soon as his father had left the study but Leonardo didn't budge a muscle. "You need to let go of him, Leo. Now!"

"If I were you, I'd listen to your brother." Aiden said making Leonardo shove him once more before letting him free.

"Talk." The vexed doctor growled.

"This is exactly why you and I would've never worked out as a couple," Aiden gestured to the open space between him and Leonardo. "You're too impulsive, fueled with rage and—"

Giovanni's eyes widened at that piece of new information."You two slept together?"

Leonardo groaned and Aiden shook his head in absolute horror.

"When? How? Where on earth was I?" The questions were now spewing out of Giovanni's mouth like a damaged faucet.

"Nothing of that sort ever happened dumbass." Aiden scoffed. "For your information that would've been gross and thank you very much for giving me a mental retardation from such kind of imagery."

Giovanni let out a deep sigh of relief while his head gyrated back and forth. "Oh thank goodness."

Leonardo still had a menacing scowl on his face. "I need answers Aiden."

"You remember the Felix story I told you guys a few years ago?"

"About a mysterious guy you took home from a club, he drugged you and later on robbed you a total of ten grand from your all hail none hackable safe?" Giovanni quickly summarized.

"Exactly." Aiden nodded in agreement. "Well, I did a bit of some digging on him, Felix's real name is Seth Mickelson."

Leonardo's lower jaw unhinged from its original position leaving him vulnerable for a fly party inside his mouth.

"See that look on your brother's face?" Aiden pointed at a gaping Leonardo. "Same look I had when I saw the fraudster right here last night."

"T-that's impossible." Leonardo stuttered, still heavily sedated in shock. "Seth is not a scammer. He's a reputable resident."

"How well do you even know this guy, Leonardo? I hate to be the one breaking this to you but born a rat you'll always be a rat. Seth Mickelson had an ulterior motive here, you're welcome asshole."

"So it was just about money?" Giovanni was disappointed considering how he was shaking his head in utter disbelief. "But why?"

"Desperate measures, gentlemen. Did you know about his pending 148 500 quid at Oxford?" Aiden asked and neither of them responded. "His scholarship didn't pay for everything. He needs money like never before and you were his pot of gold."

"He was lying to me?" Leonardo whispered brokenly. Suddenly everything was making perfect sense. "How could he..."

"Were you guys like... official?" Giovanni asked with a frown crawling on his face.

"Not exactly, but I thought things were slowly getting there."

"That's his signature move. Seth has always targeted men with deep pockets. His game is perfect, he lures you in, makes you fall in love and then he strikes when you least expect it." The twins glared at Aiden but he didn't seem to care. He knew he was making sense. "The night I met him he was completely down for a hook-up. How was I supposed to resist that? I mean, have you seen Seth?"

Giovanni scoffed, he never saw guys in that way.

"Did you fuck him?" Leonardo asked Aiden, he was failing to curb his jealous inside.

"He drugged my ass, remember? I couldn't even if I wanted to."

For some odd reason Leonardo felt relieved that his friend hadn't gotten the chance touch Seth intimately. Why did that even matter? Seth was a swindler and he was only after his bank account.

"Did he...do something to you instead?" Giovanni carefully looked at Aiden. "You know, try anything physical without your consent?"

"No, he did not do anything like that." Aiden said without a doubt. "All he wanted that night was money."

The other two went back and forth while Leonardo remained trapped in his tangled thoughts. The man didn't know what to think, feel or how to act. He was totally lost.

I think I'm falling for you. Of course Leonardo heard that loud and clear. Seth might've thought the man was sleeping but he wasn't. Was that part of the scam too?

"I need a drink, stat." Leonardo finally blinked. "Tequila will do."

"I don't blame you at all. You need it. Hell, we all need it." Aiden proclaimed as he fished out his phone to make a quick call. "I can't make it babe...I'm sorry...yeah...can we reschedule? Something happened to Leonardo and he needs company." He talked for quite some time then the call ended with mutual agreement. Aiden was not going to show wherever he was expected to be in that very hour.

"You don't have to reschedule on your husband." Leonardo said quietly but Aiden shook his head vehemently.

"No matter how much you annoy me, you two are my family. Carl understands that."

"Maybe he should come over and not stay bored in some hotel suite." Giovanni suggested but Aiden shot him an incredulous brow. "He won't come, got that. I wish he knew we're not his enemies, things have changed."

"Carl prefers keeping safe distance from you guys, he still hasn't gotten over the inhaler incident." Aiden explained. "Enough of that, let's go raid Signore Bravucci's liquor cabinets."

"Is it not way too early to drink though?" Giovanni pursed his lips. He was trying to knock some bit of sense into the other two. "It's still eight-thirty in the morning."

"I don't really care." Leonardo interjected. "Aiden is right, I need it. A few drinks can be therapeutic otherwise I'll start feeling crazier than I already am."

. . .

After a couple of drinks the guys decided to hang around in the entertainment room where they played board games and ate pizza like good old days.

"Daddy where is Seth?" It was an innocent question but the name churned Leonardo's guts. Mia thought her dad had missed the question at first hence the need to repeat. "Daddy," she shook Leonardo a bit making him sigh and the other two men stare as though they were skittish kittens.

"He's gone, Mia."

"But why?" There was a little crack in her voice and Leonardo knew where these cracks would lead. "We were supposed to visit the cathedral together." Mia's bottom lip was now trembling, tears threatening to spill from her glistening eyes.

Leonardo pulled Mia into his lap. "We can still visit Duomo di Milano, just the two of us."

"B-but Seth is my best friend. We were supposed to go with him!"

This was the major reason why he never let his partners get close to his daughter. He didn't want any of them forming bonds with her and at the end of the day if that relationship tumbled, Mia wouldn't have to deal with any emotional heartbreak as well.

But, he'd let Seth close to Mia because he saw a future with him. A future that was never there to begin with.

"Now there's nothing I can do about that, Topolina." Leonardo was trying so damn hard not to blow a fuse.

"Are you mad at Seth daddy?" An ethereal voice whispered.

"Yes."

"If he says he's sorry will you forgive him?"

"That's a difficult question." Leonardo replied sending Mia in tears. "Shhh stop crying Topolina." Leonardo hugged his daughter close to him, rubbing her back soothingly as he tried to calm her down.

"You always forgive me when I do something wrong. Why can't you do the same for Seth?"

"Because this is different. Seth is not you."

"I want to see Seth!" Mia cried even harder to her father's dismay.

Aiden winced while Giovanni bit his bottom lip in apprehension. They were all a bunch of hopeless men.

"I'm sorry that this doesn't sound fair to you Topolina but things work differently for grownups. Sometimes saying you're sorry won't just cut it. You'll understand when you get older."

"Don't you love him?"

Leonardo remained silent then Mia leapt out of his lap still crying.

"Why are you being mean to him?"

"Mia." Leonardo tried to approach the situation as calm as he possibly could.

"Why do you hate Seth so much? What did he do to you?"

"Mia."

"I don't care anymore! You're being mean to Seth and now he left me. You're a meanie!" She ripped off her friendship bracelet then she threw on the floor. Still wailing, Mia ran upstairs straight to her nonna's room.

"What the hell just happened?" Aiden murmured glancing over at Leonardo who looked like he'd just been ran over by a truck.

"She had a meltdown, that's what happened." Giovanni sighed squeezing his brother's shoulder. "Don't beat yourself too hard. Mamma will take care of her, she's going to be fine."

Leonardo stood up to pace the room. "I'm going up there to talk to her."

"Take it from me, that's not a good idea." Aiden suggested while chugging on his shot. "Right now you're her worst enemy, going up there will only rile her up even more. Let her calm down a bit."

"This is all Seth's fault." Leonardo closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. "I will make him pay for this."

"Leo..." Giovanni panicked when his brother left the room without saying any other word. "I have to talk to him."

"And say what? Oh I'm sorry the love of your life was a fraud. It's only natural for him to be upset Giovanni, let him be. He probably needs some time alone to think things through."

"What if—"

"He won't do anything stupid, relax."