The large SUV rolls to stop at the front of the massive house. Well, in all actuality, it's more like a manor considering the thousands of acres of land it sits on.

I scan over the land and see take in the grandeur and beauty of the property.

Timo's property was large, but not on the scale of JP's estate; this place could have its own zip code.

When we had driven in, I noticed the high wall surrounding the property had several men posted and spaced out evenly throughout the property's perimeter. It blows my mind thinking how many people must be appointed to stand guard for such a massive land.

I notice off to the far end of the house; there is a greenhouse and wonder if it houses flowers and plants or if it's more of a self-sufficient food resource of having their own vegetable garden.

The other house that sits on the opposite end of the greenhouse rivals what Timo's old house looked like in appearance and size.

The sound of heavy breathing and padded paw sounds against the cement pulls my attention away from the scenery, and I turn to see not only Topo the dog but also Zeus.

The white whiskers on Zeus' muzzle and throughout his coat reflect his aging as the years have passed. A laugh comes out as he greets me as he used to all those years ago, weaving in and out of my legs with Ares, which makes me wonder where my other old friend is.

I lose my balance and fall over, which gives Zeus perfect access to lick my face; laughing through my tears, I hug him and hold him as he sits in front of me, letting me cry on him.

"Damn, he's a beast," Miles says, approaching us.

Zeus turns growling at Miles, and Miles takes a step back. "Hey, none of that." I turn Zeus' face towards me, and he licks my face in response.

"Still protective over you, after all this time."

I turn towards the familiar voice and stand, coming face to face with Santino. He grins at me, and I hug him as he laughs deeply. "It's good to see you, Stella."

"You too, Santino. Where's Ares?" I ask, looking back at Zeus and Topo.

When Santino doesn't answer, I turn back to him, and his eyes are on his shoes. He looks back at me and then over at Zeus and Topo. "Jimmy killed him that night. Ares stopped Jimmy from taking Isabella, but Jimmy ended up shooting him."

Almost as if Zeus understands what we are talking about, he begins to whine, and I wipe my tears with my arm while I rub Zeus' head, patting the side of his body, sharing in the grief and loss of his friend.

The front door opens, and Isabella runs towards me. She looks like she hasn't slept; her hair is messy, and her eyes are swollen and red. She holds on to me tight as she sobs, her body trembling in my arms. Shame overcomes me for not even thinking how my leaving would affect her; it didn't even cross my mind.

I wipe her face and smooth back her hair from her face. "I'm so sorry; I didn't mean to worry you or cause you to panic."

She's so upset she can't speak and clings on to me as if her life depended on it. I don't know if I'll be able to get her to let go of me anytime soon, but then Cristian speaks to her softly in Italian, letting her know I'm not going anywhere.

She peers up at him and gives him a small smile as she wipes her tears, and then she looks over at the kids.

I pull her along with me and bring Santino with us, too.

"Kai, Miles, Lucy, this is my mamma, Isabella Dante --"

"Bracco. Isabella Bracco." She corrects me. "Timo and I married before...before they killed him." A tear falls down her face. I feel the twinge of pain in my heart to hear that he really is gone.

I had sort of hoped he would have been another 'surprise, I'm alive, too' but as I see the grief on my mamma's face, I know it's not going to happen.

My desire to reconcile with him diminishes with regret, in that moment. I squeeze my mamma's hand; the sadness in her eyes is profound, but she smiles as she faces the kids.

"Buongiorno, è un piacere conoscerti." (Hello, it's a pleasure to meet you)

Lucy walks up to her and kisses both sides of her face, and then hugs her. Kai and Miles follow, doing the same.

"It's good to meet more friends of my beautiful Stella." She tells them in her broken English.

"They're my family, mamma," I tell her. She smiles and nods. "Si, si, chiaro." (Yes, yes, of course) As Santino finishes greeting the kids, I turn when the door opens again.

"Ms. Toretto," Adonis smiles. "I'm glad you were willing to return."

Embarrassment floods through me, and heat rises to my face, hearing him address me by JP's last name again. Although, I guess it shouldn't matter since he also changed his name.

"Please come in."

"Hey, mom, can I drive the bike around some more? If it's okay with you too, Enzo?" Miles asks Enzo and me; Lucy says she wants to go with him, too. Isabella looks between the kids recognizing the dynamic of what I meant by family and me and smiles proudly at me.

Enzo says it's okay with him, and I agree, telling him not to go too far, and then I hear Cristian tell one of the guards to follow them, which I'm grateful for, and thank him as we walk in; and he winks back at me.

Santino talks with Kai as we walk in the enormous foyer and tells him he'll give him a tour of the house and show him the gaming room, which seems to excite Kai.

"I've meant to ask, but now it seems pointless..." Enzo starts, and I know it regards my name, but he doesn't push it.

We're guided back through the familiar path leading to the conference room, and I push the memories of yesterday out of my head and focus on what I'm here for, which in all honesty, I don't know why exactly.

Adonis opens the doors, and I freeze, seeing a few men already waiting and get excited when I know who it is. "David! Rocco! Mateo!"

They turn when they see me and stand to hug me. We talk for a few minutes catching up before Adonis calls our attention.

"I don't mean to cut the reunions short, but if you want to leave before the boss returns, I'd like to get started." Feeling like a kid in school when the teacher walks in to quiet the room, I smile at the guys as we each take a seat around the large table.

"Most of what I will speak of will be redundant for most of you, except for Ms. Toretto."

"Toretto?" Rocco questions, looking at me.

I exhale loudly, "It was stupid; I should never have changed my name." I state, "but that's an easy fix."

Adonis's eyes narrow as he looks at me before he continues. "As most of you know, after spending a couple of years recovering and under the care and direction of Vitto Bracco, John Paul came back to the US with a new name and a new purpose. JP took on the name Johnny Santiago, using his mother's maiden name, at the recommendation of Vito Bracco.

Please know, his first and foremost intention was to find you, Ms. Tor-- Stella." Adonis corrects himself mid-sentence. "However, he also wanted to seek out those who turned on Timoteo."

"He hunted every single one of the men who betrayed Timo; and were dealt with accordingly, so to speak." He doesn't need to elaborate for us to know what he means.

I feel strange as Adonis speaks about John Paul seeking out those who turned on Timo. He made it his mission to make them all pay for their betrayal, and I don't understand why I'm feeling myself get worked up.

"About three months ago, we found the last one, well, aside from Gio and Jimmy. But he wanted this one more than those two combined. He had just come back from a trip to Miami, where he swore he found you in one of his clubs." He looks at me thoughtfully.

Huh, it was him, after all, the night of my birthday; that would explain the pull I felt towards him.

"I, however, wanted to be sure and advised him not to approach you for fear of scaring you away. In hindsight, I should have advised him to follow his gut."

He sighs and pulls up a picture of a crashed vehicle; the front is smashed almost up to the driver and front passenger side, the car is dented on the left side rather deeply as well.

"David pulled this video from the street camera. Johnny was on his way home when this happened." 

He presses a button on the remote in his hand, and we watch as the black SUV is driving along when another dark SUV hits them head-on, at high speed. A body goes through the front windshield of JP's car, ejected due to the impact of the hit.

The men in the room react and groan loudly at the graphic and disturbing footage.

Obviously, I know JP is fine now, but watching the vehicle get hit still made me grip onto the arms of my chair and causes my heart rate to accelerate.

Another angle shows the same vehicle coming back towards the smashed SUV from the side and hits them again, causing the car to roll a few times before it stops, upside down.

We watch as a third vehicle comes to a quick stop, and several men, including Adonis, begin firing at the car that slammed into the first one. The car backs up and drives away quickly.

"We had ideas on who it was, and we were able to get a good look at the driver." He hits another button, and the footage shows the driver's face as he looks back towards the wreckage he caused, and the eyepatch is a dead giveaway of his identity.

"This pezzo di merda has been hard to find, but finally got word from some of our men, and he was spotted in Miami." (piece of shit)

"I killed him," Enzo informs him, and Adonis looks back at him with a confused expression on his face.

"He attacked Stella and her friends a few nights ago, and Joey, Topo, and I stopped him and several of their men. But him," Enzo points at the image of Alfonso on the screen. " I killed him myself."

"Are you sure it is same person?" Adonis questions, surprisingly.

"It was him," I state firmly. Adonis moves his eyes to me and stares at me for a moment before he gives me a slow nod.

"As a result, Johnny suffered a broken hand, ankle, and a traumatic brain injury. He was in a coma for three weeks, and when he woke up, he had no recollection of the accident. Other pieces of his memories were shaky, but the bigger problem was, he actually thought he was Johnny Santiago. He didn't remember himself as John Paul or what parts of his life were like before the accident."

"The Dr's said it would take time, but there was a chance he would not recover his memory. As time went on, we went over the things that have happened, with the fallout of Timo's men. Bits and pieces started to return.

He said he would dream about you and see flickers of your time together, but he couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't. But it seems the punch you gave him snapped him back into his old self." A small smile plays on his lips. "I wanted to tell you before he came home yesterday, but with all the interruptions, I didn't get a chance."

"When you fainted, and he saw you, he rushed over to you. While he doesn't remember you, he sees you in his dreams, so he recognized you in that sense."

I don't know how I feel about the information he's told me. On the one hand, it explains some things, but then it doesn't.

"There's something I haven't told him yet. Something that happened during his time as only Johnny Santiago, and I don't know how he'll react to it. John Paul has always been...intense."

Enzo snorts, "That's an understatement." I smile, knowing how true that is.

"He doesn't remember a lot of what happened while he was full mode Johnny Santiago, but then there are other things he'd wish to forget..." He looks away from my gaze, and I clench my hands into fists, having a good idea of what he's eluding to as a blonde, blue-eyed woman flashes in my mind.

"Anyway, this brings me back to what happened before the attempted assassination. The man we found was Anthony Toretto. I tried to reason with Johnny, but there was no talking him out of it.

I know despite what Tony did, or how he felt about his father, John Paul wouldn't follow through with killing his own father unless he had no choice..." Adonis looks back at me, and I release my clenched fists as I lean forward.

"Are you saying he...he killed Tony?" I ask quietly.

Adonis nods slowly. " He had him tortured and then killed Tony himself." He informs us.

I have difficulty swallowing due to the lump lodged in my throat; as much as JP hated his father, he would never hurt his own father, let alone kill him. Unless it came to self-defense that pushed him, but he wasn't.

"Do you see, now, Stella? John Paul would never hurt you or lay a hand on you, but he was not himself before you punched him. He always held on to the hope that you were out there somewhere.

Before the accident, he had portraits of you throughout the house, which is why several of the men recognized you when you had first arrived. You would have known all of this by now if I didn't advise him to wait back in Miami." He looks down remorsefully.

I wipe at my eyes, looking down at my hands, but I raise my head to look at him. "It doesn't matter; what's done is done. He's moved on, clearly, and I have as well."

"No, he hasn't. That woman you saw. She is a Dr and on the board at the hospital that he is a main benefactor for, but she is no one to him. As a physical therapist, she did help him during his recovery, and she took advantage of his memory loss; he never even looked at her before the accident, I swear to you. 

I tried stopping him at one point, knowing he would regret it if his memory came back. However, Johnny's threat to cut off my balls held me back." He says in all seriousness.

I look at him, confused. "What about their son, then?" Remembering the little boy clinging on to him and the image of the way the three of them looked together burned in my head.

Adonis looks at me just as confused, but Isabella answers before he does. "He no JP's son, figlia." She smiles at me, which only adds to the confusion I'm feeling.

"Wait, you think JP had a child with that woman?" Adonis and then understanding comes across his face, "Forgive me, but no, that is not true at all."

He walks over to me and holds his hand out, "Please, you must come with me. There's someone else you must see."  

~~~~~

Hmmm, is there still hope for Stella and JP?

What about Sean, though?

Any guesses on who this "someone" is?

Stay tuned!!!

Xoxo LJRae