Adonis's phone rings and he asks me to wait before he excuses himself from the room.

I sit there still processing everything, and I'm having a hard time accepting JP had no control of the things he said and did. I mean, I get he was under the impression he was only Johnny Santiago, but I can't help but compare how similar he was when he told me he didn't love me.

Enzo stands, drawing my attention to him, "Well, you all know how I just love to sit around and wait," He says sarcastically. "Let's go take a tour of this ridiculously large house, shall we?" I laugh, taking his hand as he leads us out of the room.

"Isn't your home in Italy with Cristian bigger than this?"

Enzo and Cristian look at each other and gesture with their hands identically, doing the "sort of" face, making me laugh.

"Eh, mine's a little bigger, but no need to compare," Cristian says in his thick accent.

Laughter reaches us as we get closer to the kitchen area, and the girls are all in there, with Annalisa, Sam, Topo, and Joey. The girls scream in surprise when they see me and rush to hug me.

"Girl, don't you pull that shit again!" Letty admonishes me. "You scared the hell out of us." And she pulls me in for another hug.

I apologize to all of them for the way that I left.

Annalisa walks over to me, hugging me as well. The girls let me know Annalisa introduced herself, with Sam, the night before. Annalisa also tells me she and Victoria are fine now.

"Hey, I figure, if you of all people can forgive her, why the hell can't I? She even told me about the audition." Annalisa chuckles at Victoria, who also laughs, shaking her head.

"Audition? For what?" Enzo questions.

"Dancing what else? Stella had to critique Victoria since she's Rio's assistant," Annalisa answers quickly, and I smile back at her.

Enzo eyes us for a few seconds before his phone rings, and he walks towards the other men sitting around the dining room.

I'll have to figure out a way to tell him before he finds out, but I'm surprised he hasn't figured it out yet, or maybe he has and is waiting for me to say something, which makes me feel worse.

"So, was the house you grew up in like this one?" Jessica questions me, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"No, the house I lived in was big, but this is like three times the size of it," I say, looking out into the acres of the landscape outside the bay window in the kitchen.

Letty turns to me quickly, "Girl, you never told us you were loaded or that you grew up around all of these gorgeous men! Like, help a single girl out, which one is available?" She eyes the guys around the table eagerly, and I laugh as I put my arm around her shoulders.

"Stella, are you going to introduce me to your beautiful friends?"

I turn and see as Rocco walks up behind us, with Mateo following closely behind him.

I say each of the girls' names as I introduce them to him. "Ladies, this is Rocco and Mateo."

"The nicest asshole you will ever meet." Rocco winks at me, remembering how I had introduced him to Annalisa. They all smile as Rocco and Mateo both kiss each of their hands.

"Hello," An unfamiliar voice says from the kitchen entry. "We haven't been formally introduced yet. My name is Dr. Charlotte Evans; I'm an associate of Johnny's and also his Physical Therapist."

The blonde from yesterday walks in, but she holds only my gaze as she approaches; she extends her hand out to shake, and it feels like a limp noodle in my firm handshake.

"Stella," I tell her, giving her the same fake smile she's giving me.

"And these are your...friends?" She glances over the girls briefly, but her gaze lingers over what the girls are wearing.

"Yes, they are my friends, and we work together. I point out Isabella is my mom, and Annalisa, Sam, and the guys are family."

"And what is it you do?" Charlotte brushes her bangs away to the side before folding her arms and leans a hip against the counter. She carries herself like she owns the place.

"Oh, a little of this, a little of that," I respond.

I sit at the counter next to Cristian and my mom; she pats my knee in a comforting way.

"She's our manager," Letty informs her, but Charlotte ignores her as she keeps her eyes focused on me.

"You're quite popular around here, you know? I've heard your name a lot within the house the last few weeks I've been here. Although, it's interesting that Johnny doesn't seem to know you or remember you." The room fills with low hisses from the girls behind me.

"Trust me; he does now," I say, holding her unflinching gaze.

She smiles half-heartedly. "I'm curious...since you have some history with others in the house..." She picks at her nails before looking back at me, "would you or your friends know someone else from Johnny's past?"

"Johnny and I haven't seen each other in years, so I doubt it," I inform her as I take a sip from my mom's teacup.

She pushes away from the counter and leans forward as she stares me down. "Does the name Char sound familiar?"

I keep my face neutral, pursing my lips. "Doesn't ring a bell."

Charlotte looks over at Annalisa, "Never heard of her." She holds Charlotte's questioning eyes steadily.

"Why are you asking?" Victoria asks, crossing her arms while she stares down Charlotte.

Charlotte shrugs and then pops a grape in her mouth that's sitting on a food tray before she tells us he said it in his sleep and while doing other things. A few of the girls burst out laughing, and she turns her vicious glare on them while I try to ignore the burning feeling in my stomach that makes me want to rip her apart.

"Anyway, I assumed he was referring to me. You know, short for Charlotte, l thought he was giving me a pet name or nickname. But then, one night, he called out for a Charmaine."

Enzo and Joey snort and then pretend to cough to cover it up, patting each other's backs.

"Maybe you're not the only one he's bangin'," Letty offers innocently, and Charlotte gives Letty a cold once over as if anything Letty says is beneath her before she looks back at me.

"Well, one thing is for sure, he wasn't calling out your name, Stella." She smirks back at me.

"Bitch, what the hell is your problem?" Letty starts walking towards Charlotte, but Jessica and Victoria hold her back.

"Stella, you come with me." My mom stands, clearly done with the conversation. I turn towards her as she holds her hand out; I tell the girls I'll be back as she leads me out of the kitchen.

"Don't listen to that woman." She tells me, shaking her head. "JP tell her to go away yesterday, but she's here, using the business-like excuse, but we know she waits for him like a desperate woman she is."

"John Paul, never see anyone or be with anyone before accident. Lo prometto." She tells me, but I don't want to keep hearing about him, especially now that I picture him with her, together in bed. (I promise)

"Where are we going?" I try to change the subject as a headache is starting to brew.

"Adonis take too long, so I take you to see someone." She smiles at me, and I love how she holds my waist as we walk side by side.

"Please know, Stellina mia, John Paul wanted to take care of everything and everyone after what happened that awful night. He blame himself for Tony's betrayal. He take on too much responsibility, but mostly for reasons of love. You know this, yes?"

I don't respond because I can't get the image of him with her out of my head.

We walk down a long hallway before we come to a door with a hand sanitizer station outside the door, and she advises me to put some on as she rubs it on her hands.

She knocks before pushing the door open. And I'm surprised when I walk in; the bedroom looks more like a hospital room, with all the medical equipment spread throughout the large room.

I gasp when I recognize the woman washing her hands at a sink, and then she turns to look at me, too.

"As I live and breathe! Tell me I'm not seeing things or I need to get better glasses. Is that the strongest, most gorgeous, kick-ass Girl I know?"

"Dot!" I rush to her and hug her tightly.

"Stella, you look amazing! Did you get taller, or am I shrinking?" I chuckle as she reaches up to cup my face.

"Look at this gorgeous hair of yours. I'm sure JP is just tripping over himself, isn't he?" Dot laughs, shaking her head, "I heard you knocked the sense back into him. Lord knows I wanted to be the one to do it more than once. But..." she sighs, "He sure gave us a scare when he was in that accident, and then he wasn't himself when he woke."

Someone coughs behind a curtain, and I look over as Isabella pulls the curtain back, and tears fill my eyes at the woman staring back at me.

"Melanie?" My voice cracks.

Her long, dark thick wavy hair is gone, replaced by wispy, short pieces here and there. Her skin looks paper-thin, almost translucent, and her eyes are sunken with deep shadows underneath.

Melanie looks back at me and smiles weakly, "There's my girl." She holds her thin, frail arms out to me, and I run to her, sobbing on her shoulder.

"Sh! Don't cry, Stella. I've done enough of that to last three lifetimes, trust me. I knew you'd find your way home one day. And I prayed you'd be the one to bring JP back to us, and I'm not surprised to hear you had to punch him to do it." She smiles at me as I laugh through my tears.

"I'm so sorry about Tobias." A small sob comes out, and she brushes her fingers along my hair then cups my face.

Dot walks out of the room, followed by my mom.

"He loved working for Timo." She tells me as her eyes brim with tears. "John Paul promised Tobias he would take care of the kids and me, and he has. He was there when I had little Tobin; we call him Toby, though."

As if on cue, the little boy from yesterday comes running in, "Mamma!"

Isabella walks in behind him and smiles at me, knowing I now understand. The little boy climbs on the bed and shows Mel a picture he colored.

"Toby," I say quietly, and he looks back at me and gives me a shy smile; I love that his name is a variation of Tobias' name in a way. As I look over his features, I now realize I was so shocked to see JP that first day, I hadn't noticed the unmistakable resemblance between Toby and Tobias.

"He couldn't say John Paul's name but could say the last part; however, it sounds more like "pa" and then that turned to "papa." She laughs, shaking her head. "It freaked JP out at first, but he got used to it with time, especially since we spend time talking to Tobin about Tobias."

Melanie asks Isabella to take Toby for a snack, and Toby kisses her cheek before leaving with my mom.

"Listen, I know you must be upset, well, more like fucking furious at John Paul, but before the accident, all he ever talked about was finding you, bringing you home."

"There are things you don't know about the night my world got turned upside down, too." She sighs, leaning back into the bed.

When Vito's men came to my house, I knew something awful had happened, but I didn't realize how bad it was until they brought us to Timo's house and I saw Isabella crying on Timo first, and then I saw Tobias next to them." She whimpers, her handshakes as she wipes her face.

"I wanted to die right then, seeing my love gone--dead," She cries, "but then I remembered the kids were with me, waiting in the car; they were scared and crying already, not understanding why we had to pack as much as we could so fast from the house." She shakes her head at me as she sniffs and looks at me.

"When the chaos broke out at Timo's, Jimmy took JP and tried to take Isabella, too, but Ares stopped Jimmy; but they took and tortured JP, Stella.

After a couple of days, Vito's men and Santino finally found where they had JP to rescue him. He was in bad shape, but he's a fighter, just like you.

The first few months in Italy were really hard for everyone. Isabella went into a deep depression while we were in Italy, dealing with Timo's death and not knowing if you were alive or not, either. But we pulled each other through the darkest time of our lives, and she's become a very good friend to me.

She looks down at her hands, "I don't have much time, Stella. This cancer is kicking my ass, and I've been trying to hang on, but I know it's close, but I feel better knowing you're here now."

The tears are coming again.

"The kids are having a hard time, mostly Carmen and Marco." She wipes at her own eyes.

"Carmen is in full-blown denial, while Marco has been simmering then exploding, getting in fights at school and going back and forth between anger and shutting down; he hasn't come to see me for two weeks now.

JP was good about talking with him and was getting him to open up, but once the accident happened, and he was only Johnny, he hardly spent time or make time for the kids, which was really hard for them after everything else they've gone through.

We were always at another home, too, before the accident. It's not too far from here. JP didn't want the kids exposed to everything that goes on with the business, but Santino and a few other men have tried their best to keep the kids away when things are going on here.

JP came in the night you socked him," Melanie smiles softly. "He was a mess, but I was just happy to have JP back, and he begged me to forgive him for how he was acting.

He was so happy when he saw you standing there after the fog was lifted from his mind but realized what you must have thought of him when he also saw Charlotte there.

She smiles at me through her tears, "I prayed so hard for his memory to come back and for you to return somehow, and here you are. But you need to know; I named you and JP as guardians when I go. I was so scared about what was going to happen if he never remembered, especially when that awful woman, Charlotte, was influencing him."

"I know you and JP have things to work through, but I know you'll both do what's right for the kids. You two are supposed to be together, Stella."

I look away, not able to keep looking at her. "I think it's too late for that," I tell her, not just thinking about Charlotte but also Sean.

Melanie squeezes my hand, "It's never too late."

"It's time for your treatment, dear." Dot comes to her side.

Melanie nods and smiles at me. "We'll talk later, okay?" I nod and head out of the room in a state of shock.

The weight of the situation that I now find myself in nearly crushes me. I lean heavily against the door when I step out, and I try to slow down my fast breathing.

Why does life have to be so damn hard?

I cover my mouth as I sob in the empty hallway.