Chapter-24

Martin Raul Vincento's POV

I held her hand as we both walked in. I can't believe I am in my grandfather's house. I have never visited before. Not even one. My mother married my father against my grandparent's concern. That's all I know. I looked beside me and found Diana looking around the wooden house curiously. She turned to me and gave me a smile. God, that smile! She doesn't know that it gives me so much confidence.

"Sit down. I will get water for you both. You both must have been tired", he said and went inside. I don't know why, but for some reason, I am feeling nervous. Why is it? Maybe it is because this is the first time I am meeting my grandfather. I felt a tug on my hand and found her nodding her head towards the couch to sit down. We both sat down just before my grandfather came with two glasses of water.

"Thank you sir", Diana said taking both the glasses from him as she stood up and gave me one before sitting down beside me. I held her hand once she sat down. I need her support right now. He sat in the chair in front of us with a smile on his face.

"No problem dear. Call me Gary".

"Thank you, Gray. Your house is nice. Comfort and cozy. I like it". I looked around the room. It sure is comfort and cosy.

"It's all his grandmother's taste", he said smiling. "The whole house, every room and even the barn behind the house, everything is made according to her taste", he laughed at the end. Then I remember hearing from my father that my grandmother died when I was a kid.

"Wow! You have a barn! Can I see it?!". Her excited voice brought me out of my thoughts. "Do you have horses too?!", she asked with more excitement. I just want to smile at her now. Her big eyes wide with curiosity.

"Of course dear. You want to see now?", he asked her laughing.

"Yes".

"Okay, let's go. It's behind the house", he said standing up. We both stood up too. Like always Diana is excited to see the house. Once we came out of the house, we went to the barn. She smiled at me and held my arm with both of her hands as her side is pressed against my arm.

"Baby, I know this hard. But please try. He is your grandfather. Try to talk with him. You will definitely feel light", she said with worry in her eyes, although the smile is still on her face. She is looking at me with so much hope in her eyes. I closed my eyes for a minute before opening them to look at her.

"I will try", I assured her. I want to try too. After all, he is the only family left to me. I am not good at talking with someone. But I have to try.

"Good. Love you", she said and stood on her toes to give me a kiss on my cheek. I smiled instantly for a second and all the tension in me just left me. Her sweet gestures, always makes me happy. They make my heart beat. She reminds me that I have a heart too.

We heard a cough and turned to see that it's from grandfather. Diana blushed and pressed her lips together. She is so cute sometimes. I just want to wisk her away from the whole world and keep her with me safely in my place.

"Sorry", she apologized. He laughed again.

"Oh dear. No need to say sorry for that. He is your man. You can do whatever you want with him. I am sure my grandson wouldn't mind", he said winking at me. That just made her blush more and hid her face in my chest and a smile erupted on my lips at his words. Although my heart tugged with happiness once I heard him calling me his grandson.

"I wouldn't mind", I replied and she pushed away to hit my arm lightly.

"Come on dear. I will show you the whole barn and the farm", he said turning around and walking in that direction. We walked behind him and reached the barn. It is built of wood. There were two men working inside. There were gunny bags and the floor looks like it is sprinkled with grains. "We store all the wheat here".

"Wow, and where are the horses?!", she asked excited like a kid.

"Cara, one after another. You are excited too much", I said calming here.

"Sorry again Gary. I am out of control when I am excited", she apologized.

"There is nothing to be sorry for dear. Here, this is where all the hens are", he shows as we walked to the other side of the barn. "Some goats too". He walked out of the barn in opposite direction we came from. "Now, your favourite, horses", he said going to the stables. Diana squealed and left my hand to go to them. There are only two horses. One black and the other dark brown.

"Wow! I have never seen a real horse in my life!", she said as she went to touch the black one as it was eating. She caressed it's back. I gave her a look that said really. "What? Don't look at me like that. Sometimes things are like that", she said and Gray laughed out loud.

"Come on, I will show you guys the farm", he said smiling, but Diana's smile suddenly dropped which only I saw and quickly went to her side.

"Gary, I am feeling a little tired. Can I go inside the house to rest? You take Martin with you", she said and I looked at her like she lost her mind.

"Cara, are you feeling alright?", I asked with concern, my hand caressing her left cheek. She was alright till now. She looked between me and Gary for a second before answering me nervously.

"Yes, I am good. Just tired that's it, baby. You don't worry. Go with your grandpa and see the farm", she said giving me a look.

Then I understood what she is trying to do. I turned to look at Gary and found him smiling like he understood what is happening. Suddenly her not being my side didn't feel appealing. I want to pull her with me. She stood on her toes and kissed my right cheek before whispering in my ear.

"Spend some alone time with him. You will be okay. Don't think too much. Talk with him", she said and pulled away to look at me with so much emotion in her eyes. One of them that always tugs my heart and makes it flutter. Love.

"Okay", I replied shortly and she kissed my lips for a second before pulling away. She turned to look at Gary and blushed red. He looked away from us. She is so shy.

"Take care dear. Come on son", he said while walking slowly. I looked back at her. She blushed a little looking at me and I kissed her cheek before going along with him. We were about to turn a corner. I turned back to look at her to find her smiling at me. I turned away and walked with him silently for a minute.

We reached the farm. I am feeling a little nervous to talk. I don't know why. Talking to my business clients and other businessmen and seeing them scared of me is easier than this. But somewhere inside me, I want to talk with him. Know him better. After all, he is the only family I have.

"This is where we cultivate wheat, paddy and all the other crops", he said casually. The farm was so big. There was a garden to the side with many plants and trees. He stopped in front of the garden. It's really beautiful and he was looking at it as if he is remembering something. "Your grandma and I started this garden when we came to know that your mother is in her womb", he said as tears stung his eyes.

"We loved her so much. She was our whole world. She was our princess", he said still looking at the garden. "Didn't knew she would leave us all so fast". His head hung down for a minute. Involuntrily my hand went on to his shoulder. I miss her too. So much. I never said anything about it to anyone, except for Diana. He shook his head and looked up at me with a smile. Slowly we both started walking.

"She used to tell me about you", I opened my mouth for the first time to talk with him. It took some of my courage to do it. I remember when I was small, she used to talk so much about my grandparents. He looked at me in surprise for a minute that I talked and soon smiled.

"Really?".

"Yes. Maybe she missed you".

"She did though. I know. After she left with your father to marry him by going against us....", he trailed off. Now I am confused. Mom went against nonno and nonna to marry dad? Calling them nonno and nonna makes it feel weird. I heard nonna died when I was sixteen years old. I just heard a word, since I don't know anything about them, I never made an effort to look for them.

"Yes, I heard mom say once that she went against you to marry dad. But why didn't you accept them?". He took a breath to answer my question.

"Your father was an irresponsible person back then. All he knew was partying. We didn't want her to marry someone like him. But I guess she changed him. Also maybe her marrying other person by leaving us didn't make me feel good. She was our princess after all", he paused and looked at me before smiling. "You will understand when you will have a girl one day". I gave him a small true smile.

We walked along the farm, talking. He told me a lot about my mother. About how much happy person she was, how she used to take care of others and how kind she was. Listening to those things actually made me feel happy. I never knew my mother that much. I only remember how much she loved me.

"So many times, I thought of coming to see you", he said and I looked at him.

"Then why didn't you?", I asked him confused.

"Come to you suddenly and say what? You don't know me. You might not even know how I look. That's why I never came". I nodded my head in understanding.

"I know how you look though. There were some pictures of you and grandmother I saw when I was a kid". He gave me a smile.

"You should know that I am happy that you came. In fact, you should keep visiting. It would really make me happy", he said smiling which made me smile back.

"Of course". I didn't plan anything, but if it makes him happy, I would love to. For some reason, I want to come visit him again. We started walking back.

"So, the pretty woman that you brought with you, Diana, do you love her?", he asked and I looked at him surprised. I took a deep breath not knowing how to answer.

"I.... I don't. I like her very much though. I can't imagine life without her". He gave me a knowing smile.

"Right. You don't love her". I can hear the mockery in his voice. Do I love her?

"Son, what do you think love is?", he asked and I looked at him.

"I don't know much about it. All I know is she made me realize that I have a heart too and I can care for others too. Having her beside me makes me feel relieved. Just a single thought of her makes me happy", I told him, but all the while I felt some happiness inside me when talking about her.

"Then never let her go", he said and I nodded my head.

"I don't intend to Nonno", I answered. But soon my eyes widened in surprise that I called him Nonno voluntarily. He looked at me in surprise too, soon it was replaced by happiness and he hugged me.

"Thank you, son, for accepting me", he said and I hugged him back. Having someone back in my life really feels good. All this happiness because of Diana.

He patted my shoulder as we were walking. There was a minute of comfortable silence between us. It felt good talking with him.

We walked back and I found Diana sitting on the dark brown horse, grinning. What is she doing?! She might fall down and get hurt! I quickly started to walk towards her when I saw her getting down of the horse and a man of my age is holding her waist to help her get down. Once she is down, she giggled at him and he smiled at her.

What the heck?!

A/N:

Hey my cute dumplings!

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