Fifty years of Love & Secrets

H5. Oh boy! Now what?!

Megan Ferrante 41,

Married to Luca Ferrante 44(son of Matteo and Maria Ferrante, cousin of Riccardo Ferrante).

Mother of Rico 12 and Asher 10.

"Guys, are you done packing?" I walk down the hallway to my boys' bedroom. I look in Asher's bedroom, but it's empty, just like the suitcase on his bed. I sigh and immediately know where the boys are. Just to be on the safe side, I check Rico's room and it's empty too, as is his suitcase. I walk to the playroom and there the two are sitting in front of the television with both a game controller in their hands.

It's always the same here in this house. I pull the plug out of the TV and as soon as they start complaining I hold up my hand. Rico rolls his eyes, but Asher gives me the controller without grumbling. "Do that again Rico and you'll stay home," I tell him.

His eyes get big. "You won't leave me here!" he shouts back at me.

I point to the corridor. "Packing suitcases, this is the last time I ask. When dad comes home, I want us to be able to have a nice dinner. You go to Grandma Dori if you roll your eyes one more time." I warn my oldest son.

Both boys hear my warning and they nod. I take the controllers down. My sister-in-law Millie and my mother-in-law are sitting on the couch in the living room. The table full of snacks and Millie poured the wine.

"Thanks." I sigh and throw the controllers on the couch.

My mother-in-law Maria starts laughing and shakes her head. "Were they playing again?"

"Yes, but I warned Rico, if he keeps doing this, I'll take him to my mother." I take a sip of my wine.

"Oh dear, then he misses all his nephews all week." I hear the pity in Maria’s voice and I shrug my shoulders. "He's old enough to know what the consequences are."

Millie laughs and also takes a sip of her wine.

She and Stefano have decided not to have children. They find their lives exciting enough with the two of them and it has the advantages for me and Luca that if we can leave with just the two of us that Millie and Stefano like to babysit. That is when they are in New York.

"I called Bianca, we are staying with her." My mother-in-law starts. Something I already know, because Valentina had warned me and Luca solved it all. As always, Luca already knew, Vincenzo had called him and the men have already divided everything among themselves.

"I also told her that we will pick up the boys for a day." She says. I shake my head.

"The boys never want that, they can finally play with all their nephews, you're never going to get them," I answer and continue to sit on the couch and put my feet under me.

"That's why I called Bianca, who thought it was such a good idea, so we also take Vivian's children with us." My mother-in-law smiles broadly and her eyes shine.

I know she's sad that Luca and I only have two children and I also know how sad she was when Stefano told her that he and Millie don't want children.

Fifteen years ago, when her own daughter moved with her husband and their five children because Riccardo Ferrante was going to quit, Maria begged Luca to keep her daughter, Maria's husband at work. But his sister has begged him to keep her husband away and that's what Luca has done. He gave them enough money and they moved to another state, closer to his family. So Maria focused all her attention first on me and fortunately now also on Millie. Maria is suffocatingly jealous of her own sister-in-law Bianca, who lives in the same city with her four children, and their I don't even know how many grandchildren she has all around her.

But I always knew I didn't want a big family and Luca wanted to give me as many as I wanted. I decided after two that enough was enough. Would I have liked to have had a daughter? Sure. But if I look at the line of the Ferrantes, the chance that a daughter would come was very small. So why take the risks.

"Vivian is the one with six boys, right?" asks Millie, and Maria and I nod. "Yes, poor thing." Maria takes a sip of her wine and grabs one of the snacks from the table.

Although Millie has been part of our family for nine years now, she is mainly involved with Marcello and Camilla. Camilla is one of her best friends long before Millie met Stefano and Camilla met Marcello. Fate brought both together.

"Do you think they're done?" asks Millie with a smile on her face.

"Don’t tell me Camilla is pregnant again?" I ask.

Millie shakes her head. "No, she told Marcello to let him get some help, just like Stefano and Luca." She says and Maria gasps. Millie's eyes get big.

"What?" asks Maria, surprised.

"Luca and Stefano went to the hospital and got a vasectomy," I answer. I understand that they didn't say this to their mother, but I expected somewhere that she knew.

"Why?" she asks.

"Because I didn't want more children than two, but I did want s*x," I answer. Millie starts laughing and raises her hand. I hit it and take another sip.

"Yeah, for me just the sex." Replies Millie

Maria shakes her head and mumbles something in Italian. I can understand what she says, but I don't speak Italian myself, but after all these years with Luca or hearing him, you sometimes pick up something. She’s not happy about this.

"Look who I brought with me!" the door swings open and my handsome husband steps inside. We all look expectantly at the doorway, but Maria is the first to jump up when she sees who it is. "Lizzy, beautiful! What a surprise!"

Luca walks up to me and plops down next to me on the couch. His arm is around me and he leans forward for a kiss.

"You're cold," I whisper to his lips, just before he presses them on mine. His hand caresses my leg.

"Yeah, Uncle Stefano and Uncle Luca went running after each other outside." Lizzy puts her bag down and Stefano comes in with two more suitcases.

"What's up with all those suitcases?" I ask. I give Luca my wine and get up to greet Lizzy.

"Girl you're getting bigger by the week." I laugh when I hug her. "Did you cry?" I ask worriedly and Lizzy looks away. "What's wrong?"

Stefano immediately stands by her and Luca jumps up from the couch.

She shakes her head. "I had my exams and was late, I missed the plane and I had to call dad." She sighs and a kind of fight ensues between Luca and Stefano as to who can hold her first. Lizzy is happy to laugh again. It's always the same with those two boys.

"Were you afraid we would leave without you?" asks Luca as he gives her a gentle push. She shrugs her shoulders.

Stefano and Luca sit down with her at the table and immediately ask everything about the apartment, school, and of course boys. Because they don't want that. Lizzy is the oldest daughter in the family, everyone knows that one day she will come home with a boyfriend. And all women are afraid of the moment that will happen.

I walk back to the couch and Millie comes to sit next to me. "She's so sensitive."

Millie and I watch Lizzy at the table. Two drops of water from her mother. Occasionally the fire that burned in her father, at least that's what Luca says. But I think Lizzy is exactly her mother.

"I don't know why she's in NY, she always wants so badly to go home and be with her family." I sigh.

"She has something to prove." Answer my mother-in-law and Millie and I look at her when she comes back to sit with us.

I was just with Luca when the whole thing between Grace and Christiano happened. Luca kept a lot away from me. After all, we saw each other secretly and never in public and no one was allowed to know it at the beginning of us.

"She becomes almost twenty-one, then she can access the assets that her father has left her." We all watch Lizzy. Stefano hugs her. "It's all going to be okay Lizzy. You're not alone."

Lizzy nods and comes to sit with us. Maria gives her a glass of wine and I look with wide eyes. Lizzy takes the glass.

"On my responsibility." Maria laughs and Lizzy takes a sip. "Lizzy!!" I shout. She starts laughing. "Sorry Aunt Meg, but this isn't the first wine I drink." And she takes another sip.

"Oh god." I sigh and shake my head. “Don’t tell your mom or Chris that I approved this.”

"LIZZY!!" my youngest son Asher comes running into the room and flies her around her neck. Fortunately, he is not too old to be cuddled. Maybe, but he doesn't mind being cuddled. While Rico struggles with the idea. Rico walks into the room and does such a fist thing with Stefano, he ignores his father and raises his head at Lizzy. "Hey, Lizz."

Lizzy starts laughing. "What? Are you suddenly too old for a hug?" she asks and then she looks at me with big eyes. I shrug my shoulders.

"Rico doesn't want anything to do with adults anymore, you're almost an adult Lizzy, so probably no hugs with you anymore."

"And girls." Stefano laughs.

Rico rolls his eyes.

"That's not true. He has mom's magazine." Tells Asher as he lets go of Lizzy and sits down next to her on the couch.

"Rico?" asks Luca. Rico shakes his head, but his red cheeks betray that he does indeed have my magazine.

"I'm going to bring my suitcase down." He sighs and walks away. I look at Luca, who smirks and gives me a wink. "I'm going to help him with his suitcase."

"Talk about suitcases." Lizzy gets up and walks to one of the suitcases.

"I was able to score this one for you." She searches through her suitcase and then holds up a box. Wrapped with paper.

"What is it?" asks Asher.

"See for yourself, open it up." Lizzy gives him the package and puts a similar package on the table. "For Rico." She says.

"Lizzy, you spoil those guys way too much," I tell her. She shrugs her shoulders. "I came across them by chance and I knew how much they wanted them, I hear Nick, Terry, and all these other guys talking about it constantly, but they're very hard to get."

“OW s**t!”

"Excuse me!?" I look at Asher with wide eyes. He jumps up and hugs Lizzy again. Lizzy starts laughing and holds Asher.

"Mom!!!!" Asher jumps away from her and walks up to me within his hand the box containing a game controller, which to me looks just like the rest, a little newer and more beautiful and shiny than I have here on the couch next to me.

"It's a limited edition." Asher looks at the controller in amazement.

"Turn it around."

Asher looks from Lizzy at the controller and picks up the controller. "NO WAY!" He runs away with it and I hear him calling for his father, Stefano, and Rico.

"Aunt Megan, there's one more thing I want to ask." I look up at Lizzy and see how she bites her lip. This doesn't bode well.