Francesco was really making Adele lose her patience. He was the worst person to go shopping with. After breakfast they has gone to the French boutique Adele had chosen clothes from with the help of Georgina. Then Francesco had made her try out every single one of the clothes she had picked and had dismissed about half of them. Now she was trying on clothes Francesco had picked for her when they had entered the shop.

Adele had been trying on so many clothes by that point and was exhausted. The latest outfit she had just put on in the changing room was a long sleeve white dress. She liked its silky smooth feel but Francesco had put so many clothes with a similar style in their basket to buy.

Adele sighed in frustration and walked out the private changing room. She saw Francesco sitting on the sofa he had been sitting on all this time judging her, sipping from a cup. This must have been the fifth cup of tea they had brought him. As he saw Adele coming he put down the cup on the table next to him and stood up. His eyes sparkling with excitement. He walked to Adele and towered over her. He spoke " I love it. You look beautiful in this dress. I think we should add this to the list of clothes for our honeymoon."

Adele gasped. She had kept quiet mostly so far but enough was enough. Francesco was going too far. She put her hands on her hips and spoke " You are out of your mind. You have made me try on clothes for outings and parties. I put up with it. You made me try on night dresses. I said nothing. You made me wear a swim suit ....."

Francesco cleared his throat " Swim suit that I never even got to see. You didn't show it to me. That doesn't count. Maybe you didn't wear it. Also sweetheart, you also didn't show me your night dresses and hid them under the night gown. They don't count either. What's the big deal with swim suites and night dresses? Are you afraid to look too irresistible for me. That's a good point but I have self control. I am waiting till the wedding night for us to go any further with our relationship."

Adele narrowed her eyes. She hated to admit it that it was true. She was afraid if she wore too revealing clothes Francesco was going to lose it. Even when she was wearing slightly more chic dresses when they went out, she could feel his intense glare getting deeper and she had noticed he kept kissing her more frequently. She was afraid of how much she could affect Francesco. But she didn't want to admit it.

Adele spoke " You didn't let me speak further. Where was I? Oh yes. Then you made me try on engagement dresses and wedding dresses. Then you made me wear all these white dresses which I now find out are meant for our imaginary honeymoon. What's next?"

Framcesco looked thoughtful " Maternity clothes and children clothing but I think the Hollywood designers sent those beside wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses. But I just wanted you try on a few here too to see if we can find any nicer ones."

Adele was shocked " You mean those boxes are full of wedding clothes, maternity clothing and children clothes. You are out of your mind."

Francesco spoke " You will thank me when the time comes. After I pop the question and when you say yes .... hopefully gladly or with some persuasion, then we will get married instantly. When that happens I would want to spend as much time as possible with you. Shopping takes time. I spend most of my time on business affairs and the little time I have is spent on family should really not be shopping. I am on holiday now. But from next week you won't see much of me since I go to work and so will you .... If you still want to manage that hospital. Now how about trying some fur coats."

Adele shook her head " We have already got many Coates in the basket. No thanks. I hate fur anyways and I am tired,"

Francesco's expression softened " You are tired sweetheart. I am sorry. But we had to do this. Now I am gonna take you somewhere to have something to eat and maybe you won't get too tired this time. Now get changed and we leave."

Adele sighed in relief. She was glad it was over. It was getting awkward talking about what to wear to a honeymoon even though they weren't married and hadn't even set a date for it. But then shuddered at the thought of what if Francesco had even booked their wedding too and only was going to pop the question any moment. She was afraid. She wasn't ready for married life at all.

Adele even didn't realise as time went by. Before she knew it, Francesco paid for the clothes and she was leaning to Francesco as he embraced her tightly as they got into the car that Adele had just heard was billet proof and made with alloys used in the army and so where the cars guarding them. It was hard for her to get her hear around shopping with so many armed guards watching her every move.

Adele slowly turned to look up at Francesco who was stroking her hair and waiting her intently. She not her lip as she saw how much emotion was in Francesco's eyes It was possessiveness. Pure possessiveness. For a second Adele forgot what she was going to say.

Francesco smiled and kissed her forehead and whispered " I just love watching you and admiring every inch of you sweetheart. I think you are right to be tired from all that changing of clothes back at the shop. I guess I really didn't want you to stop. I just loved looking at you in all those outfits. You are so beautiful."

Adele took a deep breath and spoke " You are so distracting.... Now... What was I going to say .... Where are we going?"

Francesco spoke " We are going to a shop that's owned by my aunt Patricia."

Adele spoke with surprise "Really? You have an aunt in New York. Am I going to meet her?"

Francesco shook his head " No. Sadly. That won't be possible. She does not live in New York anymore. She lives with her daughter Anna far from here. But this shop I will show you today alongside a few other businesses are owned by her in New York."

Adele spoke " You have an aunt and another cousin? I had no idea. It sounds like I don't know anything about some of your family members. So far I thought you only had your father and your uncle Piero. Can you tell me a little bit more about your family?"

Francesco nodded " Sure. But we are there now. Lets go inside the shop and I will tell you everything you want to know."

As the car stopped, Francesco got off and kept the door open for Adele to get off. As Adele got off she smiled at the sight and turned to Francesco " Really? A gelato shop? That's lovely. I love Italian ice cream. I can't believe how big it is. The seating area is even packed even though its so massive."

Francesco held Adele on his and lead her inside but they didn't enter through the main door. Adele was lead through a door at the side and up a set of stairs through a deserted corridor. Then they got to a door and Francesco lead her inside and closed the door. It was nice to see for Adele that guards hadn't followed them inside and stayed guarding the corridor. She preferred being alone with Francesco when they were on dates. Men with guns scared her and there was no way of getting used to it.

Francesco pointed to the room and spoke " This is the private party space of this gelato place. When Costanzo and I used to be younger we used to book this place alot and invited our class mates over. Not that we had many friends but it was the only place we had some childhood. Now lets get some ice cream from the counter."

Francesco lead Adele to a glass counter. Adele gasped at the variety of ice cream held in the fridge on display.

Francesco spoke " Come round the other side of counter sweetheart. As you can see we will be serving ourselves."

Adele walked around and spoke " There are too many flavours to choose from."

Francesco spoke " I will get you the specialty three flavours then which have secret recipes. Pistachio, Vanila and blood orange. Can you guess why?" He then grabbed two containers and spoons from the top of counter and started loading scoops of ice cream onto the tiny ice cream buckets.

Adele thought carefully and then spoke " Colours of Italian flag?"

Francesco nodded " Correct. But the problem is blood orange is only available certain seasons so sometimes strawberries and raspberries replace it. But you are in luck. We have blood orange. It's my favourite flavour."

Francesco grabbed the stuffed buckets and walked to a nearby table. Adele followed him.

When Adele sat and they both got on eating ice cream, Adele's curiosity kicked in " Francesco. Will you now tell me about your family."

Francesco looked at Adele "You really like to know about my family sweetheart? I am glad actually you show interest in Rosarios. If I get carried away and the story gets too long, tell me to stop. All right then where do you want me to start?"

Adele shrugged "Your grandparents I guess."

Francesco spoke "My grandparents? Ok. Well.... It all started a few years before the first world war or so they say. My grandmother and grandfather migrated to America. They met on the ship that was bringing their families over to America. They fell in love at first sight. They ended up living in the same area in New York I guess because most Italians moved together as they got off migrant ships to not end up in an area no one spoke Italian. So yeah, to cut story short, my grandfather married my grandmother within months as soon as he got himself a regular flow of income and a house. His family was wealthy so he had enough money to build a hotel and a Pizza Parlour. It was all well until competition started. Irish businesses also moved there too. There was alot of tension between the Irish and Italians but nothing too serious to lead to any violence. It was just rivalry, tension, verbal banter and threats right until O'Neils and Canavaros clashed since they were both in business of Bakeries. When these two families clashed, their communities got behind them of course. Italians united against the united Irish families. The area was like a war zone. No Irish would go to the Italian areas and no Italian would go to Irish areas. There were alot of violent clashes....."

Adele spoke "Really? How did the police allow this to happen? Wouldn't they break it up?"

Francesco smiled "You picked on the key point here. Police didn't interfere. They couldn't care less. The only interference they did was mocking the migrants and even locking up innocents who just reported the crimes against them to quiet them down. That's it. The police force in many areas in new York were anti-immigrant and racist. So the prejudice helped the Irish and Italian immigrants to come together in that area. They realised they had to stick together and take care of each other in a society where the law and order didn't count them as American citizens. So they decided to help each other out. The prejudice didn't end with the police. The American large business corporations weren't so kind to the Italians and Irish either. So since they had many obstacles in legal businesses, they made the move to running illegal businesses. They had no other choice. They succeeded since they moved together. They transformed the neighbourhood. Not only they were building their empires in new york they reached out in other areas too. They slowly became independent and they had assets in various states. Businesses were inherited over the years and here we are."

Adele spoke "I had no idea. That's so sad people having to turn to illegal businesses like this..."

Francesco spoke "I don't think its sad. You have to fight to survive in this world. Simple as that. It will always be like that. No one gives you any rights. You have to take your rights that you are entitled to from the law and if they don't give it, you have to rise against them even by illegal means. if force and breaking the rules is the only language the law understands, lets give it to them. The Rosarios, Giovannis, Canavaros and many more families decided to rise against the system and turned to life of crime all those years ago and I respect that since it helped secure a future for their families. You should respect their decisions too sweetheart."

Adele spoke "But that's was the 1910s. That was years ago. Things are changing. Don't you think life of crime is not necessary any more."

Francesco spoke "No. I don't think so. Lets not go there. We don't want to ruin our date. Do we? ......... Now lets not get too far away from our discussion. You asked about my family..... Well, I have uncle Piero but I also have an aunt Patricia who owns this ice cream place. She got married secretly to a man my grandparents didn't approve of. They wanted to kill him but my uncle Piero saved him. So here we go. My uncle Piero tries to keep people alive that are useful to him. The guy apparently was of some use. I think he was one of the best snipers working for Rosarios or something like that and also he had saved uncle pieros life a couple of times. I don't know. But that doesn't matter. How would you like to go for more shopping sweetheart?"