Christina drives them to the mall, where the sisters' excitement of Fernando's return was all they can talk about. He leans his head on the window, thinking to himself.
"it's like their whole perception of me completely changed because of that night."
after finding parking, at the parking structure connecting with the mall, they leave the car and Jennifer leads the way, while Madison and Victoria walk next to Fernando taking a side for themselves, he sighs to himself.
"This is going to take a while for me to get used."
they arrived at the clothing store, and after they entered, Jennifer claps her hands together and said.
"Alright, girls, let's go pick out some outfits for Nando and meet back at the changing rooms."
the girls split up to look for clothes without consulting him. With what he wanted, he looked around and sighed.
"Well, I might as well grab some things that I know I'll be wearing when my plan goes into motion."
he strolls around the store, grabbing a black shirt, black sweatpants, a black hoodie, and black sneakers. He carries the items back to the changing room, thinking to himself.
"Is it too much if I wear all black?"
he shakes his head.
"Nah, it'll be fine."
he sits down on a bench that is just outside of the changing rooms, waiting for the girls to meet up with him, and as he is patiently waiting, he suddenly doses off, where he is transported to that night, he wakes up to the sounds off the floor creaking downstairs, Fernando immediately reacts by grabbing the pocket knife he always leaves on his nightstand, he thinks to himself.
"I need to warn the girls quickly since Brandon mentioned he wasn't coming home tonight."
he quickly walks to his parents' bedroom with the knife in hand. He quietly opens the door and kneels next to his mother, who is sleeping peacefully. He puts his hand on her cheek and whispers to her.
"Mom, wake up."
she opens her eyes upon hearing his voice, and just as she is about to yell at him, he covers her mouth and whispers to her.
"shh, there are people in the house."
he then whispers.
"Come on, get up and hide in the closet, I'll go take
care of them."
she looks at the pocket knife he is holding and whispers while trying not to panic.
"we both need to hide and call the police and stay hidden until they get here."
Fernando pushes her into the closet and whispers.
"Stop pretending like you care about me all of the sudden, I'm going out there to check on the girls and to take care of those intruders."
before he closes the closet door on her, she looks at him with soft eyes for the first time in his life and places her hand on his cheek.
"Please don't do anything stupid."
he wakes up with Victoria's hand, gently touching his cheek.
"Nando, you feeling okay?"
he grumbles.
"Yeah, I just took a nap because I got bored waiting for you girls."
she giggles and lays her head on his shoulders.
"we've got some good clothes that will help you get laid tonight."
he coughs, as he chokes on his own spit when she said that, he recovers and clears his throat, "I'm going so I can hang out with my sisters, I won't be doing such things."
she giggles and pokes his cheek in a teasing manner.
"Aw your so sweet, you would rather be with your sisters, than banging some club slut."
not wanting to be swept up by her, he gives her a stern look and replies.
"If you keep this up, I'll return home right now."
she grabs his hands with both hers and said.
"Sorry, I wasn't trying to get you mad at me."
he thinks to himself.
"she got to me quick, I need to keep my emotions in check, much better."
he sighs.
"No, don't apologize, I overreacted since I'm not used to having you acting good to me."
she responds.
"I'm not acting."
she pouts for a moment and then said.
"After that night, when you selflessly risked your life for us, it changed something in me, and it made me realize that you are family, no matter what."
she stops to prevent herself from saying anything else, but Fernando catches on with what she meant and asks a serious question.
"When did you find out that I was adopted?"
she answers.
"Around my last year of elementary school, Christina told me and Maddy about you being adopted and how she knew all along."
Fernando sighs and chuckles.
"I guess I'm the dumbass for believing you guys were my real family."
she places both her hands on each of his cheek and said.
"That doesn't matter now, and even though what I'm about to say may sound like I'm trying to excuse us, I'm not."
she pauses when she spots Maddy approaching them but continues either way.
"we were young and stupid, instead of treating you like family, like our dad wished, we disrespected you, mistreated you."
Maddy seemed aware of what Vicky was talking about and avoided making eye contact with Fernando as she seemed ashamed to do so, but Vicky continued while she gently caressed his cheeks
"but I don't want you to believe for a second that you are not family."
she hugs him tightly.
"You are our brother."
Fernando thinks to himself while trying to fight back the tears.
"damn it, I wasn't really expecting this. She just hit me hard with that out of left field."
being unexpectedly emotional with what she told him, he feels his like he is something stuck in his throat, so he chokes when he responds.
"tha-nks Vick."
he didn't have the willpower or strength to say anything else, so he sighed to maintain his composure, while Vicky, who was crying her eyes out, pulled away and replied.
"You don't have to hold back anymore Nando, it must have been difficult holding back those tears since I've never seen you cry."
he shakes his head.
"You're wrong. There were some days where I would cry myself to sleep, I just never cried in front of any of you, so none of you would get any satisfaction from it."
he thinks to himself.
"And besides, Brandon has put me through the ringer to help me overcome these weak emotions when he was grooming me to become a hitman."
Madison felt like she had to do something and went up to Fernando to hug while he was still sitting down.
"Sorry won't fix what we did to you, but moving forward, we want to show you that you are family and that we regret everything we've done."
Vicky agrees.
"and that is why we wanted to bring you clubbing with us."
Maddy pulls away and hands over some clothes she picked out for him, Vicky also does it and says,
"Go ahead and try them on, Christina always takes forever when it comes to buying clothes."
Fernando, carries the clothing the girls got for him, except for the ones he picked out, since he doesn't really care how he looks like wearing all black, he closes the changing room door, and thinks to himself.
"I was planning on eventually patching things up with the girls, but it seems like that will be much easier than I expected."
he continues going through his thoughts while putting on the clothes.
"Yeah, they might have treated like shit before that night, but they are completely innocent when comparing them to Brandon and every single mafia family that spread their cancerous seeds in the roots of Starheights city."
he sighs to himself.
"Eventually, I'll have to find a way to properly deal with Brandon without completely destroying my current relationship with the girls."
Fernando likes the black blazer, with the white shirt, and gray chinos.
"Even though I'm supposed to do reconnaissance at the club, I can't help but feel excited since it'll be my first time going."
he puts on the old tacky clothing he had since leaving prison and leaves the changing room with a satisfied look.
"they were great choices."
both at them look at his tacky clothes, and then Maddy asked.
"Why didn't you come out to show them off to us?"
Vicky agrees.
"Yes, we we brought you shopping, so you should compensate us by giving us a little show."
Fernando smirks.
"Guess you'll both have to wait until tonight."
they both pout, but Fernando puts he hands on both their shoulders and chuckles.
"Even angry, you are both cute."
while they blush at his bluntness, Christina shows up with many outfits meant for women, and he makes a joke.
"I'm guessing those aren't for me?"
she shakes her head and giggles.
"No, silly, since we were already at the clothing store, I thought to myself that I might as well get something for me."
Fernando replies.
"Okay, I get it. This whole trip was just a way for you to get more clothes."
she gently touches his nose, with her index finger
and said with a smile.
"Well, since I have you here all to myself, how about I give you a little fashion show?"
Fernando thinks to himself, confused.
"All to herself? what is she talking about?"
Fernando looks around and sees that Maddy and Vicky disappeared from his side, he groans.
"Fine, but make it quick, please."
she enters the changing room, and after thirty minutes she comes out, dressed with a low cut red shirt, a red skirt with black stripes, accompanied with fishnet stockings and black heels, she then poses in front of the door and asks.
"What do you think?"
he replies, honestly.
"Pretty hot."
she goes back in.
"Good, I'm going to put on the next one."
after fifteen minutes, she calls out to him.
"Nando, can you stand by door!?"
Fernando sighs and stands by the door.
"What happened?"
she answers.
"Nothing, just wanted to warn you that Denise and that guy Paul she left you for will probably be there."
Fernando sighs.
"I see. Well, I guess you guys will have your hands full trying to distract me tonight."
Christina replies.
"Sorry, I wasn't trying to bring the mood down, but I wanted to let you know so that you can be prepared."
Fernando thinks to himself.
"I found out that Denise was cheating on me with Paul Caruso when I went through her phone."
he stops himself from getting angry.
"it doesn't matter now, but if Paul is there I could use this chance to become friends with him and find out how involved he is in the family business, if it turns out he is innocent then I'll leave him be."
he clenches his fists.
"But if he's involved with that life, then there will be no mercy for him, just like his family members that were involved with the hit on my mom and sisters."
Christina comes out with another outfit, but Fernando doesn't really pay attention and said.
"looks good on you, sis."
she giggled back into the changing room and said.
"You are surprisingly calm about all this."
he continues through his thoughts.
"Brandon is not going to nother trying to find out since, the issue got resolved and I got the short end of the stick with me serving six years in prison even though it was legitimately self defense."
he shakes his head.
"Corruption already runs way too deep into this city to solve anything legally, I need to get justice from my own hands."
after putting on several outfits that made Fernando miss being in a prison cell, Christina said.
"Alright Nando, let's go get our sisters so that we can go home and prepare to go clubbing."
after paying for the clothes, they find them eating at the food court and finally start making their way back home, and while sitting in the backseat, his mind wonders.
"Just do what needs to be done and then have fun with your sisters."
they return back home, with a new sense of excitement filling the air.