Christmas Day:

"Why do you whoop your children?" Jack asked Jon as they were cleaning the dishes.

"What do you mean?" Jon said.

"Why do you always threaten your kids with whoopings?"

"Because that's how I discipline my children. And I'm going to continue doing so."

"How does Adriana feel about it?"

"She didn't agree with me at first. She disciplines them now but not as much as I do."

"My wife is against anything like that. She thinks I'm going to hurt Tyler if I whoop him. He's been getting out of line lately and I've been thinking about taking a new approach about how to deal with him. But I don't know. Danielle doesn't want me to touch him."

Jon put the last plate they were cleaning into the cabinet and looked at his cousin.

"Do what's best. He's your son, too. You're not hurting him."

"Thanks, Jon Jon. Hey, you got five dollars?"

Aiden then walked into the kitchen with the cat in his right arm since that was the arm that wasn't broken. For some reason, he started to enjoy carrying the cat around with his good arm. Jasmine didn't mind though. She was right beside her brother and was petting the cat.

"Daddy, you got five dollars?" he asked.

Jasmine held up five fingers.

"Five, Daddy. Not one. Not two. Not three. Not four. FIVE," she said.

"Why does everyone need five dollars? Okay, why do YOU two rugrats need five dollars?"

"Because it's Christmas," Jasmine said.

"I just want five dollars," Jack chimed in.

"Fine," Jon said. "I must be Bank of America." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet.

"You are Bank of America," Aiden said.

"Watch it," Jon warned.

Aiden smiled happily and waited for his father to give him, his sister, and his cousin cash.

February:

Jazzy was in her parent's bathroom going through her mother's makeup bag. She examined her mother's brush that was used to apply blush to her face. Jazzy remembered seeing her mother put her makeup on the day before. She continued digging and pulled out of all of the eyeliner, blush, brushes, lipstick, lip gloss, mascara, and everything else that her mother owned. Her sister was right alongside of her. Those two were on the floor examining everything.

"So this is what Mommy puts on her face sometimes," Maddy said. She examined the lipstick that Jazzy had laid on the floor.

"Why does she use a colored pencil for her face?" Jazzy asked looking at the eyeliner in her hand.

"I don't know," Maddy asked.

"And why are you two in my makeup bag?"

Maddy and Jazzy turned and saw their mother standing in front of them. They didn't hear her walk in.

"Nothing," Jazzy said quickly.

"Sure doesn't look like "nothing"," Adriana said. "Clean this mess up or I'm taking your toys away."

"Yes, Mommy!" the girls said.

April:

Jasmine was sitting on the porch at her grandparents eating a ice cream cone. Of course, Nonno and Nonna always fed the kids sweets as much as they could. And Jasmine was the first person to get something good and sweet.

Michael and J.J. had joined her on the porch. Michael sat on Jasmine's left and J.J. sat on her right.

"Can I help you?" she said.

J.J. poked her in her cheek.

"Come play with us," he said.

"After I finish my ice cream cone," his sister said.

J.J. took the ice cream cone from his sister and licked it a few times and handed it back to her.

"It was melting," J.J. said.

Before he knew it, Jasmine had shoved the ice cream cone in his face and started hitting him. Michael got up and pulled Jasmine off of her.

"What're you doing!?" Michael said.

"You stupid munchmouth!" Jasmine screamed. "I hate you!"

Jon heard the commotion from inside of the living room and went outside to see what the hell was going on.

He picked up Jasmine and tried to calm her down. She was thrashing about in her father's arms and was trying to get down.

"Calm down! I'm not letting you go until you do!" Jon said.

"J.J. ate some of Jasmine's ice cream but he was only licking the melting part! She got mad and put the ice cream in J.J.'s face and started hitting him!" Michael said.

Adriana walked out of the front door and saw what was going on.

"Clean J.J. up, please. I'm going to deal with this one here," Jon said.

He carried Jasmine back into the house and down the hallway to one of the spare rooms in the back.

"What's going on?" Linda asked from the kitchen.

"Nothing," Jon said.

By the tone of his voice, Linda, Mrs. Germanotta, Nonno, and Nonna all knew what he was about to do.

Jon closed the door to the room and sat Jasmine down on it.

"What's gotten into you?" he asked her.

Jasmine folded her arms and looked down on the ground.

"I heard what you said. You better answer me."

"Shut up."

Oh, why did Jasmine say that for.

Jon yanked off his belt so quick that it was almost a blur. Jon grabbed Jasmine and sat down on the bed, putting her over his knee, and started whooping her.

After that incident, Jasmine had all of her toys and her t.v. taken away for the next few days. Jon knew that Jasmine usually had something smart and witty to say to him sometimes but telling him to shut up? That was a definite no no. He even made her apologize to J.J. for what she did and said.

All was well for the next few days...until Adriana started acting strange.

Jon told the children to not disturb their mother and let her rest. Seeing her sad and depressed was hard enough at the moment.

Adriana was laying in bed one night and couldn't sleep at all. It was 2:34 a.m. Jon was snoring slightly. He had a long and tiring day at work and fell right to sleep with ease. Jon had wanted to talk to her and figure out what was wrong with her but Adriana just simply told Jon that she needed some rest. Jon let it alone, kissed his wife goodnight, and fell asleep.

Adriana tried to block out the terrible event that had happened to her but to no avail. She found herself in the kitchen downing shot after shot of vodka. The more vodka that was flowing through her veins, the better she felt. She sat down at the table and laid on her head on it.

"Why me?" she whispered to herself.

Adriana fell into a deep sleep afterwards.

Flashback:

"I'm going to get lunch. What me to bring you back anything?" Seline asked.

"Some fries would be fine," Adriana said. "I'll be in my office."

"Alrighty," Seline said.

She left the shop and went to go get food. A few minutes later Adriana heard someone come in. Confused, she got up and went to see who it was. It was a man. He was wearing a red t-shirt with some torn jeans. He was bald and had a grey beard. The man looked to be in his 50's.

"I'm sorry, but I'm on my lunchbreak now," Adriana told the man. "If you need help with something, I'll assist you for the moment but-"

The man pulled a gun out of his back pocket and pointed it at Adriana.

"Shut up and give me your money. You won't get hurt," the man growled.

Instantly, Adriana turned and ran back to her office and tried to shut the door and lock it. Unfortunately, the man overpowered Adriana and pushed the door back forcefully, knocking her down on the ground.

"Get away from me!" Adriana said.

The man grabbed Adriana's right leg and dragged her towards him. Adriana started kicking him and tried to get away but the man kept his grip. Tired of her already, he cocked the gun and pointed it at her.

"Stop moving, bitch!" the man said. "Good thing you're wearing a skirt." He started unbuttoned his pants and pulled his zipper down. "I can get to your pussy easily."

Adriana tensed up when the man's hand traveled up her skirt and started pulling down her panties. He yanked them off and pushed her skirt up. The man proceeded to crawl on top of Adriana and pointed the gun to her temple.

"Don't make this hard on yourself."

The man pushed down his pants.

"Just a quick session is all I need."

"Adriana, did I forget my wallet in your-"

Seline became wide eyed at the scene in front of her. By some chance, both Adriana and her attacker didn't hear Seline come in.

Selina flipped out and began attacking the man without hesitation.

Adriana grabbed her panties, scrambled to her feet, and called 911. Then she joined Seline in attacking the would be rapist.

Present:

Jon was startled when Adriana screamed out when he tried to wake her up at the table.

"Adriana! It's me!" Jon said.

"Get away from me!" she yelled.

Jon clasped a hand over Adriana's mouth so that she wouldn't wake the kids.

"Adriana!" Jon said.

Adriana woke up and looked around her. Jon took his hand off of Adriana's mouth.

"What? Oh..."

She got up and hugged Jon.

"Why were you drinking so much? And why did you sleep at the table?" Jon asked.

Adriana looked up into her husband's eyes. They were filled with concern.

"It's nothing," she lied.

"Don't lie to me."

"I'm not."

"You are."

Adriana stopped hugging her husband and looked him in the face.

"I'm not lying."

"You've been drinking. This isn't like you. What happened? What's going on?"

Adriana sat back down in the chair. Jon squatted down in front of her.

"Please, Adriana. Talk to me. What's the matter?"

"The other day when Seline left to get me food..."

Adriana got up from the chair and bolted out of the kitchen. Jon went right after her. He caught up to her, picked her up, and carried her to the living room. Setting her down on the couch, he sat next to her.

"Continue," he said.

"No."

"Why not?"

"I know how you're going to react."

"I'm not going to destroy the house and hit you. Nor am I going to try to kick the cat...or try to strangle the hamster"

"Please don't kick the cat. And don't strangle the hamster. I just...don't know how to tell you."

"Tell me what woman!? Adriana, spit it out!"

"I was almost raped yesterday!"

Adriana fell silent afterwards. She couldn't look Jon in his eyes. Not right now. But she could definitely feel him getting angry and seething on the inside. Jon honestly didn't know what to say at first. Half of him wanted to kill the bastard who touched his wife and the other half of him wanted to know why Adriana didn't speak up and say anything to him about the ordeal. Even though it was almost six in the morning, he was already beyond pissed off.

Jon looked at Adriana. She was staring at her robes as if something was wrong with it.

"Did you hurt your attacker bad enough?" Jon managed to ask.

"Yeah. Me and Seline."

"That's fantastic."

"Can we talk about this later? I need to lay down."

"Get some rest. I'll cook breakfast in a hour."

Adriana scooted closer to her husband and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"I'm sorry I didn't say anything," she said.

"Don't apologize. Just go and lay down."

"I want you beside me."

Adriana tugged at Jon's grey wifebeater and his sweats. This was enough to have Jon get up and carry Adriana back to their room.

Jon laid down and pulled Adriana on top of him.

"I'm gonna get the son of a bitch who attacked you," he said.

"The police got him already," Adriana said.

"True. But I go back to work today. You're coming with me. You're going to point out the piece of shit that hurt you for me."

Adriana smiled slightly.

"Will do."

'Please don't kill the man,' she thought to herself.

Next time, Adriana wouldn't remain silent about something like this.

But at least she escaped the entire incident with her life.