Chapter 54

The next day, AJ was still confused about the whole Del Rio situation, and decided that she and Alex had to return back to New Jersey to have a little chat with her folks. Alex, on the other hand was not looking forward to the trip at all after what happened the last time.

"Are you sure you want to do this, babe?" he asked, driving their new rental car. Since they were all on the road most of the time anyway, they had no choice but to get rid of their Jaguar convertible. "Cause if you change your mind, I'll be more than happy to turn back around."

"No, Shells, we have to. I have to find out if my parents have anything to do with Del Rio doing all these nice things for me." she replied, before turning to him. "I know you're still upset about what happened before with my father."

"I am! I just don't want to deal with him anymore after what he said to us."

"Well, I'm bringing you back there whether he likes it or not, so if he's going to have an attitude, then that's his problem." the Diva replied seriously.

"Y'know, if I was with any other girl and I was in the same situation, I would've dumped them. But since it's you, I'm willing to face him again because that's how much I love you." he said, turning to her with a smile.

She smiled sweetly. "Oh, babe, I love you, too." she replied, taking his hand.

Once they arrived at the house, they were surprised to find a silver Ferrari already in the parking lot. Confused, the two exchanged looks.

"That's expensive." announced Alex, parking their car.

"I wonder who else is there. C'mon."

The two arrived and knocked on the door, to where her mother Lisa answered. She looked a little stressed out, but put on a smile upon seeing them. "April, mija! Alex, I'm happy to see you two here again!"

"I'm happy to see you too, mommy." the Diva smiled back, hugging her.

"Hey, Lisa! I still can't believe you're her mother, you look young enough to be her sister!" Alex exclaimed.

She laughed and hugged him. "You always know the right things to say, Alex, great to see you again!"

"Hey, are you all right? You look a little tired." AJ told her.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine, just…a lot has been going on around here."

"Oh? Like what?" she asked.

The answer just happened to be a door slamming, followed by the form of her father Antonio. He frowned upon seeing the two of them together, as Alex sent him a look and AJ defensively wrapped her boyfriend's arms around her.

"April, I see you've brought…him here again."

"Nice to see you too, father." she replied flatly.

He approached Alex, while the Detroit native sighed and announced, "Look, I'm willing to forget everything that happened here the last time that we met, and I was hoping that we could start over on a good note." he stuck out his hand. "Hi, I'm Alex Shelley, nice to meet you, sir."

Antonio refused to acknowledge him.

Shelley sighed and crossed his arms. "All right, you know what? Forget it. I'm done."

"Oh come on, dad, at least Alex is trying!" AJ snapped. "Why are you so stubborn and why can't you just accept him?"

"We've already discussed this before, April. He is not one of us, therefore, he has no business being here." he replied.

"Not one of us—that's bullshit!" she cried angrily.

"Mija." Lisa said quietly, gently placing her hands on her shoulders to calm her down.

"April, you watch your language around here!" he yelled.

"No! Alex has every right to be here because he is my BOYFRIEND. He treats me like a princess, he's never hurt me once, he's never cheated on me, and he's perfect! Is that not good enough for you?" the tiny Diva demanded.

"No, it's not!"

"Oh, my God…" she muttered, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms.

"And in fact, since you've made so many horrible decisions in choosing men, I've had the liberty of choosing one for you."

"What?" Alex and AJ exclaimed in unison.

"You can't be serious!" she snapped.

"I'm dead serious. April, I want you to leave this scumbag and be with Alberto." he revealed, once Del Rio stepped from out of another room with a huge grin on his face.

"April! Surprised to see me, mamacita?"

The Diva felt like screaming, but no words came out as she stood there, shaking her head in disbelief. Alex, in the meantime grew pissed and fought the urge not to attack him right then and there. Lisa sighed and crossed her arms, already knowing that this was just a recipe for disaster.

"You see, Alberto is an old family friend of ours, and since you two work together, it would be wise of you to be with him instead. April, listen to me. He is rich, he is an aristocrat, and most importantly, he is a Mexican, so he is one of us! He will make your life that much easier."

The tiny Diva's lip trembled before replying, "I…don't…care."

"What?"

"I don't want anything to do with him! And I don't care how much money he has or if he's Mexican or not!" she continued. "Why-Why are you doing this to me?"

"April, I am trying to save your life before you make a huge mistake with this guy!" he snapped.

"I'm NOT making a mistake with Alex! Yeah, he may not have as much money as Del Rio here does, but I love him for him, not for the amount of cash he carries. And what he may lack in cash, he makes up for in love." the Diva replied defiantly. Her tone softened a bit. "Alex loves me, dad, he truly loves me. Alberto never could."

Antonio was about to reply something, but Del Rio stood up first. "April, darling, you are blinded! You think that you love him, but you're really fooling yourself. With me, you will get everything your heart desires and more, and most of all, if you spend one night with me, your so-called boyfriend will be a thing of the past."

This sent Alex over the edge. "Oh yeah, well why don't you just say that to my face, you son of a bitch?" he demanded, charging towards the older man while Del Rio riled him on.

"Come ON, ese, COME ON!" he yelled, urging for him to fight.

AJ had to hold Alex back while Antonio yelled, "You lay a hand on Alberto and I will call the cops and have you arrested for assault!"

"Damn it, everyone SHUT UP!" AJ screamed, grabbing everyone's attention. "Now, listen to my words. I want to make things clear to you once and for all. I don't care who you choose for me to be with, and I don't care what you say or think. I am not leaving Alex for anyone, and father, you just have to accept my relationship."

"I am NOT accepting HIM!" Antonio snapped.

"Well, I don't care what you think! As if you didn't know, I'm 25 years old! I'm a grown woman, and I can do whatever the hell I want to!"

"April, you are acting like a child, and I demand that you get rid of this scumbag before he ruins your life!" he argued.

"Excuse me, but I'm sick and tired of you calling me these names!" Alex spoke up, stepping up to him.

"You need to shut up, you are nothing but a disrespectful little bastard, that's what you are!" Antonio snapped with hate evident in his voice.

"Don't call him that!" AJ exclaimed to her boyfriend's defense.

"Oh, I'M disrespectful? How the hell do you expect me to respect you when you constantly disrespect ME?" Shelley cried, pissed off. "For April's sake, I've tried again and again to attempt to get along with you, but you won't even let me! So I'm not even going to bother with you anymore. I'm in love with your daughter, and that's the way things are gonna go from now on. So SIR, you can hate me all you want, I really don't care. But nothing that you could ever say or do will EVER take me away from April."

"And you can't do anything to take me away from Alex, either." April reinforced his statement, and finished it off by wrapping her arms around Alex's neck and giving him a wildly passionate kiss.

"Get your HANDS off of her!" Antonio screamed, forcefully prying them apart and then holding Alex in a tight headlock.

"Antonio, knock it off!" Lisa exclaimed to her husband.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" AJ screamed, prying her father off of him and pulling Alex away.

"You know what, I oughta call the cops on YOU for trying to kill me, that's what I should do!" Shelley cried, pointing a finger at him.

"I'll try and kill you again, punk, I'm not afraid of you!" Antonio snapped.

"That's it, I've had enough!" AJ cried.

"What are you talking about?" he demanded.

"You're impossible to deal with and I've had it. I'm moving out of this house, and I'm moving in with Alex." she announced.

"April, are you sure?" asked Lisa.

Her tone softened once she turned to her mother. "Ma, I'm absolutely sure. I need to do this and I need to get away from him."

"You know what, April, if you move in with him, then don't ever consider coming back here again!"

"I don't need you!" she spat back. "Mommy, I'll be back later to pack up the rest of my things, ok?"

She nodded.

"All right, if you're gonna be that way, then as of now, you are not my daughter anymore!" Antonio announced.

The Diva froze in place, heartbroken.

"Your brother in the military was always my favorite child, since you were always nothing but a screw up and a mistake!" he snapped.

AJ broke down in tears and yelled, "I hate you so much!" before storming out of the house.

Alex glared back at Antonio and replied, "What the hell kind of father are you?"

He grumbled and crossed his arms while Lisa sighed and stepped into another room to process everything that happened, as Del Rio smiled to himself.

Outside, AJ buried her face in her hands, before Alex joined her and immediately wrapped his arms around her. "Oh, baby, it's ok, it's gonna be ok." he said soothingly while she sobbed in his chest.

"Alex, I never should've brought you here, I'm so sorry!" she cried. "I never want to come back here again…"

"You don't have to. Chris and I are gonna help you move into our place right away, ok? Everything's gonna get better, princess." he replied, kissing the top of her head.

In the meantime, Del Rio watched everything from the window and laughed – an evil laugh at that. Oh, the fun was just about to begin.