The return of the threat

**NOTICE**

I have updated the previous chapter to a better version and extended the scene to continue further, so please give it a read before you get to this chapter.

*****

The group reunited in the living room earlier than Anna had predicted. They returned to watch the movie, Miracle on 34th Street, for the 30th time, an early invitation to welcome Christmas spirit. Cuddled together on the couch while sipping the innovated cranberry margaritas, the adults picked the movie considering the little one's presence. Jake made the final call, happy to see Lia show enthusiasm to watch it. Halfway into the film, Lia starts to nod on and off.

Breakfast and lunch with grandparents while dining with mother's friends came to be an active day for a child to carry. Exhausted from the delicious feast and exclusive desserts, little Lia rested close to her mother, giving out little yawns and shutting eyes often to her fatigue.

Giselle noticed the drowsy little bird by her side and nudged Lia to wake her up.

"You're sleepy already?" she spoke softly to her tiny ears.

While the adults enjoyed glasses if refreshments, the child gawked at them, empty.

"Do you want some water?" Giselle asked.

Lia bobbed her head lazily.

Giselle signaled Anna before leaving to find water for Lia from the kitchen. Noticing the child awake and distracted, Jake went to sit next to her, inquiring about her weariness.

Distracted, Diego found someone missing and stood up to announce his short detour to the restroom.

"I had dozens of these. I'm going to take a leak, " he announced loudly and left the spot, unnoticed.

Anna glanced next to her to find Lillian still stiff like a statue, holding on the same expression, which Anna guessed to be the conclusive response of the conversation with Giselle.

"Are you okay?" she called in concern.

Awakened to a friend's cry, Lillian nodded to look around.

"Where's Giselle?" she asked, panicking.

"She is in the kitchen."

Anna replied to grab Lillian closer to ask of details about meeting with Giselle. They got engaged too, dismissing the environment.

Diego stopped on his way to the restroom. He looked behind to find the rest busy in pairs: Anna with Lillian while Jake and Lia had their own chat. Having already crossed the kitchen, he chose to return and make a surprise, private appearance.

Entering the broad kitchen, he found Giselle filling a glass with tap water. He neared her without an alarm.

"What do you think you're doing?" he said to disturb his company.

"Diego!!" Giselle winced from hearing his voice all alone.

"So, you do remember my name, uh, Giselle? he mumbled.

As if someone flipped the switch in his system, Diego presented a different version of himself to the trembling Giselle. A version- only known to her and invented for her as a consequence of his unrequited love for Lillian Grey.

Giselle gave distance between the two, holding a defensive posture with him, cautiously.

"Why are you here?"

"Did you not hear what I said at our last meeting?"

"You think you have a chance now that you've returned."

He bombarded her with his questions, plunging rapidly into his wrath naturally developed for her.

"What do you think you're doing here?" he repeated to Giselle's lull.

Seeing her unaffected by his raging interrogation, Diego shifted his course to another target.

"Don't you have a child now?" he said to notice her eyes twitch to his rhythm.

"Lia, it's her name, right?" he continued to taunt her.

Giselle wordlessly stood to listen to him but hearing her daughter's name thrown into his speech, she couldn't remain hushed anymore.

"Diego!! Don't talk to my child."

Diego laughed, not too loud, wary of his position.

"That's rude! Last time I saw you, you were gay, but now you have a child, " he said to sneer.

"A child that you gave birth to with the help of a man. I wonder how it happened to people like you,"

Having temporarily forgotten about it, her wound reopened to his harsh talk, willingly.

"Looks like you lied to all of us about you, " Diego said to his corrupted smile.

Giselle tried to leave, but he stood firm in front of her, not necessarily giving an option to decide. However, seeing her try so, he carefully chose his words once again.

"Don't come back into our lives. We were fine without you."

Giselle felt being slapped again into her dark past. Feeling as if she stood on the same spot with a group of intoxicated men approaching as Diego threatened to involve her with those drunkards. Her body began quivering to his voice and all the self-defense she created got obliterated to his superiority.

"She was fine without you, " he said.

Despite his dominance, Giselle remembered Lillian confess to having lived a life she considered worthless. It pained her to hear the contrary and so with whatever strength she nurtured, Giselle used it to reject him.

"She was not-" she murmured to her missing courage.

Angered by her reaction, Diego paused to see her talk back to him daringly.

"Shut up!"

"She was fine."

"Lillian never settled for a relationship but she was doing good without you. Didn't you hear that she was a player?" he cared to share, hoping that if the pure Giselle could still see Lillian the same way now.

To his shock, she didn't acknowledge his statements, instead responded to him, "She said they were not real relationships."

Giselle felt a little better, upholding against him.

"So what? She has me."

He said it finally, admitting to his still unrequited love.

Giselle studied Diego hard enough to recognize that after all these years, he hasn't confessed his feelings properly to Lillian Grey.

"You still haven't said anything!" she stated back.

"Shut up!" he raged.

"Why?"

"Shut up!"

"You told me to leave so that you can have a chance, but you never did tell Lillian your feelings, " Giselle confronted him presently.

"Shut your damn mouth or I'll rip it off of you."

Diego exploded physically.

"What makes you think that you can still threaten me, Diego?"

Giselle found the courage that temporarily withered back to support her now. But he didn't let her be proud of it. He grabbed to drag her to the nearby wall, yanking the woman against it harshly.

Giselle wriggled under his tight grip.

"Just because she let you get close again doesn't mean you know her for better, " he said. His breaths came out as hot as heavy gasps.

"What will you do if I keep blabbering?" she spoke in spite of his tight clutch.

Witnessing Giselle talk back to him for the first time.

His words grew weak in threatening her and her snarky remarks, all provoked to enrage Diego. Therefore, transforming his mind to seek anything that will put Giselle back in her place.

"You have a child now, do you?"

Giselle's fear return to her alarm, satisfying the enraged Diego.

"Watch yourself out again or you'll lose something precious."

He said to frighten her and it worked.

"This time I won't wait, " he said to release his hold and Giselle fell to an unstable state. She watched him storm out of the kitchen to leave the other way, to the restroom literally.