"It's okay, Cecil. Don't worry, I'll talk with him," Emerald assured her.

"Really?"

"Yes. Perhaps, what Pedro needs is a simple conversation between men. So you do me a favor, go to the dining and have your breakfast. I'll join you in a jiffy,"

"Alright," Cecil stood on tiptoes and shared a brief kiss with him - yep, that happens when you marry a giant. She just hoped their child would assume a normal height.

True to his word, Emerald tracked Pedro down to the garden where he was seated on one of the rocks and had a headphone on.

"Hi dear," Emerald awkwardly settled on one of the rocks. Sometimes it hurts to be tall.

However, no response came from Pedro.

"I know the music is off so can you be civil enough to grant me an audience," Emerald pointed out his trick.

"How did you know?" Pedro was surprised.

"Where I grew up, fights and provocations break out easily. I might have picked up one or two tricks growing up. Moreover, you reacted before I arrived which means you heard me aka no music playing in your ears," He summarized.

Wow, Pedro was awe-stricken. His stepfather was so cool.

"Don't get mad at your mother, she did what she thought was right for you," Emerald said to him.

"I'm not mad at my mother, I'm mad at him,"

"Why?" 

"He didn't prove me wrong," 

"What?" 

"He never made the efforts to prove to me that he was more than what people thought he was - that he wanted me as a son and not just some inheritor to his empire," 

"Oh," Was all Emerald said, letting the boy go on. Here he was thinking someone missed his father - which he took away. Yep, I'm responsible, so let me rest, conscience. 

"I saw the news and the things he did, he was quite a horrible man," Pedro deduced. 

Emerald sighed, squeezing the boy's shoulder affectionately, "Pedro, sometimes, our parents don't always turn out the way we want them to be. Take a look at me, my parents sold me to Sakuzi for a bag of flour. So you're not alone in the list of people their parents, well, in your case, parent failed,"

"Yes, you're right but I'm trying to say he should have tried. Take a look at you, you're a fucking criminal, a gangster for God's sake, no offense," 

"No offense taken," Emerald gladly told him. 

"But then, you proved to my mom of all people - my mom who doesn't like violence - that there's a you beneath you - the you whose kind, patient, funny, loveable - and I'm not really saying this to make you proud or something…." Pedro added when he saw the proud smile that crept up Emerald's face, "But you managed to pull down her walls, and now you both are the happiest, about to get married and give me a baby sibling and all. He should have come in another perspective instead of trying to take me away like I'm some property," He wiped off the tears that slipped down his cheeks unintentionally. 

"I feel disappointed and at a loss and scared," Pedro revealed to Emerald who listened attentively. 

"Why should you be scared?"

"I don't know but..." He shrugged, "I feel that I might turn out to be like him one day after all I share his blood and they say blood never lies. Remember? An apple never falls far from the tree," He opened up to him. 

For a minute there, Emerald didn't say anything until he clasped Pedro's face and focused it on him so they were staring straight into each other's eyes.

"Tell me, who raised you?"

"My mother,"

"Do you share Cecil's blood or not?"

"I do,"

"Now, that is what you have to remember, Son. Anytime you feel like you moved out of the track, you just look back and remember the sacrifices that woman made for you. Also, Fernandez might be your biological father but from the turn of events, he was never meant to be in your life. I believe in destiny and it just proved he was only a vessel for your creation. Don't go around wasting your emotion and joy on people that don't deserve it,"

"Also," Emerald went on, returning his hand to his shoulder, "I'm here now. I might not be Fernandez your biological father, but I'll love you as a father does,"

As if a Dam was broken, Pedro broke down into tears. How much he had longed to hear that comment from his father. Although he was raised perfectly well by his mother, he had been quite jealous of his friends with complete families.

Emerald sighed, no wonder the boy didn't want to talk to his mother. As a man, he understood how prideful boys could get, and crying in front of a woman was a no-no. The boy was growing up.

"Breakfast?" Emerald announced after Pedro was done crying his heart out and both burst into laughter. The giant groaned with effort, getting on his feet, that rock had been quite low for him. 

Pedro did the same. 

"Now, you go into the house and make your mom happy. Doctors say she needs to be in a good mood all the time - which is impossible - but then you get the point. Your baby brother needs it," 

Pedro's head whipped around, surprised, "Baby brother? You guys know the sex already," He was giddy. 

"No, we don't. I just guessed," Fernandez said as they walked back into the house through the back door. 

"And if the baby turns out to be a she?" Pedro questioned him. 

"Then I'll take it that way. I'm not Fernandez, Pedro. A baby is a baby. A princess seems cool by the way," 

"I'll prefer a brother. Girls are so much trouble," Pedro opined," It would be cooler teaching him as the elder brother," 

"Don't let your mother hear that, she'd think the both of us are in cahoots to jinx her baby's sex. She wants a girl with all manner of seriousness, I don't want to be blacklisted by her," Emerald Said, and the both of them broke into a pearl of laughter and began to throw jokes about Cecil like father and son would.