I stay in bed until morning comes, I’m overwhelmed by emotions: the loss of my parents, the fear of losing Stefan, and the concern for my own safety. Romano’s men are still standing outside the bedroom door, they haven’t moved an inch. I don't feel safe, they can come in any second and shoot me or do whatever Romano tells them to. I’m completely vulnerable. I can’t be alone, I have to be near Agatha or the grandparents so they can intervene if Romano tries to harm me. I ask the guards to let me go see nonna Julia. They seem reluctant, but finally they agree. They walk next to me to nonna’s bedroom and stay outside the door in case I try to go out. I don’t, I stay with her the entire day. We eat
Luckily, Romano’s men don’t come with us to Rio, only Diogo, Agatha’s driver, and bodyguard, accompanies us to the city. We go to a big mall, buy an iced coffee and start going through the different shops. I keep on the defense, in case Agatha starts trying to persuade me to give Romano the information he needs, but she doesn’t even mention the subject, instead, she seems nervous. She constantly looks over her shoulder to check if Diogo is near us, I guess she is scared someone might attack us as they did to Stefan.
On June 21st, I gave birth to a healthy beautiful boy with big blue eyes. Rebecca helped me delivered it, she is an important Gynecologist with her own private practice and she took great care of us. She also hired me as her receptionist and she helps me take care of little Alex whenever I need it.I have to admit, I get sad sometimes that my baby boy is never going to meet his dad, but Rebecca always makes me look on the bright side: we are safe, safe from Romano, saf
At dawn, we hear a loud bang followed by multiple shots and a lot of shouting from Romano’s men. We are being attacked. Rebecca and I immediately get to the floor, I cover my baby with my trembling body. A tall man with dark hair comes into the room agitated.“They found us! We have to get out of here, come with me.” He yells at us. “Hurry!”
I light the big Buzz Lightyear shaped candle on top of the carrot cake Agatha made. Alex loves Buzz Lightyear, so our house is full of toys and stuff from that cartoon character. He likes it so much we were afraid his first word would be Buzz, luckily it wasn’t, it was “dad”. He is even wearing a Buzz t-shirt that I bought especially for him to wear today on his 1st birthday. I step out of the kitchen and into the dining room, Alex gasp excited as he sees the candle, he is sitting on his dad’s lap. Agatha starts to sing happy birthday at the top of her lungs. Rebecca and Stefan share a mocking smile discreetly and then start to sing along. It has been hard for Rebecca to reconnect with her brother, but she wanted to be part of ba
I think Sam is going to kiss me. It’s only fair, this is our second date. Since the first time I saw him walking around campus I thought he was cute. He has such a sweet smile and an innocent look, he seems like a good boy, the kind you can trust. Maybe boy is not the right word, after all he is three years older than me, he just turned 23. So basically, he’s already a man. He’s graduating from college this year and soon he will be fully immersed in the adult life. I envy that. I crave the freedom he’s getting.
I wake up with swollen eyes from all the crying from yesterday. I contemplate my reflection in the mirror, this isn’t a cute look. I splash some cold water in my face and go back to bed, I have no desire to see anyone right now. I watch movies on my laptop, but I don’t really pay attention to them. I can’t erase the image of Sam on the ground with the gun inside his mouth.
We arrive at the party and I immediately recognize Sam’s brother, Martin, in the crowd. I feel very uncomfortable with his presence, but I rather not mention it to Miranda. She has no idea he’s here or that he has also seen me and now he and his friends are looking at me in the most hostile way possible. I can only imagine what they must be saying about me. I want to go home and hide under my bed.“Hi! I’m so glad you came.” Says Laura, a classmate from college, I must have known she’d be here, she is dating the guy whose house we are in. “I love that dress! You lo
The morning comes, but my mood hasn’t improve one bit, I still feel utterly humiliated. I can’t believe I was kicked out of the party. I can just imagine what people said after I left. My stomach feels queasy just thinking about all the gossip there will be about me. I grab my phone to distract myself from what happened at the party and I’m surprised by the number of notifications I have. There’s a text from Miranda asking me if I’m ok, there’s another from Laura asking me if what Erick told her is true and then there’s a bunch of messages from unknown numbers saying the most hateful things. My jaw drops as I read the messages.