I stare at my reflection in the mirror, not quite believing what I'm looking at. It's Saturday, the day of my engagement party. The days flew by so quickly that I can hardly believe I'm here. Somehow, I didn't think that I could make it here, not with everything that's happening. But I have. I apply blush to my cheeks. I hear the noise downstairs, which means that more and more guests are piling in. I'll admit that I'm nervous—none of this is being easy. Convincing my parents to take part of this took quite a bit of pushing, according to Luca. They didn't want to have to do this with Mary still missing. She hasn't sent them a single message. They have no idea if she's dead or alive. Alive, probably. But they're still worried. Quite frankly, that's mean and selfish of her considering she wasn't kicked out. She was the one who had all their support. There was no reason for her to walk out on them and not inform them of her whereabouts. The strange part about that, though, was that sh
Luca I see Mary before Laura does.My brows crinkle in confusion. I move away from my group of associates without excusing myself. I look around and see that some people are slowly looking at her. Their facial expressions change when they look at her. Why wouldn't they?She's wearing all black, and there's a thin black veil covering her face. I stand behind Laura and place a hand on her shoulder. Stopping her. Reassuring her. I don't know anymore. This is the most bizarre thing that I've ever seen, and I can't deny that a small seed of fear is planting itself in my heart. What's the meaning of this? Why would she come here wearing a black dress? I thought she was missing. This makes no sense. It's like she dyed a wedding gown and veil black. Actually, I think that's exactly what she did. She stares directly at Laura will hollow, empty eyes. If I'm being honest with myself, I don't know how I recognized her so easily. She looks nothing like the charming woman I met during those eve
I can’t control my emotions no matter how hard I try. I stare at the bandage on my arm as another sob bubbles in my throat. I wish I could close my eyes and will all of this to go away. I wish that this was a nightmare that I could wake from, like the one I had of Mary standing at my door holding a knife and lunging at me. God, that felt so real. And what happened at the party was the same, only I couldn’t see her face as clearly because of the black veil. I shudder just thinking about it. My head pounds as I try to recall what happened at the engagement party. I remember how my heart stopped when I saw her. That’s something I won’t ever forget. Seeing her standing there with that black dress will forever be engraved in my memory, and I won’t forget it until the day I die. The worst part is that I’ll also have a scar to remind me of what happened; of how bad things got. I have no doubt that this stab wound will scar. I can’t believe Mary tried to stab me. Thinking about it makes m
When I wake up, the room is empty and I have no idea what the time is. I rub my sore and gritty eyes. I can feel how swollen they are from all the crying I did. It's the least of my worries. Everything is hitting me harder than ever right now. My heart pounds in my chest when I look at my bandaged arm which is feeling heavy and sore now. I think I need more painkillers, but I don't want to call for a nurse. I want some time to myself so I can process all of this. It's nearly impossible, but I have to manage. Constance is asleep on the chair in the corner of the room. Seeing her pinches my soul. I'm glad she's here but at the same time, it's yet another reminder of how my family failed me. That they did. All of them. Even dad, who allegedly meant well. I lost a lot tonight, and my family is one of those things. Sure, maybe a few years down the line we might act like nothing ever happened. I might visit them or call them during the holidays, but my love for them is gone. All that's l
Luca Tonight was undoubtedly the worst of my entire fucking existence and I've been through some heavy shit before. This one tops all the others, though. I never once thought that things could get this bad. When Laura refused to let me touch her at the party, I felt my soul—or whatever is left of it—shatter. I couldn’t believe it. I felt that I had lost the woman I loved, the woman that made me feel like I could leave my past and my demons behind me. I watched her friends take her away from me and I was helpless. I couldn’t stop them. I had to let her go. It was the most painful thing that I had to do. I couldn’t make sure that she was going to be taken to a hospital and that she would be treated. Someone else would have to do it for me because she refused to even look at me. I stared at the floor. Her blood was on the tiles. The bloody knife was just lying there. Mocking me. It was proof that I had failed to protect Laura. I let her crazy sister harm her under my own fucking roof.
I'm discharged in the morning. I wish I could stay at the hospital for longer, because if that was the case then I wouldn't have been forced to make an important decision so early in the morning. Luca offered to take me in because of the situation with my parents. He also said that it wasn't safe for me to stay there with Mary running loose. So much had happened that it never crossed our minds to contact the police and file a report. She should have been arrested for what she did. She tried to kill me. She would most certainly try again because she told me that she would. Luca was so in shock that he didn't think to tell his bodyguard to keep an eye on Mary. Apparently, she ran as soon as she could. It's not that the guy tried to stop her. He didn't know what to do. He knew she was my sister and didn't know how to go about things. So, nobody knew where Mary was. Once again. She was hiding somewhere and making diabolical plans to murder me. My life was in danger. Luca said I'd be sa
I wake up at around noon to a knock on my door. I know it's Constance. She's the only one who would check up on me at this time. I roll out of bed with a groan and make my way to the door. I try not to fall as I reach the door. I got up too quickly. I unlock the door. She smiles at me and gestures at the tray she's carrying. It has always astounded me how she manages to keep a smile on her face regardless of the situation. It cheers me up a little. Her happiness has always been contagious. "I brought you some soup and your pain medication. How's that arm?""Sore," I admit. "I'll take care of it while your soup cools a little, and then you can eat it. It'll do you good. I'm glad you managed to sleep for so many hours.""Have you heard any news about her?" I ask. I can't bear to say her name anymore. It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. "Unfortunately, no," she answers. "Your father has men looking all over for her, but it isn't easy. She was always smart, and so hiding is no big
Luca I think about calling Laura but decide against it in the last minute. She's probably resting. What she went through wasn't easy, and to make things worse she still ended up being stabbed. I can't get over that. I can't unsee all the blood, and the knife slicing her arm. I was helpless and only stared. I let her sister hurt her. I can't move past this. I don't think I'll forgive myself for not acting quicker. Things with the family are worse than ever. Miguel left; he's disappointed in all of us. I won't say that I don't understand what he's going through. I'd be hurt too if I were in his position. What we did with him was unacceptable and I only wish that we had done things differently. But I can't change the past. I had a meeting in the morning and not having Miguel there took a toll on me. He never contributed much to our discussions, but knowing he was there was a comfort. It was having someone who was blood by my side. Today, I didn't have his support, and I felt his abse
LucaI'm the last to see Laura, mostly because I want us to be alone for a long time. There's a lot I have to say to her, and I suspect that there's a lot she wants to say to me. She recovered well, and the doctors expect that she'll recuperate fairly quickly. She's tough. She broke a few ribs during her fall and fractured her skull, but she'll be just fine. It could have been a lot worse. She could have died. She could have been paralyzed from the neck down. But she survived. When I saw the crime scene, I realized that a miracle must have happened, because there was no way she had made it out alive when Miguel and Mary had over twenty guns in the apartment with them. The bloody scene was also an indication that something terrible had happened. We didn't have the details, but the police connected the dots fairly quickly. Miguel and Mary were lovers. Judging by the evidence they found, he was involved in the shooting. I was disappointed. Beyond that. I had no words for what I felt. I
I crack my eyes open. The light ahead is too bright, so I close my eyes for a while longer before opening them again. My head spins. I'm awake yet tired. My closed eyes make me fall back asleep. When I awake, I'm in the same place, but my mind is so hazy that I'm having a hard time figuring out where I am. I look to my left. My head practically snaps in that direction. There is someone beside me. Someone in white clothes. I look at her face, and her eyes widen a little and she leaves the bedroom. I groan. I wanted to ask her where I was and who she was, but I couldn't open my lips. My tongue is too heavy in my mouth. When she returns, she isn't alone. There's a man in a white coat beside her. He says, "Laura. Laura. Can you hear me?"How does he know my name?I fall asleep to the sound of his voice. I sleep easily. I dream of nothing. I have no concrete thoughts. I wonder where I am and wonder when my head will stop being so fuzzy. When I reopen my eyes, I see something interesting
“Stop!” Mary shouts. We both turn to look at her. She takes a few steps and reaches Miguel’s side. She stretches her arm out. “Give it to me.”“Why?”“I should be the one to do it,” she says. “Just as you’re the one who’s going to kill Luca. That was the plan. That’s what we agreed on.”“We never agreed on anything like that,” he says with a frown. “It was my idea to lure her here and so I have to be the one to do it.”“Miguel,” she says through gritted teeth. “Give me the knife!”I can’t believe they’re fighting over who’s going to kill me. It’s truly unbelievable. I look back and forth between them helplessly. If I stand, he might stab me in the back to stop me from reaching the door and that’ll ruin all of my chances of escaping. I don’t want to die here. I can’t die here. I’m suddenly so desperate to leave here and live. I want to see Luca again. I want to see my father again. Constance. My friends. I can’t die here at the hands of these deranged people. I can’t be another victim
It took everything within me to come here. I park outside the apartment building. I stare at the third floor. The windows are all closed. It's hard to imagine her in there, in my apartment. Polluting my sacred space with her negative energy and bad intentions. I climb out of the car. I don't allow myself to think. She wants this to end, we can end it now. I've hidden behind people for far too long now, and look what has happened. I can't let anyone else die because she's targeting me. That's cruel. I'm just as bad as her if I let such a thing happen. I didn't tell Luca. I didn't tell anyone I was coming here. I'm unarmed. I didn't call for help. There is no plan. There is just me. Me and her. As it's supposed to be. I close the door and take a deep breath before entering the building. The sun is starting to set and the sky looks beautiful; too beautiful for such a thing to be happening. The oranges and the purples are magnificent. I'll never forget the way the sky looked when I con
Yesterday feels like a terrible nightmare. Twenty-four hours has passed since those men stormed into the hotel and shot seven people. Seven people lost their lives, Luca's father and my mother were amongst the dead. I can't believe it. I repeat the facts to myself over and over again and still can't believe that such a tragedy has happened. It can't be possible that my mother is dead. That Luca's father is dead. And all because of some silly revenge that doesn't matter. All because I fell in love with Luca.I'm devastated. I don't think I'll recover from this anytime soon. I'm crippled by pain. And the worst part of all of this is Luca's pain and how raw it is. Marc didn't deserve to die at the hands of those traitorous shooters. I call them traitorous because they were invited to the party under some head of some family I don't even remember. It doesn't matter. What's done is done. We've lost two members of our family. My father is inconsolable. Sarah is inconsolable. Luca is abso
The wedding ceremony was absolutely beautiful. It was only Luca's family, mine, and Brett and Victoria. We didn't need a lot of people there. I've learned during all of this that Luca doesn't necessarily have a lot of friends. He has people he is very well acquainted with, but no close friends. He doesn't let anyone get close enough to him, because there's a side to him that he only shows the people he loves and he needs to keep it protected. It's too tender to be exposed to the world. I consider myself to privileged to be loved by him. He takes care of the people he loves. He knows how to love. I said yes with tears in my eyes. I didn't think I'd cry, but I did. Everything feel so official now. We're finally married. I'm his wife, not his fiancée. It's strange to think that I became his wife without having been his girlfriend first. It's just one of the many thoughts I had when he slipped the wedding band on my finger. We kissed and he held me for the longest time. I was hesitant
Luca Our wedding is tomorrow, and I'm not sure what to feel about that. It’s not that I’ve suddenly become indecisive. I know I want to marry her. I’m sure of my love for her. I’m not happy that we’re marrying this quickly but I also understand why it has to be done. My father was right; anything could happen to me at any point. If that’s the case, Laura is entitled to everything I have. It’s safer this way. But despite this, should we have given it more time? Would it have been best if we waited for things to blow over? That way, we could I have done things more calmly and wouldn’t have to rush like this. I don’t know anymore. I turn to look at Laura. Her back is facing me and she looks like she’s been asleep for some time now. I notice that she doesn’t really sleep at night. She spends a lot of nights awake; like me. So whenever she sleep, I feel easy enough to sleep as well. But tonight is different. I don’t want to sleep. If I do, I’ll wake up and it’ll be tomorrow. The weddi
"How's my favorite preggie doing?" Brett asks as soon as I answer the phone. I can't help but smile as I pop a grape in my mouth. "I don't feel pregnant yet, you know? It's just normal. I won't even lie."He chuckles and says, "You're just a cold-hearted bitch. My mother said that she could feel me from the second she found out that she was pregnant.""You haven't considered the fact that maybe she lied?" Victoria asks. I can tell from the sound of her voice that she's looking for a fight with Brett. "My mother said she didn't feel me either.""Well, that's you," he says with a sigh. "I'm different, then. Maybe those babies are the most magnificent and remarkable ones."I frown. "You're saying my baby won't be remarkable?""How can you say that?""I'm not saying the baby won't be remarkable!" he exclaims. "I'm saying that I was! Jesus! Give it a rest, you two! Stop being so annoying! Just stop!"I giggle and Victoria does the same. She then says, "I can't believe that we didn't get t
When Luca asked me whether I wanted to marry him anytime soon, I said yes. I would have waited longer if it were up to me. I really would have. I had no problem living the way we did. Alone. Free. Not caring about what anyone thinks. Not following traditions too much. It was the liberty I felt when I left my parents' house. But now that I was pregnant, that all changes. My father would want a date. And I'd have to give it to him. So I did. Things were happening quickly again. I was feeling quite overwhelmed with everything. My father was very happy when I told him I was pregnant. He was even happier when I told him I'd marry Luca in two weeks' time. He was strict about that even though he wasn't raised in our world. My mother was ecstatic as well. I never in a million years would have guessed that she would have reacted that way to the news. She even cried as she held me. I didn't know how to react so I simply watched her. The same happened with Constance, although with her my re