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
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
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
“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
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
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 pin my hair up and stare at my reflection in the mirror. If the circumstances were different, I would allow myself to admire my reflection. The emerald green eye shadow has made my brown eyes pop unnaturally, and something about the dress I'm wearing—the same shade as the eye shadow—gives my skin a lovely glow. My mother will be proud of my appearance. My father will be devastated. I steel myself for both. My mother's eagerness to marry me into the Ferrante family is heartbreaking considering she knows who they are, better than anyone else in our world. If she were a better person, I wouldn't hate her for this. I would understand that she didn't have a choice in the matter; that she's putting on a show so they don't suspect that joining our families is the last thing in the world that we want to do. But she isn't a good person. As for my father, his devastation will undoubtedly affect me. He hasn't been the same since my mother announced what she considers a 'fortuitous match'.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Sarah says. "We've heard much about you, Laura.""Only good things, I hope," I tell her robotically. Automatically. The family chuckles lightly. Well, all of them except Luca. Where do I start? He's not at all what I was expecting, and not because he's younger than I thought he would be. His appearance comes as a shock to me. He's actually good-looking. As much as I would like to say that he's atrocious looking, I can't. It'll be a filthy lie. His nose is long and straight, and slightly broad, but it doesn't mar his features. His eyes are brown—like mine—but they're framed with dark and thick lashes. My eyes are practically naked, and I have to accentuate my eyes with thick layers of mascara and eyeliner. His lips aren't too thin, and his cheekbones are high. When he smiles at me, I notice that his upper teeth are straight, but there's some crowding on his bottom teeth. Again, it doesn't mar his features. He has a lovely smile. Charming. It's meant t
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