All Chapters of My secret lover: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

2 - Apollo Castiello There are pains impossible to ignore.- Savage Instinct 2The snow beneath my feet caused my steps to be short. The early afternoon, blanketed in ice and cold, drove me back home again. I had gone out to meet my friends, but on the way, I simply gave up. I always did that. I didn’t like going out much because I knew that when I got close to them, no conversation would involve me, and I’d end up excluded. And I didn’t care about going out on weekends. Lately, I didn’t care about anything.By the time I reached the door of my house, the boots on my feet were covered in ice. I stomped my feet on the mat and went in. The small, well-ventilated house was silent. An almost destructive silence. The kind of silence that had settled in since a month ago, when my mother decided to leave. When my mother abandoned my father and me, leaving us lonely and almost strangers inside our own home.I took off the gloves and hat that had been protecting me from the cold outside. Than

Chapter 4 - Apollo Castiello"Everything happens for a reason." — LostI was watching the movie my father had starred in thirty years ago, studying its details on the screen and trying to replicate them for my upcoming role. I looked up to him as a source of inspiration.Eros Castiello was a highly celebrated actor in the 80s and 90s. He had a brilliant career and decided to walk away from it all when he met my mother and I was born. I vaguely recall conversations with my mother telling him he didn’t have to give up his career, that she understood every aspect of his work. But my father wanted to be fair, and he was. He gave up his career, his dreams, and the job he loved, all for the sake of being a father to me. So I could have a normal childhood with normal parents.Now, as an adult, I wanted to carry on his dream—the one he had put aside for me. A dream that seemed to resonate within me, stirring the same emotions and aspirations. I wanted to show my old man that it was all worth

6 - Mia Lauren Hudson"Do you believe in love at first sight? No, I bet you don't. You must be too sensible for that. Or have you ever seen someone and just known that, if that person truly knew you, they would, of course, leave the perfect model they were with and realize you were the one they wanted to grow old with? Have you ever fallen in love with someone you've never even spoken to?" — While You Were SleepingMy hands were cold, and I felt like I was about to have a stroke as I stood in front of NewScene’s entrance. The tall golden letters were dusted with small flakes of snow, the glass door contrasting against the dark walls. At that moment, a warm fear filled my heart. It wasn’t fear of being deemed unworthy, but the exhilarating kind that comes when the door to your dreams stands slightly ajar, needing only one step to make it all worthwhile. That bittersweet anticipation gave me the strength to take the first step, then the second... until my hands were already turning the

Chapter 8 - Apollo Castiello"Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow." — Romeo and JulietThe meeting lasted another hour and a half. Jamie explained what the movie would be about but mentioned he was still open to changes. He scheduled additional meetings, but I was no longer paying much attention. As the meeting concluded, while greeting other colleagues, I spotted Mia slipping out through the NewScene doors, as if she was begging not to be noticed. I quickly said goodbye to an actor who had just arrived and followed her out those doors.The cold made my skin prickle, and I noticed faint raindrops starting to fall. I scanned the area for the sole reason I had left the warmth of the production office—and then I saw her. She stood under the overhang of a jewelry store next to NewScene, shielding herself from the drizzle.I approached her in complete silence, watching as Mia tapped her phone against her palm, visibly upset, a

10 - Apollo Castiello"I feel better when you're around."- One dayI spent the night awake, just as I had predicted. I lay there, feeling my body heat up, thinking I was burning in fever, as the cold night air outside was chilling enough.A lot different from that morning. The sun shone high and strong in the blue sky, the snow was melting, but, like every European winter, the cold was still present. And it was this coldness outside the window that caught my attention. Well, at least it was what I wanted to focus on.I had thought about Mia all through the night, and I didn't want those thoughts to return. But they were like quicksand in my mind."Don't do this," I heard my brain reprimanding me when I grabbed my phone.Ignoring all my rational senses, I searched through my contacts. She could have saved her number when she picked up my phone. I went through contact after contact, hoping to see her name, but it wasn’t there. Damn! Of course, it wasn’t. She was married and wouldn’t put