“Amen.” Everyone joins the priest. I step forward to the casket and throw a white rose onto the casket.
“Sii papa libero.” I whisper. ‘Be free, papa.’ I place a red rose down on my mother’s side of the headstone. I walk back to the limo to take me home for a few hours before we turn my entire world upside down.
Once I’m in the limo, I let my head fall back to the headrest and sigh heavily.
“You seem to have the weight of the world on your shoulders,La Mia Anima.” My lips twitch at the nickname ‘my soul’ from my ex-fiancé, and my blade is against his Adam’s apple in a matter of seconds. “I see you haven’t lost your edge.”
“What the fuck are you doing here? Answer carefully, because the words could very well be your last,” I growl, even though my heart is screaming for him to take me here and now.
“Believe it or not, I came to check on you. My mother called me while I was traveling about the news of your father’s death. She sends her love. There’s a fruit basket back at your place from her.”
“Send her my thanks. I’m fine, so you can leave my fucking limo and you can forget my name.” I remove my knife from his throat and ease back into my seat.
“Really? That’s it? After three goddamn years?” His voice rises an octave. My nostrils are now flaring. “I demand answers.”
“Get the fuck out. I don’t have to give you a goddamn thing. Last I checked, I paid you back for the honeymoon and what your mother spent. I also gave you the ring back. Now leave me alone. You’ve done your job. I have things to do and people to meet.”
“This isn’t over,La Mia Anima,”he whispers before opening the limo door.
“I’m not your soul anymore.”
“Yes, you are. And you always will be. Don’t worry, we will meet again. And very soon. There is much to discuss about me and you.” He shuts the door.
What the fuck is Benvolio thinking? I left him. He doesn’t control thenarrative. I fucking do.
TWO
MIRABELLA
THE NIGHT BEFORE THE FUNERAL…
Drinkingsome peppermint tea in the kitchen as I listen to the rain hit the windows is soothing. Mother nature seems to know what my moods are, and is able to accommodate me. I sigh, gripping the hot mug to warm my chilly hands. After my long bath earlier, my body is still cold. I don’t know how to do this without Dad coming in and kissing me on my head, talking about my day at the restaurant. The tears flow again. My cell phone vibrates on the table. I pick it up and see it is a message from Aurora and my other gal-pals.
AURORA: How is everyone holding up?
ME: Still numb, you?
AURORA: Same.
CATERINA: What do we do now?
VIVIANA: I’m still trying to wake up from this nightmare
ANA: I want to get drunk. Who’s with me?
Aurora, Caterina, Viviana, Ana, and I have a lot in common. But the most recent one is that we all lost our fathers. So we’re lost and alone together.
AURORA: Let’s meet. Can you shake the keepers?
ME: Do you really need to ask that question? *Smirking emoji*
We’ve made an art of escaping those our late fathers tasked with going everywhere with us. As young girls we thought it was cool, but as we got older it sucked donkey balls.
ANA: *flipping-off emoji*
After a few emojis and laughing, I slip upstairs to get into something other than my pajamas. I open the window in my bathroom and climb down the lattice. I keep my body close to the side of the house, going to the garage. I clock the men doing their nightly rounds and move swiftly to the clearing in the garden near the greenhouse. I see the break I need as I dive into the hedges. I always keep a dummy car down the street in the driveway of an old childhood friend’s house. I grab the key in the wheel well of the tire, enter the car, and drive down the highway to an abandoned warehouse we own. It’s a dummy corporation that I own that can’t trace back to me. I’m the first to arrive, so I turn on the lights in the main area. It’s an old factory—not sure what they made here, but right now only a table with five chairs are in the middle of the cold room.
“You got here quick.” Ana is the first to arrive.