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He reaches a shaky hand towards me.
“Oh my god!” It’s Linda, Ben’s mother screaming from behind us.
The organ music cuts off.
Lesions begin to develop around Ben’s mouth and nose, like he’s dipped his face in a bucket of acid. Foam collects around the corners of his mouth, dripping down onto his suit jacket like a rabid dog.
I feel a strong hand rip me away and shove me back towards the pews, right as Ben clutches his stomach and throws up where I had just been standing in. Blood trickles out of his mouth and down to his chin as he continues to choke.
Edgar, Ben’s father, grabs him by the back of the collar and hauls him up.
“What the fuck!”
My own father shakes his head. All of us watch Ben’s body convulse in Edgar’s arms.
“Ben! Ben!” his mother wails.
My fiancé finally stops struggling, hanging limp in his father’s arm and letting out one last breath.
The entire church is silent, stunned by what we’ve just witnessed.
My mouth falls open.
My father turns back to me, his eyes shooting daggers, silent and accusatory. “Did you do this?”hangs silently in the air between us.
I want to bite his head off so badly that it makes my teeth ache. How could he think such a thing?
He pushes past Edgar and grabs Ben’s body, roughly jerking his shoulders.
“Ben! Ben! Wake up!”
I slowly back away from the scene, until I’m draped in shadow, horrified by the image of him lying prone on the floor. I felt my heart pound in my chest, thumping hard in time with his mother’s wailing.
My back collides with something solid, making mefreeze. The warmth of the body permeates my body, causing me to shiver.
Suddenly, a familiar voice speaks into my ear.
“Hello, Antonella.”
I felt my toes curl in my heels. That delicious, spicy cologne works its way straight into my brain. Before I have a chance to turn around, he spins me and cups my face.
I stare deep into the black eyes of my dark stranger.
I feel my heart thunder in my chest. The world around me grows darker the longer I stare into those eyes. My body feels weightless, like I’m floating on clouds. I sag a little forward, growing more tired the longer the yelling behind us continues.
“Sleep,” he says to me quietly.
It’s the last thing I remember before everything turned black.
CHAPTERFIVE
Ilean back into my leather couch and watch Antonella’s chest rise and fall in slow succession. I grip the coffee cup in my hand, hot against my knee where it rests.
She is gorgeous—despite that cupcake of a wedding dress that she’s wearing. She looks beautiful, of course, but it doesn’t suit her at all. Her usual style is much more refined than this. Sleek. Designer.
It’s still so much better to see her in daylight rather than in the dank of a dark alleyway behind a sleazy bar. The smell of booze and cigarettes lingering in the air while I tried to breathe in Antonella’s intoxicating perfume was more than distracting.
From here, I can see her heart-shaped face properly, pressed into the arm that she is resting on. Her long eyelashes fan over her curved cheekbones, and her plush lips make me want to run my thumb over them.
