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“I found her after you shot her,” I continued. “She was still alive. I helped her and gave her money to disappear.”
He clasped his hands behind his head despite the cast and pressed his forearms tightly over his temples. “Why are you telling me this? Why now?”
I heard the accusation in his words. He must have thought it was another one of my games to make him stay. I didn’t blame him. Anyone would have thought the same. But that wasn’t my intention. I wanted my boy to be happy. I’d always pushed him to stay close because of how much I loved him. He was mine. But even I could get past my possessiveness and learn from my mistakes. If his happiness would never be found except far away from me, so be it.
“You have to know that you didn’t kill your girlfriend,” I said. “You can’t run because of it anymore. At the same time, if you expect to have a new life with Ravenna, you have to be sure you’re over the old one.”
Leo crouched down, his head lifting heavenwards. “Sia is alive. All this fucking time she’s alive.”
“I know where she lives and who she lives with. I can tell you, but only if you want me to.”
“I… Fuck,” he mumbled. “Well, is she happy?”
I blinked. Davvero? No asking where she is? No urge to track her down or pursue her or finish what he started? He only asks if she’s happy? With someone else?
“Yes,” I chuckled. Sia was more than happy with Jesse Savage.
Leo nodded once and rose to his feet. Then he nodded again to himself, inserting his hand in his pocket and started down the hall. “Good for her.”
“That’s it?”
He glanced at me over his shoulder. “Si, Papà. That’s it.”
I watched my son walk down the hall for the last time. “Then I hope you’ll be happy, too.”
“I know I’ll be. I already am.”
CHAPTER NINE
TINO
Her face was so pale she could be dead.
Was she? Did she leave me? Did I kill my Angel?
In ways, I might have. The pain I inflicted on her wasn’t easy to take. Men crumbled under less pressure. I took pieces of her body and soul that she’d never get back. I stole her time on this earth, every minute passing in this room a year in misery. I was killing her, but she killed me first.
For days after Leo and Nicole left, I stopped watching Angel’s nights through a screen. I needed to feel her close, see her face, hear her breathe. Tonight was no different. I nestled in the dark corner, watching her sleep, counting her inhales and exhales, synching mine with hers. Except tonight her breath was so faint I could barely hear it.
You can’t leave me, Angel. I didn’t allow it. I’ll never allow it.
“Tino,” she whispered.
I held my breath, yet I was glad to hear her voice. For a moment there, she scared me, and I’d long forgotten what fear felt like.
“I know you’re here.”
She couldn’t possibly know. She was sleeping like the dead, and I was very careful as always. Or was Leo right about my getting sloppy?
“I can’t see you. I can’t hear you. But I can feel you in the room. Just like before we met, when I always knew you were watching. I know you’re here. I know your scent even when you’re not wearing any cologne. You’re here, so please talk to me.”
I closed my eyes and let out a breath. “I’m here, Angel.” I’m always here.
“Can you come closer, please? Sit next to me on the bed.”
I shook my head in the dark.
“Please, Tino. I need you to hug me. Can you please hug me for once like you used to do? You hurt me so much before, but you always hugged me after. Even when I was mad at you for hurting me, I threw myself in your arms, and you always embraced me. You’re my only solace from the pain, Tino, even when you’re the one causing it.”
