There would be many words to describe Roman Cecilio, but one would be: malicious. Don of the Italian Mafia with no remorse, but what happens when he meets a woman and her daughter?
Jasmine Torres shelters her daughter from any and all harm, hiding...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"How could you let this happen?" I nearly spit my words.
Even though Jasmine said her hurtful words, it doesn't and won't change anything about how I feel towards her and her daughter.
She's hurting and I can't do anything about it. Especially after what just happened. She can take her hurt, anger, sadness out on me. I need her too. She doesn't need to keep it locked inside so when she finally let everything loose, I almost felt relieved.
Yes, she cried. Yes, she was yelling at almost everyone. But she needed to let it all go and I gladly let her.
Her words hurt but I know she's angry and she has every right to be. They still hurt though and soon enough she won't be able to say something that can be taken back.
So yes, I wanted her to finally explode and rant about whatever is on her mind but at some point I'm going to have to put a stop to it before she does something she'll regret.
"I didn't let anything happen. You didn't see it, Roman. She was right there." Tanner frowns. "Right there." He whispers, looking at his hands as if he would be able to hold her.
"Who?" I ask, my anger still running deep into my body.
"Ansley."
The air leaves my chest as I look away from him. That explains why she ran. That's all I knew is that she ran towards the building and then it exploded. I didn't know that Ansley was there and that's what Jasmine was running too.
"D-" I cleared my throat. "Did you find her?" I ask absently, looking at the wall behind him.
"No." He whispers, making me frown and let out a heavy breath.
"Did you find anything?" I shout, feeling my left eye twitch as I thrust my hands forward to grab onto the collar of his shirt.
"The remains of two bodies, a-"
I don't let him finish his sentence before I shove him away from me and stalk my way to Jasmine's room in the infirmary. I couldn't stand there and look at his sad face as he tells me that one was a female child and the other was a grown man.
She's dead.
Ansley is dead.
This is going to break Jasmine. There will be no fixing this, no healing, no comebacks. How am I supposed to tell her?
Oh god, Ansley is dead. A small, innocent, little girl. My daughter is dead and I have to stop and take a seat in the hall.
I shove my face in my hands, closing my eyes. This isn't fair! How could someone do this? I don't even kill children.
Why would fate or whatever put her in my life, take her away from me? She showed me love. She showed it was okay to be loved. She was something I never asked for but something I will always be grateful for.
I know, I'm not her biological father and I know I wasn't there for her birth, first word, first step, first birthday, but I knew I was going to be there for the rest of her life.
At least, that was I thought. ——————————————————————— "Mrs. Torres is in a coma."
My heart breaks but at least I'll have her for a little bit longer. I don't know how Jasmine will react. I don't know if she'll leave but I know if she does, I won't be able to stop her.
I nod, not looking away from Jasmine's body. When the building exploded and she was ricocheted backwards, she hit a tree with her head and the corner of the bed of a truck then she landed on large pieces of glass.
One of the doctors said that she might be paralyzed but they won't know until she wakes up but there's no telling when that could be because of how hard she hit the tree with her head.
Everything just feels so off, like I don't know what to do. Jasmine being in a coma and Ansley- I just don't know.
My eyes burn and for once I don't stop it. I just let it happen and a sharp breath leaves my mouth.
The last time I've ever cried was when my mom died and before that I never cried. My mom always praised me for it. She said I even broke my pinky and still didn't cry.
I guess, I have my breaking points.
I press my face into Jasmine's cold, unmoving hand and just let the tears fall. I just don't know what is going to happen after this and the fear of the unknown has its hands wrapped around my neck.
I don't want to think that not only did our daughter... but now Jasmine might leave as well and take Luis with her.
I'll be alone but this time, I won't be the same person I was. ——————————————————————— "Roman, where's Jasmine?" Luis asks, peaking his head into my bedroom.
I don't know how long I stayed with Jasmine just crying. I left to take a shower and change into more comfortable clothes, knowing I don't plan on leaving her anymore other than this moment.
"Come here, Luis." I tell him, running a hand through my wet hair.
He furrows his eyebrows but walks further into my room, shutting the door behind him and stopping once he's a couple feet away from me.
"What's wrong?" He asks, glancing around the room slightly as if he thinks something is about to happen.
"Jasmine was injured during her mission, she's in a coma. The doctors said they don't have the knowledge of when she will wake up." I tell him, seeing him frown.
"W-What? How?" He stutters as I watch his hands shake until he forms them into balls.
"She saw Ansley in the building and ran towards it but there were bombs planted and it set off." I tell him, clenching my jaw as my words tumble out of my mouth numbly.
"Ansley? Is she okay? Is she here? Where is she?" He sounds so hopeful and I'm stuck.
I could tell him that she's safe and sleeping or getting checked out, or I could tell him that she's gone. How the hell am I supposed to tell a kid that?
"She's gone, kid." I tell him lowly.
He freezes as his eyes fall to the floor. He almost seems rooted to the floor because he doesn't live or make a sound.
In the two months he's been here, I've grown to treat him almost like I did with Ansley. Although, I was more comfortable with Ansley, I still treated Luis like he was my own but now I don't know what to do once again.
"Oh my god." He breathes, finally looking up with red, teary eyes.
I'm not good with comforting words, especially when it comes with grief but for now I just wrap my arms around his shoulders and let him cry into my chest.
That's all I can do for now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I literally cried while I was writing this...
