Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
ᴛᴡᴇɴᴛʏ 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑙
❦
A knock sounded on Maria's door. Despite the lingering feeling that it was another bad omen, she opened it, letting Elena in. She walked straight past her, sitting on the side of her bed, hands staring down at her hands, which rested on her knees.
"They're making a deal," Elena said, her voice somehow both grave and hopeful at the same time. Or perhaps that was just Maria's own projection, wishing her friend to be more sympathetic than she ultimately was. "We will leave them to peace if they hand over everything. All of their businesses."
Maria frowned. In truth, she didn't know how to feel. There was a strange mix of emotions brewing like a storm in her stomach. Fear of the future. Guilt, at the way it was all ending. Relief that no more lives would be lost. Sadness, at the fact her child would never know her father. But not a single word could place how she was truly feeling- there were no words, no phrases nor sayings that could describe it.
"You should be happy," Elena said, looking away, chin jutting out at an angle, a clear sign of her anger. Her face had darkened over the days, shadowed with fatigue. But it was as if the tiredness had gone past the point in which it could affect her.
I should be happy,Maria said to herself. Happy at what? At the fact that Luca was destroying a whole family in cold revenge? She would be happy when there was honest peace, and God knew that was unlikely.
"No more death," Elena said, finally turning, having calmed herself.
"And what about all the death that has been already caused? On both sides," Maria said, placing a hand to her stomach.
"My baby will have a father. That's all that matters to me now," she said.
At least Elena had that luxury, of having some sense of security. Maria's brother could never give her that, not when he would eventually discover the truth. It would be betrayal in his eyes, destroying him from the inside. And for that, Maria could feel sorry for the pain she was caused. But when had he ever considered her feelings? Once she'd pleaded with him to go home, not to disturb the tranquillity of her life in England. But vengeance had been more important.
At first, Maria had forced herself to understand. Her father had been murdered, and she grieved, remembering the good times with him, without forgetting the bad. But to take a life in response? How could that ever be just and fair and satisfying, as her brother said? It was a sin, in the eyes of God, even if it was revenge.
"Of course," Maria scoffed, shaking her head at Elena's self-important words. She looked down at her hands on her own stomach. The bump wasn't showing yet, but, somehow, she could sense it. "All I ever wanted was to be a mother. Perhaps not in this way, but at least that one single wish came true."
