Althea

|𝟯𝟴| 𝗕𝗲𝗲 𝗛𝗮𝗽𝗽𝘆

He grabs my hands. He takes them in his and holds them and then brings them up to his lips, pressing a kiss to the sides of them and then he holds my hands to his heart.

I look up at him, my eyes slightly watery and I see that their are tears in his eyes. Sad tears. Angry tears. Not at me. He looks so broken as he stares at me, his eyebrows furrowed. And I notice something that makes it harder not to cry again. I notice that his eyes are red to.

He's been crying. About me. He cares about me enough to cry. Not near me. Maybe because he doesn't want me to cry. To late. But he cried those tears for me.

"I'm sorry..." he says, his eyes not leaving mine. He reaches out to touch my cheek, tracing the freckles there.

"It's okay." My voice is shaky, quivering.

He looks at me, his face showing that he doesn't believe me one bit. "It's not. It's not okay." He repeats for the thousandth time.

"Enzo..." I start, still looking up at him. I don't finish my sentence because I don't know what to say. It's not okay. It's really not.

"Althea..." he says my name so softly, the syllables falling loosely from his lips.

"He touched me." I blurt out, tears filling my eyes. I lay flat on my back, my cheek pressing against the pillow as I continue to look up at Enzo's pained face.
I point to my belly. "He touched me here," I point to my thigh. "He touched me here," my voice is shaking and Enzo covers his eyes with his hand, his breathing escalating, shaking his head over and over again. I slowly move my finger. "He almost touched - me here." my voice cracks.

Enzo shakes his head over and over again. "No, no,
no. Please no." He mutters quietly.

I sit up and grab his wrist and I gently pull his hands away from his eyes. He lets me. They're filled with tears. "But then you came..." I say quietly, a tear falling down my cheek.

"I came..." he repeats, staring at me intently.

"You came and that's why I'm okay."

He shakes his head. "Physically...but are you okay mentally?" He stares at me.

I stare at him, thinking. Was I okay? Mentally? Was I really okay? I didn't know. He didn't do anything to me. It's what he was going to do. How he attempted to do it so easily without any hesitation because he wanted revenge on Enzo.

I stare at Enzo for a moment and I can see the confusion in his eyes as his eyebrows knit together then realization dawns on his face. He thinks he knows what I'm thinking but he doesn't.

"Althea...it's okay. You can blame me...." his voice cracks, wincing when I reach out my hand to touch his face. "It's okay to blame me if you need someone to blame...it's okay."

I shake my head, biting my lip. "I don't blame you-"

"But-" Enzo starts.

I shake my head, cutting him off. "He did it because he wanted revenge for something that was the truth. He abused you, Enzo. He hurt you. And people needed to know. What he did...or tried to do to me...wasn't your fault. It was no one's fault but his." I say and he touches his hand to my mine which still rests on his cheek.

He closes his eyes and we sit like that for a moment, both our eyes closed and the only noise filling the emptiness of the room is our slow gentle breaths.

Then I hear footsteps, loud thumps running down the hall which makes me snap my eyes open and sit up in bed. I look to Enzo who's confusion is replaced with realization.

"Who..." I trail off when the door to his room bursts open and he takes a step back from me, allowing Gio to sprint across the room and to the bed, jumping up on to it and throwing her arms around me.