New Beginnings & True Love

Chapter 1 - No

The sun blazed outside and Rome bustled with activity, children ran around the park while their parents happily watched over them. The usual energetic city was no match to the girl who stood watching the city through the floor to ceiling windows from the apartment. If anything, it was her eyes which spoke rather than her face which was certainly, the polar opposite from her eyes.

The young girl's eyes were filled with pain, worry and regret while her face remained cold and emotionless.

She moved to the center of the apartment, readying herself to leave the place etched with memories, the place she had spent the last year of her life after graduating university. The place with good and bad memories. It was the place she had lived with the man who she thought was the love of her life until he moved across town to be closer to his parents, or so she thought. Her once perfectly organized life had been uprooted and had become an absolute nightmare. She had no idea how she had done it but within one week, she picked up her life and moved it to Monte Carlo. Now all she had left to do was give up this part of her life, get on a plane and start over. The girl hope and prayed that it would be easy and like her best friend had predicted the girl was wrong but as usual, her best friend remained silent about this and instead promised that she would be there every step of the way for she knew how wrong she was before. She knew how hard starting over could be.

Annabella stood at the center of the empty apartment, tears filling her eyes. She had no idea what the next step of her life would be. Sure she had a wonderful job, friends and a beautiful new apartment in Monaco waiting for her but was this what she really wanted? Was it what she needed? After university, Annabelle and Sienna had moved to different cities, Annabelle to Italy, her hometown and Sienna to Monte Carlo, yet the girls still managed to remain best friends even after all the obstacles life threw at them. Every summer vacation, Sienna would visit Annabelle and every winter, Annabelle would visit Sienna. Even with their busy lives, the girls managed to call each other every week and each week, the two would face their number one topic for the day, which one of them would move. Sienna always thought that it would be her moving to live with Annabelle but she never shared this for if she did, Annabelle could use this against her whenever the girls fought, not that they did often. However, it seemed as though, Sienna was wrong, Annabelle was instead the one moving. Even though Sienna know the real reason for the move, she never mentioned it and always agreed that it was because Annabelle had been offered an the job as a lawyer at an up and coming company.

Annabella looked around the room once more before allowing herself to sink to the floor and break. Tears cascaded down her fiery red cheeks and she let out soft whimpers. She had no idea how she allowed herself to be played by her ex like she had been. She wished she hadn't fallen for this man. She hated the way he changed her and the way she followed without question. In a matter of seconds, she had gone from being the fiancé of a man who had always belittled her and made her feel less than what she was to being his ex. She had no idea why he had done it, stayed in that relationship. Maybe it was because she didn't want to accept that all of the relationships she had ever been in were epic failures.

Just the night before everything changed, he had taken her to her favourite restaurant for their anniversary and told her how much he loved her but the next evening when she had returned home form work, she found out that he had cheated on her. Annabella had suspected that Greyson had been cheating but never really paid much attention to it, that was until she found him and his secretary curled up on the bed that she had had enough. 

Annabelle's sobs became quiet in the dark room, wondering why she had been so oblivious to the signs, why she never cared more and why she had allowed herself to be in such a relationship but that only brought up bad memories of the time she had actually tried to end it and she ended up with a broken rib and a black eye.

Annabelle sat on the hardwood floor for hours until finally the sun began to set and she knew that she had to go otherwise she would be late for her flight. She brushed the tears away, stood up and blinked back the more tears that were forming. She tried convincing herself that leaving a huge part of her life behind would be hard but deep down, she knew that she was only running from her problems. To her this was nothing, but to her mother who always highlighted this her, it was normal for the girl to do something drastic after something bad happened, even thought anything rarely did. Little did she know, that with the start of this new chapter, her life would become more chaos than she ever expected.

Annabelle took a step towards her bags, packed with the necessities and some clothes for the flight since most of her things had already been shipped off to her new home in Monte Carlo. She knew that she shouldn't be second guessing herself but she wasn't sure this was really what she wanted yet to create some form of positivity, she told herself that even though it may not be what she wanted, it was what she needed, a change in her life. In any case, the moment she had signed those papers agreeing to a five year contract at the new company, she knew that there was no turning back. She took a few deep breaths and glancing back at the apartments, she grabbed her suitcase and purse and left.

She was starting over.