Code name: Athena [18+]

Code name: Acqua

"I'm sorry..." he said, looking down "I guess I'm projecting...I'm trying to convince myself that I'm not crazy for still loving a woman who left me and my children," Mariano frowned. "I wish I could just wake up tomorrow and forget Allegra but I can't, it's like every time my heart beats her name echoes through my body and it all aches because she's no longer with me."

I hugged him tightly and let him cry as much as he needed, then I took him upstairs, pecked his forehead and told him I was going to go check on his sister but when I did, she wasn't there anymore; the grey suitcases were gone from her room as if she had never been there, so I went to my bedroom where Apollo was lying in bed with our sleeping son on his chest.

"How are they?" he asked as I lay down beside him "what did Valentina say?"

A deep sigh left my mouth "She's gone."

"Gone?" Apollo looked at me "what do you mean gone?"

"Her things are not in her room so I guess she left," I rubbed my face frustrated.

"Does Mariano know?"

"No, I'm not worrying him anymore tonight; we can talk about it in the morning," I declared.

Apollo nodded "Okay, princess," he chewed on his bottom lip tightly as he gazed back at the window.

After changing into my PJs and checking on Mariano, I lay down with my two boys in the king-sized bed of the master bedroom, and fell asleep immediately after Apollo turned off the lights; this trip is not turning out as I thought it would. It was supposed to bring us happy, fun and relaxing memories (especially for Apollo), and now I don't know if I should just pack it up and get the hell out of dodge.

In the middle of the night, I woke up to my son kicking my back which means he is having a night terror, so I immediately sat up to pick him up and rub his back which is the only thing that calms him down. My husband wasn't in bed so I assumed he was in the bathroom but the light wasn't on. As soon as Napoleon was back asleep, I stood up and asked Salma, who was outside my door, to watch over my son while I went to look for Apollo downstairs.

"Bab–" I spotted his tattooed back and golden hair, in the pool, looking in direction of the ocean which is visible thanks to the moonlight. "Hey," I sat on the edge with my feet in the water "what does Artemis have to say about all of this?"

He didn't even glance at me "I think we should move to Roma, at least until Napoleon is seven," now he looked at me. "I want him to be away from poisonous New York; from all those ghosts that haunt our family thanks to me."

"Apollo," I went into the water not caring about my silk nighty "Artemis is watching," I pointed at the moon and he smiled weakly "she's always watching over you, over Napoleon–"

"Over you," he said as I wrapped my arms around his neck from behind "she loves you, she has told me about it."

Talking to the moon at night or just staring at it helps him go back to bed when his intense insomnia kicks in. Most times I'm up until he is back asleep, but lately I have been more absent in that part of our marriage, which I hate...it makes me feel like I'm failing as a wife, but at the same time I'm trying to create another wall between the people who are out to hurt us and us.

"Has she? Really?" I pecked behind his right ear and then rested my chin on his right shoulder.

"Yes," he replied "but I can't tell you what she told me because of our pact."

"The twin pact?" I smiled softly, looking at the sea illuminated by the silver light of the moon.

"Exactly," he gazed at me over his shoulder and I quickly pecked his lips. "You don't think less of me because of what Valentina told us, right?"