I hear four shots go off, and a ringing in my ears pound my head. I scream as Luca slowly grabs onto his chest; his white shirt was stained with red blood as he slowly drops to his knees. With one last kick of the door, I fly out and crawl towards him.
I grip his body and try to cradle him in my lap, smoothing his hair back and dropping my head against his chest. As I try to stop the bleeding, I feel his fingers scrape my hair back as he glances into my eyes. It was his blood that caressed my fingertips. I batter his face up, the wretched colour of blood, as his eyes close. "Luca!" I scream as I kiss his lips all over. I could not breathe, "Luca...Luca baby...don't leave me..." I try to drag him with all my might, but I myself am broken.
I am weak.
I grab onto his hands and settle them onto my stomach, watching a soft tear leave his eyes as i wipe it away with my thumb. His eyes slowly close. "I think I'm pregnant..." I feel strong arms around my waist yank me away from him.
Darren.
I begin fighting him before he roughly shoves me inside of the car and slams my door closed, my hands press onto the windows as the car drives away. The dirt in the air, I watch the love of my life die with his blood in my hands.
Guilt.
I guess forever did not actually mean forever and at the end I realised he was the spark I needed to be set ablaze, but I was no longer his. And the moment I finally found my home, it was not a building, but two eyes and a heartbeat.
I knew I could fall in love with something, someone just as broken as me because I hated myself forever but him...oh...man he made me fall. But the worst thing about loving someone to the depths of your soul is knowing that you will lose them. Nothing and no one lasts forever.
At least, now, I knew what it felt like to breathe.
We have been on the road for six hours, six hours since I saw the love of my life shot. Dead? I do not know, I held onto the necklace tightly as tears continue to fall down my eyes. I stare down at my hands, it dropped onto my lap whilst some is stained into the outlines of my hands. His blood is on my hands, I am the cause of this.
"Do you Athena Grey take Luca Romano to be your lawfully wedded husband? To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and not so good times, for richer or poorer, keeping yourself unto him for as long as you both shall live?"
The silence circled around in my mind, the question alerted every never and fibre of my being.
I glance down at his hands being wrapped with mine, my white lace gloves circling his tanned skin. I gulp down my saliva and inhale deeply before I could have any sort of attack.
My eyes betrayed me and looked up, they locked with a pair of green ones. In those green eyes, I saw what I think is a future. His pale green eyes had the softness of developing buds and the hope of spring.
The strong wind of the open window flushing against my face, I bring my knees close to my body.
"That's a one hundred and fifty thousand dollar-watch." My head shoots up and locks with a pair of green ones, he stood by the door-having to bend his head a little due to the height.
"I am so sorry." I whisper.
He walks towards me, takes the watch from my grasp before chucking it onto the glass table.
Sadness claims my stomach, I felt so bad.
"I'll-I'll pay for the damages."
"With what money?"
"Amara, it's not your fault." Darren whispers, I wanted to reply but nothing exited my mouth. Because it is my fault. I should have let him leave when he had the chance.
I killed Luca Romano.
"I love you Amara." He whispers against my swollen lips.
"And I love you Romano."
"I promise to always protect you, always and forever," his wet hair touched my forehead, the drops falling down my cheeks. His hands wrap itself around my waist, he glances at my stomach for a quick second before smiling sinisterly.
"Always and forever."
"We said always and forever." I look at Darren. "And we broke it, and it's my fault and now he's dead!" I choke onto my tears.
"He isn't dead, Amara."
"He is dead. I saw him get shot." I argue.
"Amara, he handled three bullets to the shoulders. I am sure he isn't dead." I look back to see a sleeping, Nora. Darren parks up into a motel and exits the car, "okay, we need to shower and change, by the time I fix our passports up."
How is he handling this situation so well?
His brother is dead.
I exit the car slowly, feeling pain between my legs as I open Nora's door, but Darren got there first and picks her sleeping body up.
I smile kindly as we make our way inside the reception. The women chews onto her gum before throwing us a key. I caught it since Darren's hands are full. "Room 304." We walk down the hallways, before arriving at our door. I push the key inside revealing a good enough bedroom with two beds.
Darren shuts the door behind me and rests Nora onto the bed along with the suitcase of all our things. "Go shower." He tells me, I nod my head and walk inside the bathroom, I switch on the water.
I strip of my clothing, including Luca's blazer which is the only thing keeping me going, having his scent around me. On me.
Shower water comes as perfect rain, warm and steady, awakening my skin in all the right ways. My hair darkens, as my eyes travel down to the ring around my neck.
The blood gushes down my body and onto the floor, i watch it drain down the sink. And it happened, I broke down. Sliding down the tiles of the bathroom, my fingers rushing through my wet hair.
Tears fall down my eyes, I felt so dirty. Blood. So much blood. I lost everyone in my life, I sob loudly. Choking onto the water, I grab the scrub from the packet and scrub the blood of my hands. I scream into the shower. My body physically shaking at his blood.
His blood.
I killed him. I killed Luca.
I should have helped him. I should have forced him to get in the car.
"You really tried to kill your own husband after four days of being married?"
"You're nothing to me." I growl out, "I hate you!"
"Ouch, my heart." He releases a soft chuckle. "I knew there was more to you than meets the eye." I jerk my knee into his stomach which distracted him, I grab his gun and push him off me as I find my stance on the floor. I aim the gun at him, and he shakes his head.
He stands from the bed, and walks towards me.
He grabs my wrist and lifts it higher for me to reach his head, "shoot me Grey."
"Don't tempt me Luca."
I scrub my body, from all the dirty hands that has touched me.
He looks at me from the mirror, before bending his head down towards my ears. "I don't like people complimenting what is mine before I do."
"Then maybe be quicker." He chuckles, my eyes widen when I noticed that was the first time, I hear him laugh. It was beautiful. Perfect and nothing of what I expected. Deep and sexy.
I switch of the shower, the blood stains all removed of me.
But for some reason, I feel like I could still feel their touch. It terrified me.
I wrap the towel around my body and exit the room, I see Nora laughing at something Darren said. He turns around, his eyes locking with my own before immidtaley pointing to the ground. "I need to clean your wounds Amara." He whispers, I notice the first Aid kit in his hands.
I walk towards him, settling on the bed as i drop the towel enough for him to stitch up my wound of the whips. He sighs softly, "this is going to hurt." I nod my head; he pours alcohol on my back. I hiss in pain, grabbing onto the covers of the bed as i shut my eyes tightly.
Then, i scream in agony as he stitches me up. I could not bear the pain any longer, tears were falling from my eyes as Nora watched me from the corner. A few minutes pass and i feel me being bandaged up. "I am going to give you both privacies to finish. I'll put gas in the car." I nod my head as he leaves the room.
"Amara is Luca coming?" I see her all dressed and clean.
"No, Luca has gone on holiday."
"Where?"
"I don't know Nora." I slide on a pair of trousers, wrapping my body with a hoodie and a baseball cap.
"Why did he leave us?"
"He didn't."
"Why did he leave us?" She repeats.
"He didn't leave us!" I burst out, Nora backs away into the corner, her lips quivering.
"Okay! Okay Amara enough." Darren grabs onto my arms as tears fall down my eyes, he sighs as he pushes my head against his chest. When my emotions hand me the "sadness card," that is when tears come.
They say sadness is behind anger, yet anger never comes unless in direct self-defence, and so perhaps I can credit this natural passivity with my willingness to cry and feel pain, to let the sorrow teach me more about my true nature and how fragile we humans are.
"It's okay Amara. Look at me." I glance up, he strokes my cheeks as my eyes lock with his honey brown ones. Not the perfect green ones I see, the ones mixed with dark blue and green. The ones that gave me hope. His phone rings, and he steps away from me before picking it up. He walks to the side; a scared Nora faces the corner.
What did i do?
Darren sighs, grabbing onto his forehead. He ends the call and looks at me, "who was that?"
"He's dead."
I could not believe it, no, Luca is un-killable. Luca is untouchable. Luca is...dead....
I drop onto my knees, my heart now physically broken. I sob into my hands, having no idea where these tears were even coming from. Rodrigues crouches down and sits on the floor, I glide into his embrace, and he holds me.
He tucks a hand into his pocket and pulls out a necklace, a silver necklace with what looked like a- "Lotus flower, the lotus commonly serves as a sacred for purity, rebirth, and strength. Because lotuses rise from the mud without stains, they are often viewed as a symbol of purity, and it holds itself-a symbol of strength..." He whispers.
It was not a million-dollar gift, it was nothing like that.
It was sentimental.
"This is for you; this now represents you. Because you are pure hearted, you are strong, and you deserve to start over-to be re-born."
"Amara, are you feeling better?" I hear her whisper from the back of the car.
"I'm sorry Nora." I whisper to her; she looks up at me with a soft smile. "I didn't mean to shout at you, I am just really tired."
"It's okay, I just miss mummy the way you miss Luca."
"Look, we have Uncle Darren here with us and I couldn't be more thankful." I murmur, he gives me a sympathetic smile. "Seriously, thank you Darren."
"Alright don't get soppy with me." I chuckle rolling my eyes.
"Do you think I'm pregnant?"
"We'll find out when we arrive in Spain," he whispers.