Be Brave With Me

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Romeo came skidding into the kitchen.

Gripping the doorframe to keep himself upright in his mad rush, he scrambled towards Nonna's old-fashioned wall phone.

Theo threw a curious glance in his direction, then returned to chopping tomatoes. "Good luck, man. The cord gave up on us, like, an hour ago."

"Che?"

He shrugged and reached for a fresh tomato. "Nonna was running around the kitchen with the phone tucked to her ear, stretching the cord like she always does, and it snapped. Strappare. It was bound to happen, wasn't it?"

"Dici sul serio? Ma dài!"

Romeo sounded... off. Theo turned back around to find him clutching the receiver in his shaking hands, with his chest heaving, eyes wide and panicked.

All right. Something was definitely off.

"Romeo? Stai bene? What's the big deal? This is Ravello. If you need to reach anyone, you can just go and see them..."

"No, no, no." Romeo shook his head and slid down the wall. He crumbled to the floor, right there on Nonna's spotless tiles, and chucked the useless receiver away with force. "Merda!"

Not off... something was... wrong.

Alarmed, Theo took two steps in Romeo's direction - and froze.

Froze on the spot, froze right down to the last vein in his heart.

"Romeo... where is Aura?"

Romeo pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes and groaned as if he was in pain. That wasn't an answer. Theo needed an answer.

He repeated the question. "Where is she? Dov'è lei, Romeo?"

"Andata."

Gone.

He darted through the kitchen and slid into home base in front of the cabinets where the receiver had vanished out of sight. He snatched it up and crawled back to the wall phone on all fours. There, he tried to twist the two cords back together. If he could just make them reconnect... fuse them together... but it was too late... too frayed... they were split apart.

Any chance for communication lost. Aura. Lost.

He dropped the phone and moved to lean against the wall next to Romeo. He let his head drop back in defeat. Even if he managed to fix the damn thing, it was no use. He didn't know her number by heart.

Romeo went on and on about an old couple, rich and fancy, and about a girl, young and pretty, who had taken Aura away to a big yacht. Something about the F1 race in Monaco. Theo didn't need to hear the details, though.

He didn't know her number by heart, but he knew her heart. Full stop.

He'd known this would happen. Aura's heart would never find peace as long as she didn't stand up to The Carmichaels, brave and brazen, and demand her parents' love. The one love in your life that is yours by birth.

Aura's heart would never be free if she had anyone holding her back.

That included him.

He'd known this would happen. Her leaving him. He'd seen the text messages, her godparents and Jess had been worried out of their minds. Them locating her had just been a matter of time.

He could't have known it'd play out like this, though. She'd been there one minute and gone the next. Without giving him a chance to say goodbye.

Like last time.