What Really Happened

Chapter 30

Danielle POV

What is he doing here? How did he even know this was happening?

As the cheering calmed down, he carried on but his clapping was slow. Slow and sarcastic. The hatred in his eyes. He's never been supportive of me. Ever. I can feel the fire inside me light up like a match, I'm clenching my jaw with anger now. I feel Stefania's hand grab ahold of mine, my eyes still locked onto him. He starts walking towards us through everyone else, still clapping. I'm not moving. If he wants to play these games, he can come to me. We come face to face, literally inches apart. I grip tighter onto Stefania's hand.

He finally opens his mouth, "I thought I was imagining things when I heard that you are actually marrying a.." he looks Stefania up and down, "woman."

"Don't you dare look at her." I pulled his focus back onto me. "What do you even want dad?"

"Can't I come and ruin a party?" His smug grin makes me hate him even more.

I smirked at him, "oh please, you will never be able to ruin this."

"Want to see me do it?" He takes another step closer to me.

Stefania puts a hand on his chest to stop him, "Ok no, I'm not having this. You can try all you want to ruin Danielle's happiness but as long as I'm here that won't be happing."

My dad looks at the hand placed on his chest then back to Stefania, "you've got some balls haven't you? Trying to tell me what to do."

"Believe me, this can get a lot worse if you carry on." the anger in Stefania's voice getting more noticeable.

My dad's anger matching hers, "Like you'll do anything."

I have to stop this, "Ok both of you stop! Stef go in the kitchen and calm down." Stefania lets go of my hand and walks inside being met by Barrett and Jaina. "Dad. You're a train wreck, you think that coming here and crashing my engagement party is going to work? You're a joke. You know what? I used to look up to you. A man who knew exactly what he wanted and didn't stop until he got it. Now? I feel sorry for you. I feel sorry because you can't understand how you're own daughter can love anyone that isn't up to your standards. Oh let's not get started on the huge homophobic elephant in the room. Those people in there, they are my family. Not you. They accept me for me. Not you. They call me 'Sunshine' for goodness sake because I'm happy all the time. Want to know why? Because of the woman I am going to marry. I really don't know what is going on in that stupid brain of yours but you really need to take a good look in the mirror before thinking about judging me. Now go." I point towards the door instructing him to leave. To which he did but not before giving Stefania another glare.

Stefania, Barrett, Jaina and Jay all run outside and pull me into a hug. I finally let out all the emotions built up and cry into Stefania's shoulder. No words are exchanged. No words are needed.

"Bambina," Stefania lifts my head up, "do you want everyone to leave?"

"No, this is our party and he's not going to ruin it." I take a deep breath as she wipes the mascara from my face.

Barrett and Jaina take me upstairs to sort out my makeup whilst Stef and Jay get the party going.

I sit on the edge of my bed still coming down from the amount of anger built up, "I can't believe he just showed up."

"D, forget about him. Tonight is yours and Stefania's party." Jaina walks over to me with the makeup.

Barrett's eyes bounced from Jaina and back to me, "are we just not going to talk about how hot Stefania is when she's angry?"

She makes me laugh, "that's the Italian."

"Well I think we need to make her angry more often cause that was HOT!" Barrett stood up and walked into the bathroom to grab a small mirror.

After we sort out my makeup, we go downstairs to everyone dancing. Music is blaring and the bass is vibrating through the floor. Stefania spots me and comes over to me, "come dance with me my fiancée." I take her hand and dance.

We danced a lot tonight. With each other, with everyone else. This is what we all needed.

--

The morning comes round. The morning that I've been dreading. Stefania is leaving today. It's not like she's literally leaving me but the pain in my chest is getting close to what it would be if she was.

As I lay in bed, I feel Stefania's arms wrap around me. I turn and face her, I need to take in the beauty before she goes. I run my hands through her hair which she loves me doing. I kiss the tip of her nose and she smiles. I feel a lump in my throat form, damn I'm going to miss her. I whisper, "I love you so much. I don't know what I'm going to do without you here." I know she's now waking up because she tightens the grip around me and pulls me closer to her warm body.

"I'll be back before you know it." She tries to say in her most adorable sleepy voice.

"I know babe, I just don't want you to go." I instantly regret saying that.

Stefania is now wide awake and moves away from me "what do you mean?"

"Not like that Stef, I'm just going to miss you that's all." I sit up and try to calm down the situation.

"Yes Danielle, I will miss you too but I have to go and see my family." Stefania is now getting changed.

"Stef come back here please," I reach for her hand but she moves away, "Stefania, will you at least be back by your birthday?"

Stefania stops what she's doing, "yes." She turns to me with a slight smile.

"Ok, we need to get you to the airport before you miss your flight."

After putting her luggage in my car, I drive to the airport. We arrive and my stomach is in knots. I feel her hand slide over mine as we pull up. We look deep into each other's eyes and place our foreheads together, both with tears falling down our faces. I pull her head up by her chin and kiss her. I'm trying to save every moment with her. We say our dreaded goodbyes and Stefania gets out the car, grabbing her suitcase and walking back over to my window. She leans in and kisses me once more. "Ti amo tanto Danielle." Stefania whispers.

"I love you so much too." I brush my thumb over her cheek and run my hand through her hair once more. And she leaves. As soon as I can no longer see her, I hit the steering wheel and scream and cry. I have so many mixed emotions rushing through my body right now. I need enough distractions to stop this pain for a while. I message Barrett:

D: Barrett, I need a distraction.

Doss: Why are you up? My head is throbbing.

D: Stefania just left for Sicily. I just dropped her off at the airport.

Doss: Right get back to yours, I'll be round. I have the perfect idea. I'll message Jaina too.