A love like ours ✔️

♛42.Lungs

Soraya

Something is wrong. I could feel it in papa's embrace and I can definitely feel it in the way he looks at me from across the dining table. Yes, I know that he missed me and he was worried about whether or not I'll be found alive, but there's more to it. I know him like the back of my hand. His demeanor is off.

All the way trough my shower I couldn't shake the feeling of foreboding.

Now, with an overly protective Nyx lying at my feet in the dining room, a brooding husband sitting at the head of the table, and a forlon father positioned to his right, I try to enjoy Rosa's cooking, but the eerily quiet won't allow to do so.

"Damn it." I curse loudly, setting my cutlery down on my porcelain plate.

"Language, figlia." Papa admonishes . (daughter.)

"I will watch my words when you tell me what's bothering you. If it's the fact that you kept my true origins from me- "

"It's not that." He shakes his head sighting deeply. Guilt seeps in when I see how tired and worn out he looks. He wasn't like this two moths ago, but my disappearance left its mark on him. "I feel bad that I lied, but I was trying to shield you from the pain of knowing how you came to be a Morelli."

"And how is that?" I probe.

"We couldn't concieve because of me. We tried everything and it didn't work, so we were ready to give up. We were considering adoption when the Russos showed up at our door with you, the most perfect baby I've ever seen, all wrapped up in a blue blanket embroidered with stars, telling us that little Salvador Cortéz handed you to them. You began fussing in Angela's arms, but when Gloria took you in hers you stopped. I saw her fall in love with you that very instant." His eyes are glazed over as if he's reliving the past.

"She did?"

"Si."

"And how about you? It must have been hard for to accept me, your enemy's flesh and blood." Perhaps it's unfair of me to ask him this, but I don't want to live with this questions burdening me.

"Not for a moment. I extended a hand towards you and you grabbed my finger with your tiny fist, looking at me with those curious dark eyes of yours. Then you sneezed." He chuckles. "I've never felt so much panic in my entire life. Were you sick? How bad was it? When was the last time you were fed? How fast could I have all the things a baby needs brought over to the mansion?...I knew right then that I would do anything for my little daughter. For all my terrible sins, God gifted me with you."

"Soraya for the blanket and the way I was sent to you, and Eliana for the answered prayer." I muse.

"Precisely." He nods.

I feel Teo's hand wiping at my cheek. Up until he did it I hadn't realised a tear was rolling down my face. I take his hand in mine, squeezing it for dear life. He doesn't complain.

"I couldn't have asked for a better family than you and mama offered me. Thank you."

He smiles, but it doesn't quite reach his eyes.

"You have nothing to thank me for, my child. It saddens me that I'll soon have to leave you. But at least I know you'll be on good hands with Rafael. "

"Why are you saying it like that?" I scrunch my eyebrows. "I mean you're retiring and you want to return to Italy, but we can spend part of the year there. And then you'll come over for the holidays."

"I don't think Damiano is talking about moving back, tesoro." Teo offers, squeezing my hand back, a frown adorning his handsome face. But then again, he's always brooding.