Angel (Damiano David & Victoria De Angelis)

Chapter 34

That night was strange. She couldn't exactly pinpoint why...it just was. Maybe because they were still overwhelmed by the information that Officer Blanco had shared. Victoria was tossing and turning in their still shared bed. Her mind was spinning. She was already thinking about the trial, while still being in conflict with their relationship status. Eventually, she opened her eyes, waking up from a very light sleep. Her phone showed her that it was 2 in the morning. She groaned and rolled over to her other side and to her complete and utter shock, Damiano's side was empty. Immediately, adrenaline rushed through her veins. Damiano had been doing a little better these past days but the self harm hadn't stopped yet and he was still extremely fragile. She almost jumped out of bed and was already halfway to the bathroom when she heard Damiano's voice: "I'm not in there, Vic..." It came from the balcony. That didn't mean that he hadn't hurt himself but it still calmed her down a lot because she knew that if he had cut deeply, he would have done it in the bathroom. She let out a breath of relief and turned on the spot, making her way to the balcony. The rain had stopped and it was quite warm outside. That was a benefit of living so far south in Italy...it never really got too cold. "Hey, Angel...is everything alright?", she asked as she sat down on the table next to him. They didn't actually have chairs out there, so the table was as good a seat as any. "Yeah...I guess so. I mean, it's hard...but I'm trying." She watched him closely, trying to figure out how he was feeling right now. She could read him pretty well but especially now that he was getting better, it was a bit harder for her to tell. As stupid as that sounded, she was always scared that it might just be an act. Right now he looked quite content from what she could see in the dark. His breathing was calm and other than his voice sounding like he might have cried earlier, nothing indicated that he was really struggling at the moment. She grabbed the cigarette that he was smoking and took a drag before handing it back to him: "I know you are, Angel. And you're doing great. But I need you to know that you really don't have to appear as a witness. It's not too late to back out yet." He shook his head, blowing some smoke into her direction as he did so: "I can't, Vic. I know it's gonna be hard and honestly, I'm really fucking scared because I don't know what the people will think. I don't know how they'll react and what they will ask me during the trial. I'm scared because I'm feeling better now and I don't know how I'll be able to cope during the trial. I don't want it to get worse again. But still, I need to do it. Because if I don't speak up, there might not be enough evidence to convict her and if she walks out of this trial as a free woman she might come back and hurt me again...and I know I wouldn't be able to handle that. Not again." She listened to him carefully, honestly amazed at how open he was with her right now. His trust in her had seemingly come back for the most part and she had found that whenever he wasn't in a panicked or completely depressed state, he was actually quite willing to talk. She reached out to grab his hand, feeling something warm and sticky on his wrist: drying blood. He had cut at least once. She didn't say anything about it for now, though...she didn't want him to break down again and actually thought back to Thomas' words. He had been right about not stopping Damiano and giving him some space sometimes; he seemed way more willing to talk about things that way. "I get it, Angel. And if you really want to go through the trial, I'll be by your side for every step of the way. And if it throws us back, then so be it. Because you know what? That will be the last time Carla causes trouble for us...after that, she will be locked up for a long time and she'll never be able to hurt you again. No matter what's going to happen, I'll always be there and I'll always be proud of you. This is the beginning of the end. After this, you'll finally be able to really heal."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hey :)

So, as promised, here is the next chapter. It is a bit of a short one, I feel like, but some of the next ones will be a little longer. I hope you like it anyway haha.

So, what do you think about this? Do you think they will be able to pull through or will this whole ordeal completely destroy Damiano to the point where there is no coming back? Do you think they have a chance against Carla or is she going to win once more? Let me know what you think in the comments :)

As always, thanks for reading <3

- Thalia