Amore Inaspettato

Capitol 18

Ginevra walked into the house, bottles, and trash were littered all over the living room. She let out a shaky breath as she walked farther into the living room. Her eyes glanced around the room in search of her phone. Thinking back to last night, she remembered leaving it on the couch. Ginevra walked over to the couch moving pillows around trying to find it. She reached her arm down in the side of the couch feeling around.

"Found it," Ginevra whispered as her fingers grazed the cold metal. She stood up sticking the phone in the waistband of her shorts. Shuffling behind her made her freeze. She knew that her dad would most likely be home but she didn't figure he'd be awake this early.

"Ginevra," Alessio grumbled. Ginevra slowly turned around to face her father. He didn't look intoxicated anymore, just tired.

"Hi, Dad," Ginevra said. Alessio rubbed the sleep from his eyes walking farther into the living room. When he dropped his hands and looked at his daughter a concerned expression appeared on his face.

"What happened to you?" Alessio asked. Ginevra wasn't shocked that he didn't remember. He never really did before either. But before last night he'd never visibly hurt her like this before. She truly didn't even know if her dad knew about the abuse he'd been putting her through for years. During the day, he was a normal person. At night it was a different story.

"Umm, I just fell," Ginevra said. Alessio walked closer to his daughter with a concerned look on his face.

"It looks like someone hit you, Ginevra," Alessio said, "Who did this to you?" Ginevra went to open her mouth to reply when Nicco walked into the house. His eyes moved from Ginevra to her father standing in front of her. Nicco quickly walked over, putting himself in between the two.

"Are you all right?" Nicco asked turning to Ginevra.

"I'm fine," Ginevra whispered, "Why did you come in?"

"You were taking so long," Nicco said, "I wanted to make sure that you were all right."

"I'm fine...I just"

"What is going on?" Alessio asked.

"What's going on is you need to stay away from her!" Nicco yelled turning toward Alessio.

"What are you talking about?" Alessio asked, "I'm just trying to figure out what happened."

"What happened is you...

"Nicco," Ginevra said grabbing ahold of the boy's arm. Nicco turned to look at the girl as she shook her head at him. His eyes softened as he realized what was happening.

"Does he not know?" Nicco whispered. Ginevra shook her head no, just wanting this conversation to end.

"Do I not know what?" Alessio asked, "I just want to know what happened. Who hurt you?" Ginevra took a step in front of Nicco. Tears filled her eyes as she looked at her father.

"You did this to me," Ginevra said. Alessio's face fell from anger to confusion as he looked back at his daughter.

"What are you talking about?" Alessio asked.

"Last night you came home, I thought you were just drunk but when I laid eyes on you I knew it was more than that," Ginevra said, "You tried to get me to watch a movie with you. I didn't want to so I tried to go to my room. I accidentally knocked the bottle out of your hand which made you angry. You grabbed ahold of my arm and you slapped me in the face and then shoved me to the ground. The glass that was on the ground pierced into my skin."

Alessio now had tears building in the corner of his eyes. He took a step toward his daughter, she instinctively flinched away. Her back hit Nicco's as Alessio stopped. She felt Nicco's hand come up and caress the back of her arm in comfort.

"Ginevra," Alessio said with a shaky voice as tears ran down his face, "I-I'm sorry. I didn't. I never meant to hurt you." Ginevra didn't know what to say. She hadn't seen her father crying since her mom's funeral. She wanted to reach out and hug him, tell him that everything was okay. But it wasn't okay. He had put her through years of emotional abuse that had now moved to physical. What he had done was not okay.

"She's gonna be staying at my house for a few days," Nicco finally spoke up. Ginevra glanced back at Nicco giving him a small smile to tell him thank you. She turned back to her father giving him a tightlipped look.

"I'll be back sometime next week," Ginevra said, "I'll have my phone on me if you need anything." Without letting him say another word Ginevra grabbed Nicco's hand and pulled him out of the house. She didn't want to stick around any longer. The last two days had been hard on her and she honestly just wanted to sleep.

Ginevra found herself on the Rossi's couch with her head in her hands. She let the tears fall down her face, Nicco sitting beside her comforting her. "Did I do the wrong thing? Ginevra sobbed.

"No. No, of course not," Niccos said pulling her closer to his body, "You did the right thing."

"Did you see his face?" Ginevra asked looking up into the boy's eyes, "He looked so hurt."

"Ginevra," Nicco said grabbing the sides of her face gently, "He hurt you. He shouldn't be so easily forgiven."

"But he's my dad," Ginevra said.

"That doesn't matter Ginevra," Nicco said, "No matter what. You shouldn't allow anyone to hurt you like that and just forgive them..." Nicco couldn't help but think about the words he'd just told the girl. She'd forgiven him so easily but she shouldn't have. What he said to her was wrong, he knew that in the moment and he knew that now. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Nicco said looking into the girl's eyes. She thought he was apologizing for her father but he was really apologizing for so much more.

"It's not your fault," Ginevra said.

"No, not just for your dad," Nicco said taking his hands off her face and looking down at his lap, "I'm sorry for that and I'm sorry for everything he did to you. But I'm also sorry for what I did to you. You're a kind and caring person who didn't deserve any of that."

"Nicco it's fine," Ginevra said grabbing ahold of his hand, "What matters is that you apologized and you're here for me now." Nicco looked up at the girl. She didn't know if it was because she was a mess emotionally, if it was because he was sitting so close, or because she had been wanting to since they last kissed but Ginevra leaned forward placing her lips on his.