I clasped the delicate lace of my bridal gown tightly. The white fabric, meant to symbolize purity, enshrouded me like a funerary veil, suffocating the remnants of my former freedom. I had never imagined my life would lead here, to this luxurious pr...
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Three months later.
It was like being underwater, surrounded by darkness and heavy pressure that made your lungs scream. Your body thrashed, seeking the light, seeking a gulp of fresh air but it was not there. Instead, there was only this claustrophobic existence that tugged you deeper into the abyss. It was there that death, like a specter, visited you, offering an end to the struggle. But as the eternal sleep neared, something stirred within you.
A hope, a tiny fragment of your will, gave a jolt, a signal that you were still alive, still wanting to live. In that dark abyss, where life seemed like a distant, unattainable thing, it was your lifeline, your reason to hold on, your flicker in the darkness. To me, that was my baby.
"Luna? Luna! Where are you? It's breakfast time," I shouted out for my mischievous cat, scanning every corner of the apartment, a surge of worry running through me as I realized she wasn't here.
I went through every corner but there was no trace of her, little scamp must've slipped outside again. Annoyance replaced the worry, and I grasped my keys, making for the door.
Just as I was about to lock the door, I felt an unmistakable feeling of being watched flooded over me. I whipped around, coming face to face with Alessandro, Luna snugly wrapped in his arms.
"Alessandro? What are you doing here?" Surprise giving way to mild annoyance, I reached out and gently plucked Luna from his grasp.
"I wanted...I needed to talk to you." His voice was low, pained.
"Talk? We've talked enough." Dismissively, I made my way down the steps but his footsteps echoed behind me.
"Yasenia, I love you." He was persistent, his fingers closing softly over my hand.
"I know," I acknowledged, looking him in the eyes. There was a desperate earnestness in them that tugged at my heart.
"And I know, deep in your heart, you still love me." He moved closer, almost breaching the fortress of distance I'd put between us.
"I do," was my tired sigh.
His eyes, already dark pools of pain, now shimmered with a glimmer of hope. It didn't last. The moment I drew my hand from his grip and took a step back, I watched as the hope was drained out from his eyes. It was a devastating sight, like a flickering flame suddenly snuffed out.
"But love alone won't cut it, Alessandro. It simply won't." Was all I could offer him.
"But, Yasenia--" he tried to interject, but I put an end to it.
"Stop Alessandro. Just, stop. Please, for once, honor my choice, will you?" Firm resolve echoed in my words.
Walking past him, I hurried to my car and fired up the engine, getting out of there fast and leaving him standing there in shock.
