Cynthia Romani

Chapter 22

The death of grace hit Cynthia full force. Understandable she was her mother. Those two were inseparable, and grace loved Cynthia with all her soul. And when she broke the news to me my heart ached for Cynthia and for the kindest most supportive woman I've ever met.

She told me how much she loved me for her daughter and if I can take care of Cynthia for her. She didn't have to ask me I would have done it either way. Cynthia is endgame for me, she is the one.

The time I spent watching and hanging out with Cynthia the more I understand her. She loves someone to her fullest, but she's afraid of getting hurt. she pushes people away with her hurtful words.

I'm not deterred though, she can lash out on me at all she wants at least she's feeling some type of emotion other than sitting in her room looking numb.

Her father Dario looks even worse. He gave me a key to the house and now I just enter whenever I want. "Aleksandr, can you convince Cynthia to attend her mothers funeral please." I'm stopped by her dad who looks beyond exhausted.

The love of his life passed away, and his only child is becoming a shell of herself. "I'll do my best, no promises though." He nods and walks away. I go upstairs and knock lightly on Cynthia's door.

"Go away Aleksandr." I open her door and she sighs as she pets Luna. She's the only thing Cynthia will pay attention to. She looks at me and I tense at seeing how exhausted she looks, her dark eye bags are worse each day, she looks very thin and pale.

"Moya lyubov, you need to sleep." She sighs and stands up walking to me. "I can't sleep for long I keep waking up." I take her hand and lead her to her bed getting in myself and pulling her in close to me.

She puts her face on the crook of my neck, her arms going around me. "Please talk, I'm sick of the silence it reminds me of everything. And... I need everything to stop for just a while."

Her voice cracks and I kiss her forehead and do what she wants. "Well let me tell you about my day. So me and Dimitri went to this animal shelter to volunteer, well Dimitri dragged me to go with him. Something about how puppy's are a good form of therapy.

I prefer cats though, they remind me of you. I guess it was fun until this one little dog peed on my shoe." She laughed and I smiled to myself this was the first time she laughed since her mother passed.

"Of course Dimitri was dying of laughter. I don't understand why he won't just adopt a dog already. You like dogs?" She nods her head and i hum in thought. "You want to come with us?" She doesn't say anything for a while and I thought she fell asleep.

"I'll go if they have cats." I smiled knowing I'm making progress with her. "Sleep Cynthia I'll be here when you wake up, promise." She fell asleep for a total of two hours. I stayed watching how delicate she looked when sleeping. Her light freckles on display and her long eyelashes laid softly on her skin.

Absolute perfection. When she woke up she sat in her bed and played with the rings on my fingers.
"I decided to go to the funeral, will you be by my side?" I gently grab her face and kiss her.

"I'm always going to be by you side darling." She smiles gently, another smile to my scoreboard. I would do anything just to keep Cynthia smiling.

"Let's get some food inside of you." She shakes her head and I lift her off the bed placing her down. "I wasn't asking Cynthia." She blushes and nods. I kiss her again because I just can't get enough of her.

Slowly we go downstairs and enter the dining room, her father was sitting there staring into the distance with his food untouched.

"Dad?" He snaps out of whatever trance he was in and smiles at her. My heart is breaking for them."Come here." She stands next to him and he pulls her into the warmest embrace a father can possibly give.

"We'll be fine Cynthia." She nods and kisses his cheek. " I... I've decided to go to her funeral, I'm just processing everything. Im sorry dad, I promise I'll be around more." He nods with a sad smile and motions for us to sit.

It was silent, no one knew what to say and I fear this is the future they're going to have. Two people becoming distant in their grief to the point where they no longer know what to say to each other.

I can't let it happen to them, In just a short amount of time Cynthia and her family have become my safe place. "I'm taking Cynthia to an animal shelter. How exciting is that." Her dad smiles at her daughter and smiles at me. The look he gave me said a million words he didn't speak out loud.

"That's wonderful maybe you can give Luna a sibling." At that Cynthia jerks in her seat and faces her dad, a genuine smile on her face. "Are you serious? You hate cats," Dario shrugs and takes a bite of his food.

"Cynthia you're old enough to have your own cat Cara." She squeals and walks to her dad attacking him into a hug and he lets out a laugh. I'm smiling as well seeing my Cynthia happy in a while. She lights up my days, I'd do anything to keep that smile on her face.

"Oh my goodness when can we go! Text Dimitri right now and tell him when he's going again. Oh my! I need to buy new items for my baby. I need to tell Luna." She runs out of the dinning room and I hear her screaming Lunas name.

Her dad looks at me with watery eyes and inhales a shaky breath as he stands up.

So no one's going to eat? I was starving

"Thank you Aleksandr. I hope you know how much you mean to me and my wife." His wife, I'm going to ugly cry. I nod not knowing what to say and we both walked out the dinning room and I followed him upstairs except I went into Cynthia's room and see her on her laptop already adding things to her shopping cart.

I smile and sit next to her and offer my opinion when she asks for it. I watched her cry talking to Luna and then we both knocked out together again.

I love taking naps with Cynthia, mainly because I get to cuddle her. When we woke up I had to force her to eat.