GRIFFIN
My cheek stings even several minutes after she's already walked out.
My shock and disbelief dissipates, leaving a streak of unwanted guilt. I shouldn't feel guilty. She tricked me, lied to me. Betrayed me. She was just a good actor. But I already knew that.
I stare after her at the oak door.
You're disgusting.
I swallow down the knot in my throat, my chest stings in reprised pressure. This was the biggest mistake of my life.
She is the biggest mistake of my life. One thing I had never been was be fooled. She had tricked me for 2 months. She met my family, I let her come to the Estates.
I had fucked up.
But I would find out what Marco Russo was playing at, and I would make him pay.
ARIEL
Tuesday passed. Wednesday passed. Thursday passed. The days kept passing but it was like my world had stopped.
Everything I had known had changed in the last few weeks. And my only solace had shunned me with wounds so thorough, I still felt the pain days later.
My head throbbed as I weakly walked to the bathroom Friday afternoon, splashing water across my face.
I was flying back to California today.
My return ticket wasn't until next week but I had cancelled it and gotten an earlier flight.
I was mad at my parents for lying. I was mad at Marco for tricking and lying. I was even mad at myself.
But most of all I was mad at him. He swept me off my feet and made me feel so safe and wanted. Then he had suddenly stripped me of it and left me out in the cold to fend for myself.
I had given him the chance to explain. I had let him talk and I had believed him over my own blood. Because I felt more than he did.
It was too easy for him to ask me to leave. It was too easy for him to disrespect me and make me feel cheap, standing infront of him, he stripped me of every little bit of respect I had ever felt from him.
It took him all of two seconds to ruin me with words. It took him just one misused and manipulated piece of evidence to loose any and all feelings he had for me.
"One little seed of suspicion about where your loyalties lie, and he will discard of you faster than you can say 'trust'. He doesn't prise you like you prise him"
Uncle Marco's smug voice rung through my ears, belittling and taunting. He had proved himself right. Loud and clear.
But it was true, Griffin hadn't felt even a fraction of what I did. I had once again, misjudged a person and let them too close.
But this time, it had truly and assiduously ruined me, taken everything I had. And I had nothing left to give. I was just a shell of myself now, I could feel myself hollowing and it would take a long time to come back from this, to forget him.
I had trusted him too much. I would never make that mistake again.
I was leaving, never to see his face again. If I was lucky, I'd forget about him and get on with my life.
But I knew I wasn't lucky. And I knew there was no forgetting Griffin Moretti.
GRIFFIN
I didn't hear from her again.
She had come into my life in a whirlwind of senseless wonder and I had let myself be taken along. And now, it was as if she had vanished into thin air. No signs of her ever having existed, except for the constant pain laiden in my chest.
It was Saturday and I thought back to just last week. We were happy, we were together and we so fucking good.
Had it all really been a lie? How the fuck could she have acted so well? All those moments, every touch that felt so real. Everything was fake.
I couldn't bare the what if's and the feeling of being in the unknown. I had to know what the radio silence meant. What her and her wicked uncle were scheming now. So I found out.
"Ariel Russo." Alessandro, head of security starts. "She is no longer in Italy. Boarded a flight to Huntington Beach, CA yesterday at 7:30 pm..." I tune the rest of it out.
She is no longer in Italy.
She left?
She really fucking left just like that? Fuck. So it really was just a game to her. She came here, did her work and left as soon as she had gotten what she wanted.
My heart constricts.
She was gone.
I was a fucking idiot to ever fall for anyone. Love and attachment was weakness. I should have learned the first time.
I had been too trusting. I would never make that mistake again. I would never love anyone again.
But how the fuck do I undo what is already been done.
AN:
Short chapter, sorry.
