-WHERE IT ALL BEGAN-
CARMINE MARCHETTI'S POV
1983
The saying goes, 'Humanity is present as long as the soul is in the body.' But what if the soul has left long ago and what has lived with you, smiled, made love to you and stayed by your side as you lost everything is someone pretending to be alive; just for the sake of deceiving you...
Change?! Why did I think I could change her?
You-can't-change-people—People-can-only-change for themselves...
Reaching a crystal anniversary between two lovers, you'd finally think you cracked the code and the rest of your lives will continue as such—
One moment you're watching your pregnant wife, devouring your freshly baked margherita, then she's chasing you back to the kitchen for another, and just in the snap of the fingers, her summery dress is covered in your-twenty-sixth-dying-offspring.
In honesty I pity myself for keeping a count, but what sane person wouldn't?
Another-failed-attempt...
I am no killer but I cannot-pretend-I-have-no-guilt poking and laughing at me every-time I see my reflection in the mirror.
Yet, in all the strength I have left I cannot afford to lose my cool, not when the whispers in town grow and suffocate you on the insides, waiting for a retaliation.
Is it bad that I want such?
I've tamed the dragon for far too long and I've been stamped on, provoked, even beaten, just so my wife could fire back, but she never did.
Not even the first miscarriage broke her. I doubt this one will. She's Leandra Marchetti after all—
"I am not suffering through another miscarriage!" My heart falls to my stomach the moment I notice the golden ring I had given my wife flying off her ring finger directly-into-my-face.
My head falls backwards with eyes shut. Expecting the marble kitchen tiles, my back stiffens as it nestles against the soft ground and I snap my eyes back open, groaning against the incriminating brightness. But instead of my wife's red locks and green emeralds, amber eyes replaced them with a brunette nurse staring back at me.
"Stay still! I will let the doctor know you're awake."
Her frightened voice rams through and that's when I notice my body, in a hospital bed.
The hammer in my head follows right after and my hand reaches up, finding a bandage wrapped around it.
The door of the room snaps shut with the nurse long gone, while I snatch the iv off my hand and go on a hunt for my phone.
As on instinct I dive for my pockets, but the hospital gowns I wore had none. I continue to scan; if my belongings even rest in the room, and that's when I see it, resting on the musky oak bed side table.
Right next to it, the golden ring with my wife's engravings and my blood stains, leaving bitterness on my tongue. I slip it down my pinkie, making a silent promise I will get it back to her no matter what.
I pull my phone's antenna, noting the battery has dropped from half an hour to the sole of five minutes.
There's only one number saved and I immediately dial it, entering straight into a voicemail. She won't make it easy on me, will she?
YOU ARE READING
Changes
Misteri / ThrillerIn a world where loyalty is a currency, betrayal as frequent as a blink of an eye. Weapon in trust lays, laced amongst the thorns of the rose, with your safety that could never be promised in its must. Then who could you rely on? Could you even trus...
