The Mafia's Queen

|Ch 26| The Mafia's Queen

Regret

It wasn't until morning went away and the horizon fell into a fiery orange that Stephanie woke up from her six-hour nap.

The tears having taken a toll on her body leading her to fall from exhaustion. All throughout her rest she had nightmares of Estephano being shot dead in front of her, then there was the regular nightmare of her mother being killed in front of her and in each nightmare she was unable to do anything but watch the life drain from them and all because they had taken the hit to save her.

She was always being saved and the only time she actually took the hits aimed her way where from Leonardo when he had choked her after finding out the necklace was her's and even then Emily had taken the hit for her beforehand. Everyone was protecting her as if she was some sort of damsel in distress and she was tired of it all. She was tired of hiding away and being shelter by everyone around her. She wanted to prove to them all that she was not a little girl and that she had what it took to face the world. She was stronger then they gave her credit for was what she told herself as she recalls all the time's others took the worlds pain from her.

Sighing she cringes feeling the tears have dried and crusted on her cheeks. The last remaining memory of Estephano, his jacket, lay to rest on the edge of her bed carelessly. Much to many spots of the suit jacket having been dampened by her tears yet again serve as a reminder that she had cried for what she could not have yet again.

Stretching her limbs as she sat on the edge of her bed her eyes stare out of her window at the sunset with the sky with a purple, pink tint. And the clouds that came with it were like soft cotton balls. It looked peaceful and full but inside she felt the opposite as she stared at the sky with envy.

Looking from the sky out her window to the jacket besides her she lets out an exhausted breath before getting up and heading to the bathroom for a much-needed shower.

While in the shower her lip curled into a smile and she giggled like a school girl as she remembers all the memories she had of her and Estephano locked away in her mind only to frown as they diminish into grey spots of the past, tears mixing with warm water when she remembers the way he had last looked at her, full of anger and disbelief.

He hated her she just knew it and she was just now really thinking about it as before she did not want to remember his glare because it was like a stab to her heart but the truth was bound to come and haunt her like it always does at the end of the day and that time was now.

Slowly turning the shower tap off she wraps a warm towel around her body and finishes getting ready for what was left of the day which she, unfortunately, wasted away crying for a man she knew time after time she had no chance with. The once radiant girl that flourished like a blooming bud of white no longer bloomed; she wilted away, darkness taking over and crippling life away and all because she was a victim of forbidden love.

Wiping the mist from the window Stephanie frowns at the sight before her. Red eyes full of isolation and a permanent frown haunted her pasty complexion showing a broken girl and it was then that Stephanie worried she would never be the same again. She had played with love and now she was paying the price of losing the game. Biting her lip she draws her eyes away from the mirror, unable to look a the image without hating what stared back at her and it wasn't until she closed her eyes and a past memory came back that she felt a sad smile break through...

Fixing her daring satin red silky dress that flared out under her like a drape of fine material she smiles at her reflection and for once she didn't see the scratches that marked her skin reminding her of the life she would not be a part of and part of her was grateful that the marks were fading just as she hoped the memory of him would fade with the pain she felt.