What Lies Beneath the Water

Loving Sacrifice (17)

*Dahlia's POV*

I appeared right in front of Uncle Vladimir and Santino in Uncle's classroom. I coughed to interrupt them and said, "I will be staying here for the duration of the school year, Uncle. Santino, can I talk to you in private?" He nodded his head, and we walked back to my dorm.

I sat down on my bed, and he sat across from me on one of my chairs. "So I went back to court and talked with your mom. She told me that I have some things that I need to work on, and I need to work on them with no distractions."

His posture changed and he said, "What are you trying to tell me, Dahl?"

"That I need to take time away from us to focus on me. I can't give us a hundred percent if I'm not at one-hundred percent myself." I saw Santino open his mouth to say something, but I quickly cut him off. "I love you Santino, but I am broken. You can't just pick up all my pieces and glue me back together. I want us to be married and have kids one day, but that can't happen until I am okay. I want to be better for you, and that's going to take some time." I started taking heavier breaths to keep the tears at bay, but after two or three breaths I knew that wasn't going to happen.

"What did my mother say to you!?" I could tell that he was angry and ready to lash out.

"Nothing that I didn't need to hear, Santino." I looked in his eyes and they were full of pain and sorrow. I never wanted him to feel that.

"So what are we going to do?"

"Once you leave this room, we won't be courting anymore. We will simply be mates taking time away from each other. You will still come to help me with learning how to master my powers, but you will otherwise fully resume your duties."

I saw a tear go down his cheek. "Dahlia, I don't want to do this. It's supposed to be our anniversary today. We were supposed to go out and spend the day together and reminisce about all the crazy things we've done together. You aren't supposed to be breaking up with me."

"I'm not breaking up with you, Tino. We are going to take a break from each other and then we are going to come back and be better than ever. I promise you." I smiled and swiped my tears away with the pad of my thumb.

I kept on swiping away his tears until they slowly came to a stop. Then I stood up and walked over to my dresser where I opened the drawer and pulled out a small gift box. I walked back over to Santino and handed it to him.

"But we aren't together anymore." His voice cracked.

"Not until you leave this room. And for right now, I would like my mate to open up his anniversary gift from me." His face was showing all of sadness, but he still grabbed the box from my hand and opened it gingerly.

"A tie clip?" He asked, but then he turned it around to see that it said I love you in my own handwriting. All of his other tie clips were getting dreadfully boring and he wore a suit every day, regardless of the occasion. He needed one tie clip.

He gave me a hug and kissed my cheek, "It is absolutely perfect, Dahlia." Some part of me was hoping that he would still call me Love and Dahl and all those other nicknames that the used to call me. Equally, I knew that he was taking this hard, and it wasn't my place to push him.

Santino looked into my eyes for a few moments before he snapped his fingers and a bouquet of flowers and a small gift bag was in his hand. He first handed me the bouquet of black dahlias and said, "One for every hundred years that we were together." Were, past tense.

He then handed me the bag, and I pulled out a black pocket watch. My eyes met his for explanation and he said, "You constantly stole mine for reasons that I am yet to figure out, so when I saw it I knew that it was meant for you." I smiled thinking of why I stole it. I did it because it was something of his that he always carried around. When he would find it missing, he would come over to my house and ask for it back. It was just an excuse for me to see him again.

The next thing that I pulled out was a slender, black switch blade. I looked over at the handle and saw it engraved with an S and a D. I started rubbing the s with my thumb and accidently pressed the button and the blade sliced through my hand.

"My god Dahlia, I bought this for you to protect yourself with not harm yourself." He immediately pulled the blade out and wiped the blood off with his fingers and licked it off. "You have to be more careful."

"I will." I said and we just sat there in silence, not wanting to get up. Just trying to savor the moment.

Santino stood up and said, "Are you sure that this is what you want?" His eyes were pleading me to say no, but I nodded my head yes. "Will you at least to me the favor of giving me one last kiss?" I was unable to use my words, so once again I nodded my head yes. I walked up to him and lifted my head up to kiss him. His hands cupped my face as he laid one final, slow kiss on my lips. I could feel the tears coming down my cheeks as our kiss continued.

When he finally pulled away, I knew this was it. I followed him to the door and watched him walk out. It was agonizing and broke a part of me, but this is what I needed to do. I needed to get better for him and most importantly myself. 

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