Page 113 of Game of Revenge
“What’s wrong?” asked Francesca.
All I could do was cry, but I needed to let it out.
“I’m sorry,” I sobbed. “I’m sorry. I know you just wanted to have a good time, and here I am, crying all over the place.”
“You have nothing to apologize for,” assured Francesca, putting an arm around my shoulder. “I’m here, and you need to talk. Talk to me. I’m all ears.”
I took a few sips of the hot coffee the maid had just brought in, in an attempt to compose myself.
“I, um…this man, Alejandro… He, um…he is…I love him. I am in love with him. I love him with every fiber of my being. I don’t know how it happened. I've been careful all my life, always in control of how I felt, always safe in my cold, rational self, and he threw all of it to shit. I don’t know how to go back to before, when I didn’t feel so much. Now all I can do is feel for him, wanting, waiting, needing.”
“But that’s a beautiful thing, Amelia,” she said with tenderness.
“It's not!” I shouted between sobs. “It's horrible! It’s my worst nightmare.”
“But he seems to love you as well, no?” pushed Francesca tenderly, trying to calm me.
“That’s what he says. But how can I believe him? How can I believe that we could be together when we have a dark past looming over us?”
“How did you meet him?”
I stopped in my tracks, gaining a bit more composure. I desperately wanted to tell Francesca about the past few months of my life. But that would be telling someone who knew Alejandro that he had committed a crime, keeping me hostage, even if he didn’t intend to. I couldn’t put him in harm's way.
“It doesn’t matter how we met,” I answered. “I just can’t put myself in that position.”
“I see,” said Francesca. “It's a secret.” She smiled.
I frowned but sat there in silence, taking a few more sips of coffee.
“I have to leave tonight. I have to go back to LA, start my life over and move on.”
“My darling,” said Francesca in the most tender voice, “it’s pretty clear to me that you love each other. You love him, and no matter how far you go, you will be as miserable as you are now if you don’t give him a chance. You are keeping his secret at all costs. I have been asking you what was wrong for days, and you've never wavered, not even once, not even drunk.”
My eyes squinted as I grew confused.
“Elena has been trying to get his heart since they were children, but the way he looks at you, the way he fights for you, the way he has been staying in the shadows the past couple of weeks, making sure you are safe, even from a distance…you are the love of his life.”
I slowly turned to look Francesca in the eyes. “Who are you?” I asked. “How would you know all this?”
Francesca got up and started pacing, clearly a bit nervous.
“Amelia, I…I didn’t know who you were when we met. I just saw a beautiful woman with the saddest eyes, a sadness that seemed to match my son’s broken heart. And I couldn’t help but get close to you, my motherly instincts wanting to take your pain away. I wanted to introduce you to him as you seemed like a wonderful, intelligent woman after we had dinner. I thought you two could help mend each other’s hearts. I didn’t know…I didn’t know until I saw you with him today. I didn’t know that you were the woman he has been telling me about, the woman who changed my son’s life for the better. I didn’t know you were the girl he had abducted to protect while he got revenge and ended up falling in love with. And I didn’t know the man you were so clearly avoiding talking about all week was him.”
“Alejandro is…your son?” I felt like I could hear my heart pounding out of my chest.
“Yes,” she admitted, a tender smile on her lips. “And now that I have seen how he looks at you, I realize there is nothing I could possibly do, no one he could possibly meet, that would take away what he feels for you.”
I closed my eyes and put my head in my hands, trying to process. This familiarity I had with Francesca, those eyes that I now understood were Alejandro’s, the firmness in her voice…that was why I felt this innate attachment to her, like we had known each other already.
“He took a bullet to save you, Amelia,” continued Francesca as she sat back down next to me and grabbed my hands. “He chose to die…to save you. He had even given up on his quest to avenge his brother, so he didn’t hurt you, so he didn’t have to put you between him and that murderer. He was going to move on and forget, just to be with you, don’t you get it? I know it all started in an…unusual fashion, to say the least, but he is being honest with you. My son loves you more than he loves himself.”
I got up. I needed to move, anything to help. Francesca sat there, patiently waiting for my pace to slow down. I finally came to a halt. Francesca got up and went to give me a hug. I was still crying, but my melted heart was letting it all in. I had to believe Alejandro, because even my most rational self could tell that he was being honest. I had been too terrified to see it, and Francesca…she peeled some of my fears away.
“Thank you,” I whispered. "Thank you.”
Francesca, with tears in her eyes, took a step back, holding my hands. “Go to him,” she said. “Please go to him. He needs to know how you feel. I don’t want to see my son haunted by your absence anymore,” she teased.
I wiped my eyes immediately, with a smile.