Page 1 of His Cursed Heart

Darkness surrounds me but somehow, I keep walking on the empty, dusty road. Blood leaks out of my chest, leaving a trail behind me.

I feel my body going numb, falling on the hard ground. I don’t know how much time has passed before I feel a pair of soft hands grabbing my head, caressing gently, looking for injuries.

“Can you hear me? If you do, nod your head.” And I do. My vision is blurry and because of that I can’t put a face to the sweet, raspy voice that is talking to me. “What’s your name?”

I try to speak but my throat is too dry. I hear a deadly sound in my ear, and because of that, I can’t remember her voice.

“E-Everette.” I say in a hoarse voice.

“Your name is Everest? Were you conceived on that mountain?” I stop a laugh, my chest hurting, the lack of the oxygen making me breathe harder.

“Everette Moretti.” I say more clearly.

“Moretti, ha? The heir of Chicago Outfit. That’s a nice surprise.”

“Yeah well, can you help me or are you just gonna make fun of me?” I’m not going to lie, I’m interested in her, and the fact that she called me ‘Everest’ like it’s the

funniest thing in the world, makes me desperate so see her.

“Stay alive, Everest. I don’t want to explain to my father why is the heir of the American mafia dead in front of our house.”

“Gee thanks.”

I feel her soft hands leaving my face, already missing her touch. I try to open my eyes, the light making it harder for me.

I wait for her a couple of minutes and then I feel a weight on my chest. I force my eyes to open and I freeze.

The lightest shade of blue is looking at me with panic.

“What’s your name?” I ask the Italian mafia princess.

“Keres.”

I made a promise three years ago when I proposed to Keres.

Protect her.

After I decided to marry the girl who saved me, I feel like everything went down. And it’s not her fault. Keres was the girl who never judged you, who would always put herself first. That’s why I liked her.

She would’ve made the perfect mafia queen.

Until I found her with a bullet in her head in our future bedroom. I was shocked. Furious that someone broke into my house unnoticed, that she died being innocent.

But I was never hurt.

My desire to know her was simply because she intrigued me so much when she saved me. Her laugh was angelic but sarcastic, her voice was soft but hoarse. She seemed different.

And maybe it was because I was almost dead. I lost so much blood that day that I stood in a coma for almost a week.

I started to date her because I thought my feeling will change. But they never did.

Our families saw us together and decided to unite the two mafias, so I proposed to her as a duty to my people.

I was going to become the future Capo. There was never room for love.

As I am standing in front of Keres’s coffin, I’m realizing how much she gave up for me. She left Italy and her family, her home in which she grew up and came in Chicago to live with me. I don’t think she loved me either. We lived in each other space, but we never actually cared what we are doing without the other. While she was always in the house or in the garden, I was in my office or away for business.

But I protected her from everything. I kept my promise for three years until days ago. Her beautiful face covered in blood will haunt me forever.