Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 70928 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70928 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
When the door is pushed open, I let out a panicked sob.
“It’s me, sweetheart,” Mom says, and I quickly step back so she can come in.
She pushes a bottle of water into my hands before digging out the spare box of my medication she always carries in her handbag. I’m trembling so badly, I can’t take the two pills from her, and Mom has to push them into my mouth.
After I manage to swallow them, she holds me.
I gasp for air while my anxiety squeezes the life out of my chest, and just as I see dots swimming in my vision, it finally begins to lessen as a medicated calmness soaks into my mind.
“There you go.” Mom pulls back and squeezes my shoulders, then my upper arms, wrists, and hands. She keeps repeating the process while I calm down, and by the time my breaths even out, I feel exhausted and sleepy.
“I’ll get Milo to take us home,” she says.
Lethargically, I shake my head, and my tongue feels heavy. “You have to stay for Riccardo.” I can see Mom’s torn between staying and supporting me. “I’m just going to sleep. Don’t worry. I’ll take a cab.”
“Over my dead body. Milo will go home with you.”
Nodding, I leave the restroom with Mom. It feels like I’m trudging through thick mud, and every few steps, I struggle to keep my balance.
“Wait here,” Mom says, leaving me in the hallway while she goes to get Uncle Milo.
I lean against one of the walls and wrap my arms around my middle. I close my eyes, and when I open them again, Christiano is standing right in front of me, a dark expression on his stupidly handsome face.
“Sienna?”
As I begin to shake my head and push away from the wall, I hear Mom say, “Please, let’s not do this now, Christiano. Sienna isn’t feeling well.”
Uncle Milo wraps an arm around me and hooks one under my knees, then the world tips as he picks me up.
He’s like a father to me, and feeling safe, I rest my head against his shoulder and let the medication take me into a dreamless sleep.
Chapter 4
Christiano
Pissed off that I didn’t get to spend much time with Sienna at the wedding, I feel edgy as I sit in my best friend’s living room. The bourbon I just tossed down my throat doesn’t help at all.
Remo looks at me and lets out a sigh. “This can’t go on for much longer, brother.”
Only Remo and Nico know the true extent of the hell I’ve been going through since Sienna broke things off with me.
Even though Remo is two years older than me, we clicked during high school. Where it took Nico some time to learn my moods, Remo caught on instantly. He has an uncanny way of being able to read my mind.
“I know.” When he hands me another tumbler of bourbon and takes a seat across from me, I shake my head. “I wish I knew what was going on in Sienna’s mind.”
“Maybe you should consider letting go. Things are tense between the two of you at every gathering, and the others are noticing.”
I shoot my friend a glare. “Don’t even go there, and I don’t care what the family thinks.”
“Why Sienna?”
He has asked me the same question over a hundred times, and every time the answer remains the same. “Because there’s no one else who makes me feel the way she does.”
I take a sip of the amber liquid and savour the burn at the back of my throat. I stare at the crystal tumbler as flashes of the woman who has me tied up in knots race through my mind.
Her beauty is serene. Whenever I see her, she instantly calms the violence in me.
Her fragility calls to the monster inside me, bringing forth such an urge to protect her that it overwhelms me.
Her people-pleasing nature makes me want to lock her in a safe place where no one can abuse that side of her.
I once watched Sienna pet Bullet, Dad’s rottweiler, like he’s a damn puppy and not a trained killing machine. The dog rolled over and let her love on him for as long as she wanted. She had the same effect on Bullet that she has on me. Just like the dog, I’d happily roll over for her.
If only she’d let me.
The reasons I love her are endless. There isn’t a single thing about her that’s a turn-off.
“Sienna is…my opposite in every way. She makes me feel…” I pause as I try to think for a moment. “She eases the storm inside me. Without her, there’s only darkness.”
Remo lets out another sigh, giving me a compassionate look.
Before he can say something else, I order, “Change the subject.”
His features grow serious, and just as I think he’s going to harp on about my obsessive love for Sienna, he says, “I ran into Valentina and the kids today.”