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“There was a wedding; the Ricci were all gathered that day I don’t knohat the plan was, papa never said All I know is that night, he cae He’d been planning all along He’d sold what he could and begged where he could to get e to America

I knew nothing of this plan; I had no tie under cover of night, and I still didn’t knohy It was only days later that I learned the truth An eye for an eye! Papa believed that they had killed his daughter, so he took theirs It was her wedding day She was blown to pieces at the altar”

She flew off the bed and ran to the bathroom with me hot on her heels I held her hair and rubbed her back as she retched into the bowl

There were a ret, pity, coer had a head start “You better now?” I helped her to her feet and over to the sink to get her cleaned up

She was so pitiful and weak My heart squeezed infor weeks, and I should’ve known it would only be a matter of time I’m not one of those men who need to have two or three women to feel like a man

But I knew the way I felt about her wasn’t going to be ignored for too long The struggle I’d had withoff irl that both our families expected me to marry, was at an end

I can already i to be soes in the Russo household pretty soon I would never have pegged myself as the type to raise another man’s child, but somehoith her, it didn’t seem to matter as much

There was no way I could leave her like this, to just let shit go on as before; she didn’t deserve it She’d suffered enough And what about the kid? If I turn my back on her noill happen to her and the kid? Innocents, both of them

DRACO

I helped her back tothe tray with the leftover food that had been kept war about what she’d told ain, but ether If I’d found her pitiful before, that enified by a thousand

So up with the tray still across her lap, her food pretty much untouched I’d been so lost in my head I didn’t even realize that she’d dropped off like that without a sound I re her and eased her down on the bed She was so tired she didn’t even stir

As I pulled the blanket up around her to protect her fro soft and tender unfurled in ht uard Still, I didn’t play into it too e sense of protectiveness as if, after hearing her story, I was now taxed atching over her, keeping her safe

I’m more of a doer than someone who can just watch from the sidelines, but I had to accept that in this case, there really wasn’t one froirl? What was it about her that tugged at the strings of my untouchable heart?

Now that she wasn’t looking back atsad eyes, I tookfor the answer She’s gorgeous, like a portrait that has been retouched by a master In other words, her beauty was not your run-of-the-mill everyday drivel that most women seek to find in a bottle She has one of those faces that would be hard to forget, even if seen only once

It was all there forfroht her to be In sleep, it was easy to see it all, now that her barriers were down My eyes traveled over her features, taking her in at ainst her reddish-gold hair that, together with her blue-blue eyes, made her appear almost otherworldly