chapter 2

Alina

“I’m sorrlove. I really am, but it was her last wish. I hope that you’d at least give it a try,” my father said to me. Worry was evident in his voice.

“Please, Papa! There has to be another way.” I pleaded as I sat on a chair beside his hospital bed. His hands trembled in mine, but it wasn’t due to old age. My father was dying.

“There would have been if Sheena was...” His eyes watered as he spoke her name, and my heart broke all over again. He loved her even now. I knew that part of the reason his condition kept getting worse, even after the best treatment in the world, was because he had given up on life the day my mother’s heart stopped beating. The only thing that held him here, right now, was me.

“B-but I don’t want to get married, Papa! Not yet! I’m only twenty-two.” I tried to keep my voice pleading, but even I could hear the panic seeping in.

“I’m so sorry, my darling. I don’t want to see you get married so early either, but I don’t have much time left. I have to know that you’ll be well taken care of,” my dad said sadly, “that you’ll be safe.”

“But, Papa, they’re va—”

“Ms. Deluca, visiting hours are over.” The nurse cut me off as she strode into the room, saline bottle and more medicines in hand. “He’s been better this past week, so try to visit as much as possible, but he does need to rest now,” she said with a smile.

“Yes, of course. I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodnight, Papa.” I gave him my best smile even as tears pooled in my eyes and planted a kiss on his forehead before I turned to leave.

“Goodnight, love. Be safe.”

I walked out of his cabin and said goodbye to people I knew. Occasionally, I also waved at little children who skipped and pranced around me as they made their way to the playroom in the children’s ward. I already knew some of them since my father’s room was right next to the nursery. Today, though, I couldn’t even manage a smile. The instant I walked out into the parking lot, the heavy rain hit me like a bullet, drenching me from head to toe.

Good, I thought. At least, it would hide my tears. It would keep people from knowing the demons that haunt me and of the secrets I could never tell even if it killed me.

I stood alone in the parking lot next to my car with the rain mercilessly tattooing against my skin. The only thing I wished with all my heart was to erase a night four years ago that had changed my life forever.