Awaken | Book 2 | DISCONTINUED

CHAPTER 22

I laid my head back against the headboard, closing my eyes and sighing. I felt exhausted as I had barely got any sleep. After going to visit Ethan and Grayson and us all comforting each other, I went back to my room.

Matthias and Iris were in there, talking and I hugged Iris tightly, letting her know that I will always be there for her. She didn't seem to want to talk today and was quiet for most of the time, but I could tell that she was glad we was there with her. She left to go find Grayson and Matthias stood up, pecking my cheek. He announced that he'll be back in a few minutes.

My heart still hurt from thinking of Zara. She was a special friend to me and a sister. I sighed sadly at the thoughts that must've been racing her mind to end up taking that final decision.

Maybe she's in a better place, away from all the hurt and guilt she had felt.

The door opened, distracting me from my thoughts and Matthias walked in, a tray in his hand.

"Here, I got you some breakfast since you hadn't eaten since yesterday. Eleonora made some pancakes." Matthias came and sat beside me, placing the tray on his lap.

I smiled softly. "I love that woman." I thought of Eleonora, she must be feeling the same pain that everyone has been feeling at the thought of Zara, yet she had woken up today and made breakfast for everyone.
I know that she always thought of us girls as her daughters, she always had a motherly instinct within her and nurtured everyone, no matter who they were, so Zara's departure must've hit her hard too.

"I'm not really hungry right now Matthias, but thank you." I said and he shook his head.
"I expect you to eat everything on this plate. You haven't ate since yesterday love, you need to eat."
I smiled warmly at him, the word 'love' going through my head endlessly.

I looked down at the plate and my eyes widened at the amount of food on there. It was packed full of food.

Matthias stabbed the pancake with the fork and brought it towards my mouth. I raised an eyebrow at him.
"I'm making sure that you eat all of this Caterina. Now open up." He ordered and I rolled my eyes at him before opening my mouth. I licked my lips from the excess maple syrup left on my lips and I saw Matthias' eyes flit down to my lips. I saw his eyes darken and I gulped slightly. His eyes moved down at the movement, before moving back to meet my eyes.

"I can feed myself Matthias." I grumbled, feeling shy all of a sudden and he cleared his throat, nodding before passing the food over to me.

Surprisingly, I was really hungry and basically scoffed down all the food. I blushed as I looked at Matthias who was staring at me, amusedly.

"Not hungry huh?" He questioned, raising his eyebrow and smirking. I flushed, looking down at the empty plate in front of me.

"Whatever." I mumbled and took the tray away from me, setting it on the bedside table before pulling me in for a hug and kissing my head. He fished something out of his pocket. It was a piece of paper with writing on it and he passed it over to me.

"Marcello found this note yesterday by Zara. Zara had written this letter for everyone, mostly for Iris, Ethan and you. Iris and Ethan have already read it, Grayson told me to pass it along to you." He explained. I took the note from Matthias, staring at Zara's beautiful handwriting and began reading.

'I am so sorry for doing this. It's the only way I could think of. I'm a coward for doing this to escape my problems, but I started to hate myself. I couldn't face everyone day after day, and act like everything was alright. I'll never forgive myself for what I had done to Matthias. The guilt was eating me alive and I couldn't even look at Angelo. He always stared at me lovingly with those big beautiful eyes of his, but I couldn't bear it. His mother is a murderer, I felt disgusted at myself. I had turned out exactly like his rotten father.
This is to Matthias, if you're reading this-'