Entitled

V E N T I T R É - C H I A R E T T O

Continuation of "Claret"

Francesca River de Luca

His voice held a deep adoration, heavy with unchannelized emotions.

He was proud and happy to be in her presence.

And it showed.

His eyes brimmed with tears bordering between reaping sorrow and unparalleled happiness.

Sorrow for never being able to touch her or feel her voice bless his soul, he'll never know how it would have been if she was there to close his eyes from the monsters and hold his hand through the dark.

Happiness, just to be in her presence. To call out to her from within, let the words resonate and make it real.

Sometimes saying things out loud makes it real and he tried it with a belief strong enough to dismantle the very foundation of the world.

For me, I am shocked.

His declaration brought forth a memory suppressed in the deeper subconscious of my mind.

The road was familiar because I have been here before. It feels different and same all at the same time. It's confusing.

"I don... I don't really understand." I tell him and shuffle closer to him.

Like basic instinct he curls his arm around me and pulls me to his chest.

"I know. You were too little to have a proper memory." He smiles down at me.

"But today, I would like to introduce my wife to my mamma officially."

"This is Vittoria Alessia Berlusconi, my mamma and mamma this is Francesca River de Luca, my wife."

He exclaimed professionally and happily.

It was weird to say the least.

I have never seen him this vulnerable, not even when I saw him in the basement that day.

He is so hauntingly serene.

An angel possessed by the demons of hell.

His eyes shone like sapphires, he had a blissful smile through n his baby pink lips.

"It's written Valentini there."

"Valentini name is too cursed to be graced by such an angel. Maybe that is why neither survived together."

This is the moment in his life that he has practiced and rehearsed more times than one.

The moment he has waited for.

"Leone..." I drawled out.

"My mamma is the best person ever. A good human, even better Keith. She is loyal to her bones, too loyal to doubt or cross-check. She has all the good there is inside of her, all the morality, all the love, all the compassion. She's equally smart and stupid. Gods so stupid." He grinded his teeth at the end.

He talked in present. Like we were not standing in the graveyard, over the woman's grave and talking about her.

"But no one ever deserved her. Neither did they ever nor will they, ever. Elena is my aunt. Blood sister of my mamma." He snorted mirthfully.

"Elena and Marcus had an affair behind mamma, strategically hidden by every-fucking-one. Her trust was chosen to be broken mercilessly. She had all the reasons to doubt and check but she chose to trust them and that was her fault. Trusting her husband, believing in her sister."

"Her only mistake, her biggest culpability."

"Elena was pregnant with Gianni when she was told. She was told that they'll keep the child and the affair will be done for with Elena being shipped off to Australia. Papa Berlusconi was a man of honor whose pride was wounded because of the  daughter he favoured over everything. He had his own set of plans in line to redeem all the sins. He was going to kill Elena the minute she gave birth. The entire course of her pregnancy revealed more truths and faces than what had been Mamma's entire life. She saw people for what and how they actually we're, her heart broken, her mind working overtime."