(BlackHeart2) BLACKSOUL

Prologue (Mia)

It's crazy how life can change in the blink of an eye. How one decision can alter the course of your life. Growing up, I was the victim of a narcissistic abusive father and neglectful mother. After 18, I made the decision to leave them the same way my brother Elio had four years earlier. He decided to join the military just to get away from that man.. Our father.

At 18, I made the decision to move in with a man 10 years my senior. A man who claimed to love me, but made me become a stripper to collect the income, holding the job against me in a jealous fit of rage. He'd abuse me for it.

At 19 years old, I made the decision to secretly apply for fashion school to get one step closer to living my dream. On nights where I wanted to cry myself to sleep, I would imagine myself being an accomplished fashion designer and stylist. I'd live somewhere extravagant like New York, one of the hubs of fashion. I'd be like Carrie Bradshaw, of Sex and the city.  A show I discovered when my mother left the television on for once, while dad wasn't home. I wanted to work for Vogue. I wanted to be fabulous, and I'd imagine all of it every night in my bed.

    When I got accepted into fashion school across the country, in Los Angeles, I made the choice of actually running away from my abusive boyfriend. Cutting him and my old life entirely, as I had the first time. I was the elusive Mia Fiore, a girl with no roots and only one person I loved. My brother Elio, who was in the military for many more years after all that.

I was alone, but I didn't let it stop me.

It's when I moved to New York to be with Elio that my life truly changed forever. I met my brother's mysterious best friend, Domani De Luca, a man with a dark aura and an alluring blue gaze. A man I was afraid of, yet attracted to. I made the decision to let myself fall into Dom's company, even when Elio wanted nothing more than for us to stay away from each other. I betrayed my brother over the allure of that man. I couldn't fight it, and we'd both given into it, until Elio discovered the truth. Domani De Luca promised to stay away from me.

    All that coincided with a job opportunity that Dom himself procured for me. I was to become an intern for a very well known stylist who worked for herself, and alongside big names within the industry. One step closer to my dream...only there was another choice attached to the offer. Another choice I was asked to make.

Helen Barton asked me to join her in Paris for a 6 month internship. With Dom ignoring me, I couldn't think of a better time than that to give myself some distance from that man.

That's not how that ended up going though. Somehow our paths continued to intertwine until we were lost in each other. He always confused me with the back and forth of what we were to one another. Calling it a physical thing, even when his actions contradicted that. After 3 months in Paris, Dom came to me with a surprising ultimatum.

Again, life can change in the blink of an eye.

It started as a conversation, and ended with Domani De Luca slamming the door in my face when he walked out on me. I had 3 more months of this internship I wanted to finish, and Dom didn't wanna wait for me. I don't think he gave me much of a choice at all. When I didn't immediately agree he took my wanting both the internship and him to be his answer.

The answer being no.

Even after Dom stormed out I tried contacting him. I didn't want things to end between us, but he was just so angry that I didn't wanna uproot my dream internship to go back to New York. I texted, called, and asked around about where Domani De Luca was, but he'd effectively shut me out. He never spoke to me again.

So, when my 3 month internship was up, and I was meant to move back to New York, I was offered another life changing opportunity. Cynthia Dupont, of Vogue Paris magazine offered to keep me on for another 6 months as an intern for just her, not Helen. Helen was leaving Paris. I can't say what my answer would've been if I stayed in contact with Dom, but I knew my answer when he left my life.