(BlackHeart2) BLACKSOUL

Chapter 1

(9 MONTHS LATER...)

        I'm going to be leaving Paris with a lot more items than I came with. There'd been that shopping spree with Dom all those months ago. And at christmas time, Elio spoiled me and got me plenty of gifts, since we don't celebrate with our other family. It was a nice holiday anyways, because Elio's a good big brother. I'm a horrible sister, but I want to make it up to him somehow.

I lied to him about Dom, but he also lied to me when he called himself a successful 'businessman', and not the mobster he actually is. It's technically dirty money we're spending, but I just never really addressed it again. Maybe because I've had to make some hard choices myself to survive. He tells me it's really just doing business work for De Luca holdings, and I believe him. I hope I regain his trust the same way.

        Because I had more things with me in Paris, I had to go buy myself another luggage bag. One of those huge ones with the rolling wheels. Everything else in the apartment had already come with the place. The newer apartment was a pretty decent space. It was sort of narrow in the way these buildings in Paris can be. When you walked through the front door you entered one archway to the short hall. That leads you to the second archway where the modest kitchen/ living room is located, and past that is the third arch that leads to my bedroom and connecting bath.

The interior reminded me of the place me and Sophia lived in together. The walls always seem to have similar french style crown molding. The walls are all white and some were concrete.

I think it's where they connect old buildings to new renovations. The bones of all the architecture here is old, which gives it a nice historical feel. Funny enough this place also had a brickish colored square back sofa, but it was less reddish and more orange.

I will say, it helped leaving the apartment that held the only and last memories of Dom there.

        I lived completely alone which was a first for me. I always had dorm mates,  roommates, or boyfriends. I enjoyed it though. It brought a sense of peace to my otherwise hectic life. Living with Elio was fine, and I'd only been there for such a short time. There's something about my upbringing with a terrible father that put me so on edge it was still instilled in me. To tiptoe around every place I lived in, and to make myself scarce. Even with Elio sometimes.

Living with Sophia helped change that for me, and especially now living on my own. I could do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted to do it. I could walk around naked or eat sweets for dinner. I could sing, laugh, cry, and leave a few dirty dishes in the sink overnight without getting beat for it. This is freedom.

I was so busy with work, and all the added stuff I started doing for Karl Lagerfeld, that this became my quiet space. Where I sought refuge for the calmness I only recently discovered existed.

        My internship is technically over with Vogue and Cynthia Dupont. I finished yesterday after her farewell gift of making me run between floors to do inventory, and run things to print. She's also throwing me a small dinner, so I'm not complaining. The woman helped change my life. We've become friends, not just a boss and intern.

Since that dinner isn't today, I've taken the time to pack all my clothes, shoes, and bags. I'll only leave exactly enough clothes to last me until the day of my flight. Amelia and Vanessa offered to help me pack, but when they came they just drank wine and danced around, so that was that. I'd stopped and joined them.

Today Louise offered the same to me, but she's actually here in my bedroom folding clothes. Trying to compact enough to squeeze everything in.

I've always really liked Louise. All the girls here were so fun and definitely good-time girls. She is too, but you can also have a pretty tame conversation with her, and really connect on a level beyond fun. I'll miss these girls though. They've entertained me and Sophia since almost the start of all this.