𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐌

70| S E T T A N T A

ALESSANDRO'S POV

As if it has been a second, as if I've slept for one moment, one blink of an eye, my eyes open and gaze out of the window where the sun rose, where the last time I would wake up here, the last time I wake up in my world, one last day.

The thoughts kick into my head and push my body up, I haven't changed, I'm in yesterday's clothes. I came into the room and immediately passed out.

With that being said, I get up and lead myself straight to the bathroom. I take all my clothes off and step into the shower with an empty mind, too empty to be considered sanity, too empty to be considered calmness and peace.

I turn the water up and feel it against my skin, feel it burn off the pain, the sweat and shake. The water hit the floor, it gathered to one side and went down the shower pan. I review the many times I took a shower here, alone, with Akila, all of it.

It gets sucked up, it gets transported away, far away where I can't reach, I can't relive it again. I grab the bottle of shampoo and squeeze some in the palm of my hand, I slam it onto my head and crub my hair. I wash the shampoo out of my strands and take the loofah and body soap to clean my body properly.

After I finish and make sure my body parts are well washed and clean, I hop off the shower and wrap a towel around my lower waist and catch my reflection in the mirror. I look normal, I look like myself, same messy brown hair, deep emerald green eyes and extra long eyelashes as my mother would tell me, my full dark lips and jawline. I turn slightly, observing that one tattoo I got when I first took the lead. I have numerous tattoos here and there, each with a different meaning, a different story and journey but this, this seems to shine the most as if it knows, as if it's aware and reminding me, pulling back memories from the dead in case I forgot, in case I'm trying to forget.

The tattoo is simply a tree, a lonely tree with no leaves, brown branches left with no green to cover it, to protect it. Between the branches, over the very top there's a crown, there's the crown I wore on my coronation day, the day I became who I am today, the day I became a mistake.

I let out a shaky sigh and drove my gaze away from the mirror and walked out of the bathroom. I enter my closet and stand in the middle of thousands, millions of euros spread all around my room, all around my custom closet filled with my favorite brands, my favorite clothes to fulfill my hidden sense of fashion.

So many things about me have changed, so many things about I discovered once I left my parent's house, once I was set free from my father's grip. I learned a lot, I found out I have something or two for fashion, I found out I lean more to cats rather than dogs, I found out I like riding horses but not stay around them, I found out I enjoy and find so much peace in books, reading and studying fiction, I found myself attached to a woman, I found myself heartbroken by the same woman and I found myself in love.

I really wish she was here, I really wish she's doing okay because no matter how much I know Akila is capable, she's able to handle anything and everything, she can protect herself and the entire world if she wants to, it still worries me. Why wouldn't she show up, how could she not show up. The idea of her not knowing, of her seriously having no information about this doesn't make sense in my head, it doesn't make sense to the Akila I know.

The Akila I know, I've known Akia for almost a year now, a whole year, one only year. It doesn't sound right, it doesn't sound enough but it is, it was enough for her to ignore me, to bail on me for years and blow one of my warehouses when I tried to kidnap her, it was enough for her to accept my offer and work with me, become my alliance and forbidden partner; it was enough for me to linger around her, to get attracted to her and go out of control, it was enough for me to find out her secret, to feel betrayed and distant myself from her, it was enough for her to open up, to tell me her story and what lays in the depth of her past life, it was enough for me; it was enough for her, it was enough for us to fall in love.