❝ 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞. ❞
When Ricardo Esposito bursts through a door and finds a girl handcuffed on the floor, he decides to take her in and give her something she never had.
A fam...
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"[...]Maybe she's not guilty. But she is his child and the only thing left of him in this world. And I kept her; I kept her because I believed the moment I held her in my arms, I would be filled with this unconditional love, and she would become my child, mine and Marco's, but instead, what I feared happened. The moment I saw her, I hated her.[...]I wanted to choke her because I brought his remains into this world. I do wish that someone would do to her all the things her father deserved and worse-"
Pietro slammed the laptop shut, thereby stopping the recording. They had listened to all the tapes of Francesca talking about her deep-seated hatred for Alessia once, then a second time, and this was the third round.
He knew that this was her way of punishing herself and that she would not tire of it, but he already was.
"At school," Alessia reminisced, "or everywhere people asked me about my childhood, I told them I had this big yard and three horses."
Pietro's eyebrows knitted since he had not expected her to change the topic. He expected her to confront him about why he had stopped the recording but remembered his sister's favourite pastime: avoiding confrontation and trying to ignore reality until it caught up with her.
"What were their names?" He asked, engaging in any topic as long as it would take her mind off past events.
Alessia did not raise her head, but she placed it sideways on her arms so that she could see him. "If I tell you, you will laugh."
"Maybe I will, maybe I won't."
Alessia smiled. He did not give her empty promises, claiming he would not laugh but left everything open for possibility.
"Universo," she started. (Universe.)
"Universo?" Pietro repeated.
She gave him a look, and he raised his hands in surrender, indicating that he would refrain from saying another word.
"Speranza and tramonto." (Rainbow and Sunset.)
Pietro did laugh, grateful he didn't promise her he wouldn't. "One name is worse than the other."
"Shut up; I was eight or something when I came up with them."
Alessia's gaze drifted from Pietro to the laptop, and she remembered why there was a need for a conversation in the first place.
"If you don't want to listen to it anymore, you can leave, you know? I don't- you don't have to stay here," she told him, knowing he had a way out and understanding if he wanted to take it as mothers were a difficult topic for him as well.
"I'll stay. And even if I'd leave, I'd take the recording with me."
