𝐾 𝐴 𝐼

Chapter |14| Romano Matchmakers

E M E R Y ' S P. O. V

Day 17 without him.

Again I feel like I'm drowning.

It takes all my effort just to get out bed. The same bed I spent five years sleeping in alone, now feels utterly desolate and lonely without him.

He didn't even spend a year within my life yet the imprint he's left is too deep to recover from.

I shower, dress, make a coffee and drive to work. The same boring routine is killing me now. My job is slowly destroying any little life I have left and my anchor has gone.

He respected my wishes, after the twentieth phone call went ignored I finally picked up nine days ago.

"How are you?" I broke down immediately at the sound of his voice, stifling sobs through the speaker. "Fuck, Emery...god all I want to do is hold you."

"That's making it worse." Because he can't. No matter I can't give in that easily. He doesn't forgiveness right now.

"What can I do?"

"I don't know." I answer honestly. He broke my trust, something that was hard enough to give him anyways and now...I'm just terrified that if I give him a second chance he'll break my heart again.

"Can I see you? Please,"

"It's too soon for that right now. Seeing you...it hurts too much to even think about."

"I'm really sorry, if I could take it all back..."

"But you can't. You lied to me, my own mother was proven right which I fucking hate and you made me fall in love with you under really false pretences. Being a criminal is a big thing Kai, and for me as a human to just accept that is...so fucked up. I hate myself for considering a future with you still, knowing that you've killed..."

I can't help but break down again. All my principles, my beliefs are tarnished in knowing I've fallen in with love with a murderer.

Kai was the greatest man I've known. He was everything to me, and the fact he's done such horrible stuff, and I still love him, means there's something wrong with me.

Something severely fucked up.

"Just give me space and time and...we'll see." I ended the call. I couldn't hear his voice again.

All it brought was pain and more tears.

I finish up with my last appointment before lunch. I plaster on fake smiles, laugh at jokes that aren't even funny. There's no life behind my life's anymore. I've become the version of Kai he used to hide behind.

My phone rings incessantly and I reach to press decline since the only people who call me these days are my parents that I'm yet to face.

They'll be supportive but my mother's narcissism is too much for me to handle right now. She'll tell me how sorry she was that she was right and how if I had listened to her none of this would have happened.

Yeah, I fucking know that mom! But guess what, I loved and I laughed and I felt things I haven't ever felt before. Kai was an experience not a mistake because without him I doubt I would ever know what true love feels like.

My mind spurs me to press yes this time, but the caller isn't Kai at all. It's his sister.

I answer hesitantly. "Hello?"

"Emery, thank god. My daughter Calista, she's been sick all night and is still running a fever. Our usual doctor is out of commission and I don't trust anybody else. Please would you come over?"