When Storms Collide

~21~

Carlos Vitale

My father's name.

I stood there, paralyzed in shock.

No

It had to be some sort of messed-up coincidence.

Just because my birth father's name was Carlos Vitale didn't mean that he was the same man who killed Sebastian's brother.

But even when I tried to deny it, there was no stopping the onslaught of suppressed memories. Pieces of my past that I had tucked away in a dark corner of my mind.

The doctor had said it was psychogenic amnesia, a condition affiliated with trauma.

I believed it was a coping mechanism. A shield your mind built to protect itself.

But my shield had crumbled.

There was no stopping it now.

Pictures flashed before my eyes. Memories I had tried so hard to forget.

~~

I am in a familiar, small, windowless room.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Alessandro." The man is about my father's age, but he looks cruel and unforgiving.

It's like I'm watching a movie, a sick twisted movie, only it isn't a movie. It's an incident from my past. An incident that occurred thirteen years ago.

My eyes catch sight of the man standing beside Alessandro, and my breath hitches.

Sebastian?

It can't be.

Sebastian would have been a teenager at that time, seventeen or eighteen at most; the man I am looking at seems to be in his twenties.

"This is my son, Matteo." He gestures towards the young man I'd thought was Sebastian.

He looks so much like Sebastian. It's terrifying.

There is a movement that catches my attention.

And then my eyes meet the black eyes of the monster from my nightmares.

Lorenzo.

His cold black eyes turn to me, and I shudder.

"What do we have here?" He walks toward us, taking slow, deliberate steps. "So precious." He crouches down in front of me.

Suddenly, the scene changes, and Lorenzo isn't crouching in front of me anymore. Instead, he's aiming a gun at my bother, Declan.

He shoots, and I scream.

Declan's body slumps to the floor, blood pooling around him.

I want to close my eyes. I want to run.

But I can't.

I'm trapped in my head, being assaulted by memories from thirteen years ago.

The scene changes again.

And now I'm looking into Matteo's lifeless gray eyes as he lies motionless on the floor.

His eyes look so much like Sebastian's...

~~

My hands were braced against the wall when I finally regained my senses. My legs wobbled.

The light knocking on the door jolted me back to reality.

"Angelica?" Sebastian's soft voice called.

I could feel my throat closing up in panic.