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Well, that time had come for me. I needed a safe haven. A place to shut the world out for a while so I could heal, lick my wounds and never look back. I’d vanquish Roque Salvatore’s name where it was stamped across my heart. I’d burn it out until it’s nothing but jagged scars. The scar would always remain, but the love would be gone.
I kept busy, unloading the car. My eyes were dried out from all the crying I did on the way there. I opened a toolbox and popped a floorboard, my hands reached under finding the old metal box. Inside was a new identity. New birth certificate and social security number. Zio was smart and shortly after he took me in we made duplicate fake identities in case we ever needed them. Zio even opened up a bank account here and we slowly established ourselves over the years as summer people. We smiled but kept our distance. Me being here wouldn’t raise any eyebrows.
I grabbed some lighter fluid left over from grilling. Took the cover off the charcoal grill and dumped my license, old passport and papers inside. I dumped a quarter of a bottle on Diana Palermo. Dropped a match and watched her burn.
It was cathartic. Cleansing.
I lifted my chin. He wouldn’t wreck me a third time. “Roque Salvatore… we might be ill-fated soulmates, but I won’t break for you ever again. Next time, you will break for me.”
Just as I was about to add my cell into the roaring blaze, it rang.
It was him. My thumb hovered over the phone. Should I swipe? I hesitated but answered.
“Romina.”
My heart hammered. His voice was low, deadly and rubbed across my bruised heart like sandpaper. When he spoke my true name, it cut through me like a knife.
“Roque.”
“I’m coming for you. This time I won’t hesitate to finish what I should’ve…”
“Try,” I scoffed. “But you’re mistaken, I’m the one coming for you.”
He laughed low in his throat and I hated what the sound did to me. I loathed and lusted for this monster and he knew it. But I also know how he burned for me. I’d wield that weapon. Turning on facetime I let him see me standing in the yard.
My hair was still blue but my eyes glittered green. I cried out my contacts and never bothered popping new ones back in.
He held up his hand, displaying a gold band around his finger. “So, it’s true? You married her?”
“I did. I’m more powerful than ever.”
It hurt. I couldn’t breathe, the pain of him being with someone else was too great. He was my enemy, but he was also my lover. It was so hard to separate the two. They were still glued together even though I was trying to tear them apart.
“I never lied to you.” The wind picked up, blowing strands across my tear-stained face. I let him see the moment of me standing vulnerable in the dark. It would be my last confession to him before I called on my years of training and closed the curtain to the high school girl who hoped he and her could be more.
“Ah Romina, you’re so breathtaking when your broken just like I knew you would be. It’s oddly satisfying, knowing I was right. Do you remember that day?”
“How could I ever forget the day I was murdered?”
“I brought you back, bella. My hands stole your life and my breath gave it back. My hands pumped for your heart.”
“You’re sick. Getting off during sex by choking women…”
He shrugged. “It was always you… you made me crazy, wild. You made me high, the scent of hair, your soft skin… taking your life was an aphrodisiac.”
“You sick fuck. I was a kid.”
“Almost a woman and so what? You liked what I did to you. Craved more? Am I right? I still feel you coming all over me, Blue. You like the devil in me. Will always want him.”
“The only thing I want is your head on a pike.”
“Come for me then. Let’s see who’s right.”
“Darling? Where are you? Come back to bed…” He grinned but I sneered, confident it was a set up. A farce of a marriage. No one who knew him would ever call Roque darling.
With a curled lip I challenged, “Kill her. Do it. Show me, my ex-beautiful monster, take from her what you wouldn’t from me.”
His eyebrow rose. “Ah, Romina we were made for each other it’s too bad our souls got the wrong message. They crossed in the stars somewhere but went into the wrong bodies. If you weren’t a Fiorelli…”