Page 17 of Her Overprotective Fiance

I just want this to last forever. I just want to know I'll always be safe. It's not too much to ask, is it?

I swear I won't be greedy, God.

I promise!

I won't ask or even dream of anything else.

I just want to be safe.

Today, tomorrow, and forever more.

I just want to sleep and know that when I wake up—-

I'm safe.

Seven Years Ago

Snap

TIME USED TO CRAWLat an agonizing pace in the past, but everything changed when I came to live with the Marchettis, and the days just started slipping through my fingers like sand.

Is this how it should have been and how it should always be...when you're living a normal life?

Every decision I used to make was dependent on one thing.

Will it make my father remember he had a daughter?

I've always been the idiot who secretly craved my father's approval even when I knew deep in my heart something wasn't right about him.

He was the only parent I knew, and it was why each day I woke up, I hoped it would be the day my father would finally change.

But he never did.

And I suppose that's why, the first few months I was with the Marchettis, I hadn't dared to lower my guard.

A part of me had been convinced it was only a matter of time one of them would justsnapand they'd reveal themselves to be no different from my father.

One day,I kept telling myself then.

One day they'd get tired of pretending, and then they'd say all the things they had every right to say.

You're not wanted here.

You can never be one of us.

You don't deserve to be Giancarlo's bride.

It was all I could think about at that time, to the point that I had started giving myself nightmares of the Marchettis literally shoving me out of the front door.

Are you stupid or what?

How fucking dense can you get?

Can't you take a hint and just go?

There were days I'd wake up with tears already rolling down my eyes, and my heart would be full of shame because everything I dreamt of was everything I feared.

What if theydidwant me to leave?

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