Page 71 of Isle of Pain

“She’s safe with us. I’m hers,” he declares and the veil lifts. “And she’s mine.”

Lana nods again, a soft tip of her lips that doesn’t reach her eyes. “And Ember?”

“She’s mine, too,” Nico answers easily.

Lana’s lips purse and her chin wobble. Turning heels, she disappears the same way she came in. “I’ll talk to her,” Lisandru says before leaving with a dip of his head towards the Capaldi family.

I feel like an intruder and make my way out, but Giulia stops me with a hand on my forearm. “I’m sorry, Jules. I did what I think is best for Marie and Ember.”

“You’re a dick, you know,” I sigh.

“What?”

“I want to hate you right now. Take her side. But you have to be all chivalrous and selfless and shit. You piss me off, bitch.”

She threads her arms around my neck and I hold her to me, the hug settling the unease inside me. “Nico’s a good man. He almost died trying to save me”, she whispers in my ear.

I frown at that. “Save you from what?”

“That’s not important. They’re really good together. And he loves Ember.”

“Yeah, I can see that. He has the protective broody alpha act down,” I joke but it’s the truth. He’s not so different from Marie come to think of it. She’d much rather be sitting in silence than surrounded by the rowdy crowd we can be. They fit. “Lana’s gonna hate herself for not seeing Marie’s pain, you know that, right?”

Giulia sighs and I echo the sentiment. “It’s something they have to work on together. I protected her like she asked me to, Jules. I would have done the same for you. I did the same for Lana when she needed it.”

I nod and join Lana and Lisandru into the town car. As we drive in silence to our hotel in West Hill, I simply clasp Lana’s shoulders in a silent show of support. I don’t miss the way she swipes at her face and sniffs all the way through.

39

NICO

LOVE AND DOUBT

My hands are growing wet as I wait in the visitor’s parlour of Nightinghale Rehab Centre. I wipe them on top of my jeans-clad thighs before I tap my fingers in its usual rhythm of three. My tongue won’t stop swiping at my piercing, even if I try to control myself. I’m too wired to do anything but be at the mercy of my swirling emotions right now.

Marie’s therapist told us on the phone a few days ago that she couldn’t have too many visitors at once, which broke my mum’s heart a little, I think, and with her sister waiting in the town car, that left only me. Lana came back when the three weeks were up and hasn’t left West Hill in the past four days, waiting for Marie to be well enough to have visitors. I grinded my teeth when Giulia sacrificed her visit for Lana, simply texting Dr Linberg, Marie’s therapist, to ask if that wouldn’t be too much for Marie. Her response was that it was actually a positive outcome, which I don’t fucking understand.

She might be Marie’s sister but she’s been oblivious to her suffering and her first instinct was to take Ember away. I won’t forget that any time soon. Even if I’m mad at Marie forabandoning me, even if I want to irrationally yell at her even though she did something for herself for the first time, I’ll always protect her.

Ember coos at me from her carry cot, playing with the hanging toys. I lean down and toy with the plastic animals, their clinking sounds making her laugh. With that sound, it’s like the nervous energy running through me dissipates and I smile at my daughter.

I never imagined myself a father. But I believe it’s only because I hadn’t met Ember. I was born to be her dad. The knowledge is deeply seated into my bones. I’m always protective of the ones I love, but with Ember, I’m feral, a caged beast. If anyone thinks they can take her from me, I’ll carve their heart out of their chest with my bare hands and I won’t care about the mess of entrails and blood I make.

Just as red starts to fill my vision, the sweetest voice brings me back to the present moment. “Hi, Nico.”

I stand and in three measured steps that probably look like I’m in control when I’m nothing but, I close the distance between Marie and I. Her cheek is soft against the back of my fingers.

“You left,” I tell her.

The green pools hold me captive as they fill up with fresh tears that fall against my skin.

The next second, my lips land on Marie’s and she pulls on my teeshirt, clasping the fabric desperately. I close my eyes and let myself fall deeper into her. The taste of her tongue fills my mouth and I can’t help but cling to her, wrapping my body around hers, her chest to mine, hands roaming. I’m desperate to be inside her, not only physically but metaphorically, as much as she’s into me, inside my blood, carved into my heart. I need to be under her skin.

Did she think about me as much as I thought about her? Did sleep evade her like it did me because I couldn’t hold her soft body against mine?

When I pull away, I frame her face and lose myself into her deep green eyes. They’re so much brighter than they were only a month ago. Whatever she is going through here, it’s for the best. It shows in the way she stands, in how perfectly pink her cheeks are, her bashful smile and biting of her lower lip that tells me exactly where her mind has gone.

Whistles sound behind us and other patients make lewd gestures. The way Marie giggles clue me in on the teasing and that they must be her friends or companions. “You made friends,” I comment dryly. I think I’m jealous. I don’t know them and they make me uncomfortable. This is something new again when it comes to her and it makes me want to be hers even more. I swallow it and observe as Marie shrugs.

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