Page 8 of Always You
“Mila, wait! What’s going on!” Sophie shouts.
My legs feel wobbly; my palms hold onto the wall for support. I can’t breathe. He’s been alive all this time. What thehell… I feel like I’m going crazy—is this it? Have I actually fucking lost my marbles? I’m so confused.
“Mila, I think you’re having a panic attack. Breathe, please breathe.” I’m trying to talk, but the words don’t come out.
“Dominic, he-he’s in there, Sophie,” I croak and point to the coffee shop.
“Mila, It’s okay. I think you’re having a panic attack. It’s an illusion; you miss him. His brother resembles him.”
“No, it’s him!I saw him, his scar on his eyebrow, then he gave Brian his name. I’m not fuckin crazy.” Now I’m hyperventilating, crying in an alley.Five fucking years.
“Dominic’s been alive all this damn time while I have been mourning, going crazy over losing him.” Sophie wraps me in a hug, soothing me.
“That can’t be, Mila; this is so crazy. Do you want to go talk to him?”
“No, I can’t, Sophie. I can’t. He avoided my calls for an entire month. I tried calling him at the hospital, his mom, and his brothers. He fucking lied to me. He wanted nothing to do with me.”
“Let’s get you home so we can talk about this.” She holds me around my waist to keep me from falling. Damn, I’m so bewildered.
* * *
I sit crumbled on the sofa, overwhelmed with sadness. My heart feels like it has been split into a million fragments. I can't comprehend why he never reached out, or tried to contact me. The only logical reasoning that comes to mind is that once he went into remission, he didn’t need me and told his brothers to ignore my calls. I thought he loved me. Was it all a lie? Did he and his family make it up to get rid of me? No, he couldn’t have lied, right? But he did. I think back to the night after his first baseball game of the season.
I sit in the bleachers waiting for Dominic to come out of the locker room. They just won their first game. The door swings open. I spot him with Liam, freshly showered, walking out. His whiskey eyes search for me. When he spots me, he smiles ear to ear. I run to him, and he catches me jumping into his arms.
“Yeah, baby, you played fucking impressive out there.”
He kisses my lips. “That home run was for you, Angel.”
“Mila, maybe we should look him up on social media. He could be on there.”
I’m terrified even to look. I’ve never searched because he didn’t have social media account prior to his cancer. What if he’s married and has kids?
“Okay, let’s look to see if he has an account.” I watch as she presses buttons on her phone.
“So, what’s his full name?”
“Dominic Dante Delgado,” I rasp out. I’m shaking like a leaf—beads of sweat trickling down my back.
“Oh, I found him.” I watch her facial expressions as she frowns.
I jump off the couch to sit next to her. “Let me see.” My fingers scroll. My heart races. Five pictures of him and a blonde, beautiful woman,his fiancé.No, no, it can’t be.How could he do this to me?To us.My heart sinks into my stomach. I crumble onto the floor. Sobbing. Angry, heartbroken, and betrayed is how I feel. Sophie holds me and lets me cry on her shoulder. I never moved on. I grieved him, reminiscing everything about him day and night. While in contrast, he moved on and is now engaged. How could he?
“Are you going to tell him about Dante?” Sophie asks.
I choke in between sobs. “I’m not sure. I can’t even think straight right now.”
“How about you lie down? I’ll go pick up Dante from school.”
I genuinely have the most amazing and caring friend. I nod. “Thank you.”
* * *
I drop into the comfy chair in the corner of the studio. All night I thought about Dominic with another woman—his fiancée.
Opening up social media, I glance at Domenic’s picture again nervously. I’ve never had a social media account, never thought of making one. Now I’m creeping on him, I have to. He has a big smile on his face, the kind of smile he once gave me, but now it belongs to her. I read the caption on the bottom of the picture it says, “Just asked Samantha Williams to marry me, and she said yes.”
Fuck.Then my heart breaks all over again.I can’t wrap my head around Dominic being alive after all this time. I’ve cried for him, struggled to raise our son, and been through so much shit. And here he is, fucking engaged.
