Page 60 of Leave Me Broken

“I cannot count how many times I woke in the middle of the night to soft music and found my parents dancing in the kitchen together. It was magical. Seeing two people so in love. I grew up and always wondered what it would be like to love someone so much you do not let the stress of outside issues affect what is inside. That is true love. Instead of fighting the outside battles and then fighting made-up battles at home, you fight them all together. Much how I see you and Ashley and the struggle with your mental health.”

That book Ash was reading pops into my head.

“You two have battles—ones you have not even fought yet and still, when you are side by side, it is like nothing else matters. You two easily get lost in the other and it is magnificent to watch. When you are in a room together, you can almost feel the pull between you. The one you are having to fight, but it will not be like that forever, coniglietta. You are young, I do not want to scare you but the love I grew up seeing with my parents is how I imagine you and Ashley—several years down the road—kids will be sneaking out of bed to catch you dancing in your kitchen.”

Emotion thickens in my throat, making it impossible to reply, or swallow.

He continues, probably seeing my struggle. “A love like that is rare, maybe even once in a lifetime.” He pauses and with a heavy tone he adds, “I had love like that once.”

21

Ash

An empty bed is not what I wanted to wake up to. I didn’t even want to fall asleep but bloody hell, it’s hard when you’re lying next to the person that can make anywhere feel like home. Especially when she oozes so much love it steals your breath. Especially when she sucks all the emotion from your body in one evening.

I was hopeful when we got home we would have a hot shower and end the night with her so full of my cum there’s no way a baby wouldn’t be born in nine months.

I don’t think I actually want to get her pregnant—not while she’s in school anyway—but Payson with a round belly carrying my child makes me think that’s a great idea. Maybe then she would believe I’m not going anywhere. But I’m not sure how Parker would react to Payson pregnant, so it’s probably best to hold off.

The night is still young, so if I can leave her full of my cum, I will, baby or no baby. If I can find my girl, that is. She’s not in the bathroom, or anywhere in my room.

I’m surprised to hear Luca’s voice when I hit the top step. I assume he’s talking to Parker, but it’s not Parker I hear.

“I’m struggling . . .” Ahh. There’s my girl. I step onto the ground level but hesitate outside the kitchen. It sounds like they are having a serious conversation, and I’m curious what they could be talking about.

“My family was poor but that was not why I cut.” Not exactly the conversation I was hoping to overhear because it’s not one I like thinking about my best friend going through, but I don’t interrupt. I find a seat on the bottom step and just listen.

“She worked at the restaurant with me. She was the head chef—the one who taught me to cook, she was his daughter.”

Payson’s little gasp makes me smile.

“Giana was her name; we were fifteen when we met.”

“Was?” Payson whispers.

I can imagine Luca’s grim but thoughtful nod. “We hit it off right away. A week after meeting, we were dating. My family could not be happier because, like I mentioned before, my family was built on true love. They could all see how in love we were. Her family on the other hand . . . they were not as accepting. My great relationship with the head chef was burned, as was my relationship with the rest of the restaurant because they all took his side. That we were too young to know what love is and we were wasting our time. She was wasting her time being with me.” He doesn’t sound bitter, and he will still tell you how amazing of a chef that man was, but I’ll never understand how he can talk so highly about a man who allowed his own daughter to die.

“Why would he think that? You’re amazing.”

“I was poor, coniglietta. They were not. Profile was a big deal to them. They saw their daughter marrying in the same class and they thought I got in the way, even at such a young age. I was good enough to be a worker just not a boyfriend for their beautiful daughter.

“Giana and I would hardly speak at work, and after, we would reconnect in bed. Like I said, we were young and most of our relationship was spent in the bedroom. What was spent outside was great—until it was not. The stress of everyone at our work whispering terrible things about us—her for only being with me to rebel and about me for only being with her for the money, it became too much, and we started taking it out on each other.”

“That’s so sad,” Payson mutters.

Luca agrees. “The thing with deep, true love like that is if you do not choose to fight your battles together, you will end up fighting each other alongside those battles, and there are no winners in war.”

My heart picks up speed. I think we found that out tonight. I’m just glad we came back together in the end.

“We would make love, then go back to arguing. It was a routine daily for a year until she found out she was pregnant.”

“P-pregnant? How old were you?”

I can hear the weak smile in his voice. “We had dated for a year before anyone found out and this was a year after, so we were seventeen.”

“That’s so young,” Payson replies. She much not have done the math for Parker and myself.

“Sì. Which is why her dad lost his mind the day we told him. We took both our parents out to dinner because we hoped my family being there and being so happy would help them see past their anger. It did not and it caused the biggest fight yet. I’m not like Ashley, I’m not intimidating, and I definitely wasn’t at seventeen. I did not enjoy the fighting and because I was young and still trying to process how a father could speak to his daughter the way he did, I missed the blood that started falling down Giana’s leg.”

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