72- Alessa

POV- Eleonora Vitale.

"Love, I don't know what happened to you. But please..." He tries to touch me, but I move away from his approach again. 

"Don't touch me, or you might get smeared. As I am naïve and stupid, after all I am here... Crawling at his feet..." I whisper ruefully, letting my arms fall one on each side of my body. 

"Nora, we can forget about it. My love, I know I made a lot of mistakes with you and there is not a single day that I don't regret how stupid I was with you. And we have a beautiful daughter, our bond..." 

"Whoever hits forgets, whoever gets beaten doesn't." I whisper coldly. "And don't use Alessa to soften me." 

"I'm not using it, I'm just telling the truth. What do you want me to do? Eleonora, I would love to go back in time and correct all my mistakes, from the smallest to the largest. But my love, unfortunately I can't. All I can do is ask you to forgive me." So he kneels down and brings his face to the ground, in a pleading posture. Then I hear him cry like a child. "Forgive me... I promise that I will never make her suffer again... My love... I'm sorry... For everything..." He speaks in a tearful voice. I swallow hard, because I would never imagine seeing him that way. 

"Viktor, stand up." I ask, but I don't get an answer. "Viktor, get up right now." 

"I won't do that... Without you forgiving me... Because I can't live next to you, knowing that you hold a grudge against me." Sniffles and continues in the same position. I sigh and say: 

"As much as you don't deserve it, I forgive you." Slowly he turns his gaze to me. His eyes are very red, as is his face. 

"Your forgiveness is not sincere, so we cannot be together. Not like that." I hold my breath. "Eleonora, I love you like I've never loved anyone in my entire life. It breaks my heart to know that the shadows of our past problems will always be here to keep us away from each other. I know I've made mistakes over and over again, but I'm not perfect, no human being is. There are those who are fortunate enough to be wiser about their actions, but unfortunately I am not among them. I have already asked you for forgiveness, I paid for them when you left and took our daughter. You have no idea how much I suffered and still suffer because I know that everything bad that happened was my fault." A silence forms. All that can be heard are our breaths interrupted by crying. 

I lower my head, crying compulsively. And without even knowing what decision to make in the face of this horrible situation. Viktor walks past me and walks over to the couch, picking up his phone, typing something, and bringing it to his ear. 

"Hello, Daniel. I know it's too early. But could you stop by here? We have to change places, I have to go to the company. Yes, I take it before I go. Okay, see you later..." Then he turns off the device and leaves it on the couch again, returning to the bedroom. I remain motionless in the same place, sighing and trying to control my emotions, so as not to ruin everything. 

Suddenly, I head to the bedroom and find him sitting on the bed, with my hands wrapped around my face and sobbing. The image touches my heart. "I suffered a lot, but Viktor is also suffering. And I can't let that happen, no matter how many times I've broken my face. When we love someone, we do what we can to make them happy!" 

Seeing him so helpless, I approach him and wrap him in a hug. His crying intensifies and he puts his head in the gap of my neck. I feel his tears fall on my shoulders and it makes me cry again. 

"I love you... Heavens, Eleonora... I love you so much..." He says between sobs. 

"I love you very much too..." I end up pulling back a little, staring at his very red and almost swollen eyes. I wipe away his tears and say, "Viktor, I've loved you since the day we first made love." 

"And I've loved you since our first kiss. I just didn't want to give myself away..." I smile slightly. "Sorry, my love. I know it's hard when you have bad memories. But I'm really sorry. Give me a chance to fix everything, I want you by my side. Because if I don't, I don't know what I'm going to do. You are already part of me, much more than you think." Your words touch me. Then I sit on his lap and say: 

"I forgive you, Viktor. With all my heart." He sighs, looking relieved. And so we embraced. 

At the end of the day, that's what we needed to do. Remember the past, discuss it and leave it behind. I could no longer imagine myself without the love of my life. 

"But you already had a life before him!" 

That's what I thought, but the truth is that all I want most is to see my family united and happy. 

Forever... 

"What happened? Has anyone died?" Daniel asks, as he enters the apartment and looks at Viktor's desolate situation. That even after we've talked for a long time, he's still a little sad. Which makes me upset with myself. 

"No, but almost..." Viktor says, sighing heavily. 

"And what happened?" He questions his brother, sitting on the sofa in front of him. 

"Ask Eleonora." Daniel's questioning eyes seek me. I swallow hard and sit next to Viktor. 

"There are some very painful things in our past and I ended up remembering all of them. We ended up arguing about it..." 

"You argued, Eleonora." He throws it at me and I stare at him, incredulous. "I'm not lying, you were the only one to get angry. At no time did I change, unlike you. Am I wrong?" I lower my head, embarrassed. He's right, I was the only one to change. 

"Right, right. I may have changed myself for a moment, but you're also dirty in this story, Viktor. And if I changed, I had enough reasons to do so." I cross my arms and look in the opposite direction to him. 

"I've already apologized." Whispers. 

"And I've already apologized." Snort. Then we heard clearing our throats and looked in the direction where they were coming from. Daniel holds himself back from laughing, while Viktor and I take him seriously. 

"You guys are hilarious." He comments still smiling, but soon composes himself and says: "I am far from being a psychologist or some other professional capable of performing couples therapy. But all you have to do is sit across from each other, put your cards on the table, to talk quietly about what bothers you." 

"I've already asked for forgiveness, sorry for everything I did to her. But it seems that it is useless." 

"The question is: Viktor, whatever you have done, do you regret it?" Daniel says. 

"But more than anything, regret accompanies me every day." I hear everything with a lump in my throat. 

"Eleonora, I don't know what happened to you during all this time you've been together. However, I want to tell you to give Viktor a chance and leave everything that happened behind. For if he does not, both can never be happy." I agree and, feeling guilty, I look at Viktor and whisper: 

"I'm sorry." He nods and approaches me, giving me a kiss on the cheek. 

"It's okay, as long as you forgive me." Still hugging me, he smiles and turns his attention to Daniel, who was watching everything with a smile.