Chapter 194 THE REVEALATION A NIGHT COULD BRING
AURORA’S POINT OF VIEW.
“Breathe….it’s just a gala……everything will be fine,” I repeated the words over and over again, a sacred mantra clinging dear to my heart. I imagined my mother, her face weeks before, ashen, white, and devoid of life, emotion, and warmth. My heart clenched, the familiar pinch behind my eyelids threatening tears to spill.
I missed her.
This thing with Kai…it was fake, but at the same time, I remember my mother and me gushing over the day I would be given away. She swore she’d be the one to style my hair, join me for a dress fitting, and make sure to be involved with everything. But here I am, doing this all alone.
My mother was fighting for her life instead of being with me. My body felt slack, too tired, too worn from having to be strong all the time.
Armando had texted me earlier, wishing me good luck, as if he and I had any sort of relationship. I ignored it, not willing myself to rekindle anything with a man that would cast me off the moment Silas changes his mind about this….’ union.’
A couple of hours ago, Kai and I were at the studio Silas had picked, posing for pictures that would go on the front page of every reputable gossip and business magazine in hours. Each flash of the camera only served to remind me of one thing….this has to work.
The flashbulbs from that session still danced in my peripheral vision, white sparks that felt like tiny stabs of reality each time they went off. Kai had been a statue of perfection, his sharp jaw, cold eyes, and a hand that never left the small of my back, while I had played the part of the devoted, mysterious De la Vista heir of the Orsini society.
I looked down at my gloved hands. I was draped in a masterpiece of a dress, it looked like and indeed cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, more than my mother’s previous three surgeries combined, yet I felt like a hollow shell.
“This one’s for you, mom,” I whispered in the silence, willing myself to take several breaths to release the tension in my spine.
"Everything will be fine," I whispered again, but the words tasted like ash. The news cycle had hit. Not even two hours after we left the studio, the publication had hit the world. The moment it did, I ceased to be just Aurora.
I wasn't just a girl anymore. I was a headline. I was the girl in The Times. I was the pivot point for a merger that was shifting the plates of the city's economy. And yet, all I wanted was to be in a hospital room, smelling the sterile scent of antiseptic, holding my mother’s hand while she told me stories about a life that didn't involve chess moves and blood-debts. I felt as though my phone would blow up.
People I knew, and didn’t know, stormed my social media pages, demanding to know if it was true or not. I ignored it all, choosing to be a coward instead. The one call I was avoiding like the plague was that of anyone from my mother’s brother and his daughter. Uncle Tommy, if I knew him right, could be well on his way from Paris on a commercial jet to confront me himself.
A sharp rap on the door broke my spiral.