Chapter 24 Reminisce
SANCIA
My eyes fluttered closed as I let the pages of the past flip through my memories. I remember that year, the first time I saw him, Lorenzo, my would-be fiancé. Isabella and Christina were about to go to the mall on that day. I had asked Papa, and he told me Mama would take me to the mall another time.
I had begged Papa to let me go with them; I had even shed a few tears and pouted my lips for better effect. With a sigh, Papa had finally relented. Isabella and Christina's car was at the gate; they were about to leave when I ran out to them, happy as a kite, with half a dozen soldiers as our guards.
Christina had visited Italy with her family then. It was late summer, and I never forgot that. When we arrived at the mall, I was so happy shopping and trying on dresses with my sister and cousin, that was until the shooting began.
Our guards were outside, though they'd given us a hard time before they agreed to stay out. They'd taken Papa's warning to stay no more than three feet away from us too seriously.
I was in one of the dressing rooms when I first heard the gunshots. Dressed in a wedding dress, my sister and Tina had talked me into trying after they'd caught me staring at the beautiful dress for the third time.
They'd dragged me into the shop and convinced me to try two other dresses, telling me no rule says I can't buy my wedding dress now, even though we still have a couple more years before we'll be allowed to wed Antonio and me.
I had agreed, but only if Isabella tried one, as she would naturally get married before I did. After all, Isabella's nineteenth birthday was the next month, while I was fifteen, almost sixteen at the time; Tina was seventeen, closer to my age than Isabella, which was why we were much closer.
I was terrified and shocked when I witnessed death for the first time. Knowing and seeing are entirely two different things. I know what my family did, and while I was used to the sounds of guns, I had seen wounded men and dead bodies of fallen soldiers.
I was not used to seeing people getting butchered right in front of me or watching them as life drained from their eyes.
Maybe if I hadn't witnessed what I did back then, I might not be as scared and reluctant as I am now to marry Lorenzo Marchetti, but then, on second thought, I don't think I would have had a change of heart even if I hadn't witnessed it. Anyone with eyes could see the darkness in him, or maybe it's just me.
I could still see it, feel it, and I remember the metallic taste of iron on my lips, the sight of so much blood pooling in a big circle, the gurgling of the man he'd butchered with a sword as though he were an animal. Blood had flown, splattering every which way as though it were a sprinkler.
It had stained the wedding dress, a splash of color against the white fabric. I was paralyzed by fear, watching the man choke on his blood to death.
I remember the maniacal glint in Diavolo’s dark eyes, the tilt of his lips as he smiled smugly, and the way he stared at me, eyes wide as deer staring back at him, frozen in place. He'd stride confidently towards me, sword in hand, dripping blood on the floor.
I had shaken like a leaf as he stood before me, barely breathing as I waited for this angel of death to take my life. But he didn't, a whimper was all I could manage in my terrified state as he lifted a single finger towards me. He'd grin with amusement, then place that bloody finger on my trembling lips and shush me.
And without turning to look at his two other victims, he took a gun from his waist and fired three times, ending the other two who he'd earlier shot in the knees so they couldn't run away.
The fact that he'd killed the first man with a sword and the other two with a gun struck me as odd, but I was in no position to ask why he did that.
“What's your name?” he'd asked, staring at me like he was dissecting me under the lens of his dark eyes.
“Sss…sss…” I started, lips trembling; God had saved me at the time; before I could say anything, his lackeys, the men I now know as Luca and Fabio, had barged in. He'd turned away, started leaving, then turned back for a last glance at me.
“It was nice meeting you, Sss,” he mimicked as though I was funny. Then he grinned, making two dimples appear on his cheeks. And instantly, I knew I had just met the devil. I never saw him again after that until the day he walked into my life as the man who was going to marry my sister.
While he's forgotten all this, I hadn't; that night had helped me make up my decision on the kind of life I want to live. I know I love Antonio, though others might not agree with me, like my mother. But Mama never listens to me anyway.
Antonio knows me best. The years we have been engaged have given me insight into the kind of person he is. And I like everything about him. I was ready to spend the rest of my life with him. If that's not love, I don't know what is.