inflict.
I can’t coldly announce it in the same way I gave my mother the news. But then again, aside from Kara, she didn’t need me to use kid gloves on her. I know she believes she loves me in her own way, but I doubt she will spend much time thinking about me after the funeral. Maybe Kara will remind her she used to have another daughter from time to time. I doubt Adrienne will do it out of her own volition once I’m gone. I had always been unfinished business for her, but with my death, so ends her motherly obligation.
The same cannot be said about the men I’ve loved my entire life. They are my soulmates. They are a part of me, and I’m a part of them.
How do you tell your soulmates goodbye?
I’m not sure that I can.
I sigh as I look at Carter’s retreating back. Logan and Quaid don’t say anything to comfort me, they’re just as upset with me. They just can’t get themselves to walk away. If anything, they’ve been attached even more to me, getting twitchy if I’m out of their presence for more than a few minutes.
Carter doesn’t come back during the time it takes for me to get and drink my coffee. When I’m finished, we stand up to go, and I sway on my feet as a wave of dizziness hits me. The world blurs around me briefly, and I’m shocked that I managed to stay on my feet when the world finally comes back into focus.
Quaid was already walking away, so he didn’t notice, but Logan is standing right there, looking scared to death. He grabs my arm and drags me through the café, not stopping until we’re outside, nestled into an alcove out of the public eye.
He gives me a small shake. “You are fucking destroying me, Valentina. Please fucking trust us enough to let us help. I can’t continue like this. I can’t.”
He lets me go and grabs his hair in distress. “Please,” he begs, tears clogging his throat.
I don’t answer, I just grab his hand and pull him out into the rain. I’d once read in a book that the rain in Prague had magical powers. You could do anything after a walk down its streets in the rain.
Even be brave.
We’re due for our river cruise down the Vltava in just an hour, so we set off through the rain to where the boat is docked. Carter attempts to chain-smoke the entire way, while Quaid scowls at anyone who glances at us.
We’re a merry bunch for sure.
We’re almost there when another dizzy spell comes on. The world tilts and swirls around me, and before I know it, I’m crumpling to the cobblestone street below me. My head hits with a sharp crack.
And then there’s nothing.
Chapter 12
Then
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Logan
The Valentina I have pledged my heart and soul to doesn’t exist anymore.
She’s turned into someone unrecognizable to me—a ghost of her former lust-for-life self. Her olive tone complexion is pale and ashen, the dark circles under her eyes announcing her restless cry filled nights. She hasn’t uttered a word to anyone in the past two days. Not during this afternoon’s funeral services, and not now during the wake that’s being held at her house. Mourners have come up to her to offer their sincere condolences, and she hasn’t acknowledged even one. Not a simple nod or a solemn word.
Nothing.
With her father’s death, Valentina has become an empty shell where only suffering resides, leaving room for nothing else. Not even us.
A heart attack.
That’s what got Eric Rossi in the end.
A motherfucking heart attack on the same day his daughter celebrated her eighteenth birthday. A man who had a heart the size of a basketball suddenly just drops dead on his couch while watching reruns of his favorite sitcoms on television.
What a fucking way to end a life that brought so much joy into the world. It isn’t fair. My own father has been on various dangerous missions, putting his life on the line every time, and has always managed to come back to us whole. Valentina went out with us to a fucking restaurant one night, and when she returned, her father was gone.
It shouldn’t have happened this way.
But it did.
And I’m not sure Val will ever fully recover.
I lean against the front door’s threshold, watching her sit on the porch’s swing, just looking at nowhere in particular. Her blank stare is as empty as she must feel.
“Do you want me