His Heart Begged, His Hands Destroyed

I remembered the night six years ago. Luca had placed the bracelet in my palm as if closing a business deal.

"The man who had it asked for a lot."

I cried so hard I couldn't speak. When I asked how I was supposed to repay him, he looked down at me with a cold mouth and impossibly soft eyes.

"Then pay me back with yourself."

[Vivi, marry me. I don't know how to give you a home, but I'll learn. I brought back what your mother left behind. From now on, I'll protect you too.]

He used that bracelet in place of a proposal ring. I once thought it was the clumsiest and truest confession of his life.

Now he held the same bracelet and said, "I gave it to you because you were my wife. If you want a divorce, you won't be Mrs. Bellandi anymore. What right do you have to take it? You can't seriously think you're still worth thirty million dollars, Vivian."

One sentence crushed my pride. I dug my nails into my palm and forced my voice steady. "I'll pay you back. I'll find a way to get thirty million."

"You think I need your money?" Luca snapped.

[I need you to stay. I just can't let you take it and leave. If you leave with it, you'll never come back. Vivi, I'm scared.]

But his hand had already closed around Ava's wrist. He clasped the emerald bracelet on her, the same way he had done for me six years ago.

Ava lifted her wrist and admired it. From an angle Luca couldn't see, she shaped the words with her lips.

"A dead woman's trinket. How unlucky."

Something exploded in my head. That was the only thing my mother had left me.

I rushed forward, trembling. "If it's so unlucky, give it back."

My fingers had barely touched Ava when she screamed and threw herself backward. Her wrist struck the edge of the coffee table, and the emerald bracelet cracked. Stones and broken metal scattered across the floor.

The world went silent.

Then Ava lifted her bleeding arm and sobbed beautifully. "Luca, it hurts."

Luca snapped out of it and shoved me away. My lower back hit the cabinet, and a sharp pain tore through my abdomen.

"Vivian, are you insane?" he shouted. "That was your mother's only keepsake. To hurt Ava, you didn't even care if you destroyed it?"

I collapsed to the floor, my face white. "I didn't push her. She fell on purpose. She broke it on purpose."

"Enough!" The veins in Luca's neck stood out. "You lose your mind and still blame her?"

His thoughts were a mess. [What do I do? The bracelet is broken. The thing Vivi loved most is broken. Now I don't even have the last thing that could keep her with me.]

He was panicking, but even his panic hurt me.

He dragged me down the hall to the wine storage room, the coldest and darkest room in the apartment. The pain in my abdomen sharpened, as if something inside me was being torn loose.

He pushed me inside. "You hurt Ava, and you're not thinking straight. Stay there tonight. When you calm down tomorrow, you can come out and apologize."

The lock clicked. Darkness swallowed me.

I clutched my stomach and felt warmth slowly seep between my legs. When I touched it, my fingers came away red.