FOUR

❧     Fiorella    ☙

I can still feel his hands on my body, his breath on my face, the way he penetrated me and made me his, I once enjoyed his caresses and his kisses, but now it is as if each one of them were a hot iron that He was branding me so everyone could see that I belonged to him.

When Darian doesn't come home, I manage to escape at night for a few hours, I can savor my freedom and breathe fresh air, walk the streets or sit in a park and look at the moon, for some it's common, but for me, it's a privilege that I do not have.

I take a deep breath and look at my watch, I get up and walk back to my golden cage, when I enter I can't help but go to the room that belonged to my little Leonella, I hug her pillow and cry nonstop, I miss her so much that without realizing it I fall asleep in her bed.

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“Where the hell have you been?" I hear as soon as I enter my

Bedroom.

"Good afternoon, to you too Saoirse", I said to my only friend and companion who knows everything about me.

I didn't even realize that I was asleep most of the afternoon, but everything was ready and organized, it was just a matter of getting ready and putting on makeup to be the perfect wife and play my role tonight.

When my mother inherited her money from me, I used it to invest in the company of a friend Saoirse, she is an investor on Wall Street and the truth is we became best friends from the moment we met, she knows my story and is the only friendship Darian approves of .

"Don't say good afternoon to me! I've been worried, sick and trying to defend you from your obnoxious husband. Where the hell were you?" .

"Why do you ask me, if you know perfectly well that I snuck out in the night so I could breathe from this damn place," I say with a sarcastic smile.

I ignore her and walk to my closet to put my shoes back in their correct place, the closet is not really a closet, but like a huge room full of clothes that Darian has given me, clothes from designers.

 The other half of the room is filled with all kinds of makeup, jewelry, and accessories that I've ever worn. It's every woman's dream, but I'm not sure it's mine.

I put on a robe so I can sit down and have her help me with my makeup, today is such an important event, which I have been in charge of organizing, as if my life depended on it.

Saoirse barges at me before I've even finished changing, “So?” she asks again. Her arms are crossed over her chest, and her foot is tapping slowly on the hard floor as she waits for my answer.

"Darian has invited Lorenzo."

"He did what?"

"That Darian has invited my ex-husband to the event tonight and he will stay in the guest cabin on the property, in this very house a few steps from me," I told her, almost yelling at her.

"I heard you the first time. Why don't you invite him to stay in the guest room or in your bed!"

She gave a nervous laugh and I told her, "Sometimes I think he knows and he just wants to torture me and play games with me."

"Fiorella Santelli!", You were supposed to have slept enough so that today you would be radiant and beautiful, not walking alone in the streets, you don't understand the danger you expose yourself to, you should have told me, I would have gone with you".

"Relax, Saoirse," I tell her.

"I needed it,

 I didn't want to worry you but I didn't tell you that two nights ago, Darian forced me to have sex with him, I don't understand how he enjoys it, I hear him moaning and his smell, I can't stand it, the sound of his breathing" I told her while Tears fall down my face.

"Fiorella! Why didn't you tell me?"

"It doesn't matter, it's in my life and I have to get used to it, but sometimes I wish I slept and never woke up and that this would be over, when he has me in his arms..."

"Don't scare me. You... you can't just say those things..."

I laugh, seeing Saoirse so stunned, and sigh. "Don't worry, I won't do anything I'll regret, Darian would haunt me to hell and I still have my princess to take care of."

Saoirse's body visibly relaxes at my words, but she doesn't stop her questions.

"Why don't you try talking to Lorenzo? This is a unique opportunity, he will be here."

"I'm scared! You don't understand that Darian is capable of anything, I'm scared for Lorenzo, for Leonella, for me."

“Have you ever felt so humiliated, that you would like to hide yourself like a child under your bed and hide yourself from the world around you”. I took a deep breath and looked at my reflection in the mirror trying to smile.

"Why are you here anyway Saoirse, you know I could have hired someone to do my makeup for this event, I thought you'd be in your apartment pulling a man out of your bed."

She has her own luxury apartment a block from our mansion, there is a vibration in my headdress and I can see that Darian's name is reflected on the screen, Saoirse looks at it and sees that I have no intention of answering it.

“I think you'd better answer him. Your husband has been calling you non-stop, every twenty minutes.” I stare at the phone, afraid to take it from my friend's hand.

I know what awaits me on the other end of that phone, screams, claims and orders about my responsibilities, how I should behave tonight, I can already hear Darian's stern voice.

"I'm surprised it didn't show up here," I say honestly. I have never missed a phone call from him, because he gets mad if he doesn't know where I am, I was enjoying that he was anxious, for not being able to talk to me, I deserved to have some fun, but now it's time to deal with the consequences.