Chapter Fifty-One

Luca and I spent the whole day together.

He ditched work to spend time with me and make me more comfortable in his house. Words can't express how this makes me feel. He's so thoughtful, and every sweet gesture threatens to rip me apart and put me back together. I'm not used to being treated this way. Luca makes me feel like I'm important. Like I matter. And although I can't say that I was constantly humiliated or degraded, I most certainly wasn't treated like this.

He showed me the spots he loves most about his house. He grew up here, and so he has many fond memories of his youth. I deduced from his talks that he and Miguel are quite close. It reminds me of Mary and I once upon a time. We truly were close. Some of my friends from school back in the day said our relationship wasn't normal. Siblings fought all of the time. I once heard someone say that if siblings hadn't threatened each other with knives at some point in their lives, they weren't truly siblings. To me, threatening Mar