Chapter One-Zero-Nine: Choice

The cold air whips mercilessly around us, increasing by the second.

My tears, once warm, are now mercilessly freezing on my face.

Mum is the first to break the silence when she looks up to the sky. After wiping one last tear, she speaks in a voice so quiet that the wind could blow it away.

"If you leave this house to go back to him, I won't call you again, so don't you dare come back.”

With that, Mum wraps her shawl over her slender shoulders and retreats into the house without a sound.

“I am so-”

Elizabeth’s words don’t even have a chance to occupy my racing mind, so I don’t hear what she says even though I can see her lips moving.

Tired of watching but not understanding her, my hands fly to my face to muffle the sound of my cries.

Mum always has a way of tearing one down; I guess that’s just a mother’s superpower.

In less than thirty minutes of our meeting, she has managed to bring to light every insecurity and fear I have about my relationship with Matteo.

I told Matteo that I came