A N D R E A 

Something was wrong.

I couldn't feel Lorenzo's warm body around me. It wasn't that it was unusual for him to wake up before me. It was just that whenever I'd woken up in the middle of the night, he'd been here. And since he'd spent the better part of tonight buried inside me, I would expect that he'd be here.

I sat up against the headboard, only to realize it wasn't the same room I'd gone to sleep in. Somehow I was back in the hell I'd escaped from, and I was alone. Sure, it wasn't hell in a conventional way. I had food, and a warm bed to sleep in, except I could never be sure of Carlo's intentions.

One minute he was my friend, asking for forgiveness, the next minute he was begging me to love him, only to get angry when the reality washed over him. I was almost certain I had splintered glass in my veins because everything hurt and made me bleed in ways no one would see.

That was the least of my worries right now though.

I didn't know how I got here but I knew I had to get out. So I did what I knew best, rushed out of the bed I'd been in, and walked towards the room opposite the one I was in. My heart stilled as a chill passed through my spine when I heard Carlo's soft snores.

I didn't understand what was happening. It was all like looking at broken mirrors, each one showing a new fractured image of what was supposed to be my reality.

I rushed downstairs to find the cash and keys I'd saved up, sighing in relief to find them still there.

I was almost out to the car when a hand caught in my hair and pushed me back towards the house I'd just walked out of. I was pushed forward and I stumbled, falling down on my face. Something nipped my side and I squeezed my lips shit in hopes of not screaming and alerting Carlo of the only arsenal I had. Carlo didn't notice the bleeding as he got in my face, suddenly taller than he was.

"What have I not done for you, Andrea?" He hissed, the alcohol on his breath apparent as I turned my face away from him. "I told you the last time, you can't get out of this alive. Do you think that fucking husband of yours will believe you? It was your face he saw before he dropped down."

I closed my eyes, reassuring myself that it wasn't the time for me to let Carlo get inside my head. If Lorenzo wanted to punish me for what I'd done, I'd take it, but even I knew better than to think he would kill me without a second thought because Lorenzo Santini was many things, impulsive he was not.

"Answer. Me" Carlo spat in my face, his fingers digging into my jaw as he forced me to look at him.

"Whatever he does to me is none of your business," I whispered, my voice too low for him to feel the bark in my words.

"Andrea you're pushing me. I'm making enemies here trying to keep you safe!" I flinched as he screamed, and tried getting away, but his hold on me kept me pinned to the wall. "You know what? I'm done. I warned you the last time I caught you. If you try to run, I am done with you."

My eyes widened, surely, he couldn't mean he was killing me after keeping me alive for all this time. My vision blacked out as he pulled me up with my hair and tugged me up the stairs with him. I felt every single step settle in the pit of my stomach with e deep feeling of dread that I just couldn't shake. Unable to help myself, I gasped when my toe hit the edge of the staircase as he kept walking up, uncaring that he was hurting me.

Once he'd reached his room, he lurched me forward and began rummaging through his closet, Shivers passes through me as taking a breath became laborious and my vision started failing me. I was certain I'd fall to my death right in this room when the throbbing pain in my side became impossible to ignore and I reached for it, only to realize it was a knife. Now with a weapon in hand, I rushed towards Carlo with newfound zeal, all of the aches and protests of my muscles long forgotten as I rammed the knife into his back, and twisted.

And twisted.

I didn't stop when he fell to the ground. The pool of blood I was now sitting in also didn't stop me. I just kept going until my hands gave up on me, and I could no longer hold the knife. I wiped the back of my mouth with my bloody hands before pushing off him and turning him around.

Except it wasn't Carlo. The man I'd just killed was my husband.

I pushed back, away from the lifeless, bleeding body of Lorenzo as a scream I'd never heard took over my senses. It was impossible, outlandish even.

The truth hit me like a million skyscrapers falling all over my head, I couldn't have killed Lorenzo.

I–

My eyes shot open as I sat up with a start, frantically searching for Lorenzo. I sighed in relief when my eyes met his icy gaze and I wrapped my hands around him, and buried my head in his chest, unable to help my tears. Lorenzo stiffened before his hand came around the back of my neck as he moved us so I was straddling him. His other hand was tangled in my hair, anchoring me to reality, away from the haunted, twisted realities my brain had conjured.

In his arms, my fears faded like a mirage as a new illusion started taking shape. I knew better than to believe it but it was the only thread tying me to reality.

"Andrea."

I mumbled what I was sure was something intelligible, but seemingly Lorenzo was having none of it.

"We need to talk." He pulled away from me, breaking the bubble I'd built for myself. Lorenzo cupped my face in his palms, his tumultuous gaze reflecting the chaos in mine, "You need to tell me about your nightmares."

His words left no room for debate, but I'd wanted to hold on to my sanity for a bit. I didn't know what voicing the demons inside my head would do to me.

"It's not important."

"It is if they affect you so much that you can't even sleep for one night."

His words made me still. What had he heard? How much did he know? I was lost in my thoughts when Lorenzo moved his thumb to my lips, tracing them softly. "I do want to believe your innocence isn't a facade." He sighed, "And I am trying to protect you, but tell me, Andrea, have I been sleeping with a liar?"

Only he could deliver the deadliest poison so softly that I would drink it straight from his lips. I knew I had to tell him, it was naive of me to expect his trust when I wasn't doing the same.

"What do you need to know about my nightmares?"

"For starters, what are they about?"

"I—" I swallowed, flinching when the memory of him covered in blood assaulted my senses.

 "They're about you." I looked at him from under my eyelashes, unsurprised to find him stoic, "You die in them. I kill you."

I could feel his muscles tighten up underneath me, "Fitting."

His words were vicious, but his eyes betrayed the hate in his words. I knew there was something more than indifference swimming in them, but I couldn't tell what was it drowning me this time in his gaze.

I finally managed to find my voice, "What—"

Lorenzo didn't let me ask my question, countering with another one of his own, "Why do you think you see that?"

"Seriously?" I tilted my neck to stare him down, my temper flaring at his feigned ignorance. He matched my stare with one of his own, his brow raised in challenge.

"Answer the question, Andrea."

"Fine." I huffed, deciding to take the band-aid off. He'd doused me in flames countless times, might as well tell him why he didn't even have to light a match. "Because I can't bear the thought of something happening to you, let alone because of me."

His eyes narrowed and I was sure he was going to throw more poison at me or ask me why. I would have told him why my heart stopped at the mere idea of something happening to him. 

Right then, I would've told him anything. But he decided to change the topic altogether. I should've known better, ignorance was Lorenzo's preferred medium when it came to dealing with feelings.

"Andrea," Lorenzo murmured, drawing my attention back to him, and this time, the darkness on his face would've scared me if the ecstasy from seeing him in front of me hadn't left my bloodstream. "I need you to be honest with me."

He exhaled, his eyes falling close for a second before he opened them again, holding me captive in the depths of the secrets surrounding us, as his forehead touched mine, "I need to know if..." he fell silent, weighing his words, "the motherfucker touched you."

I would've laughed at his avoidance of Carlo's name had the raging storm inside me not incapacitated me.

"Not like that." I swallowed, debating how much to tell him, before deciding to be honest and putting all my cards out on the table. 

If he was going to break my heart, he might as well do it with all the ammunition in his hands. "He just tried kissing me... otherwise he was just obsessed with making me love him..." I looked away from his face, and stared at the lonely tattoo on his chest, perfectly representative of my husband.

"And how did he try making you love him?" Lorenzo's anger was thinly laced in his words. So subtle, it was almost like a ghost. There, but not quite.

"He thought he could do that by being nice to me."

"Nice." Like the word had wronged him, "and why didn't you?"

"Because there's only one person my heart beats for. It's not Carlo." I wished he'd ask who so I could get this off my chest once and for all. But Lorenzo was nothing if not artful with his line of questioning.

He could dance around the truths he didn't want for hours, uncaring that his coldness was slowly lowering a knife in my heart.

"So if he never harmed me, why'd you try to kill him?" Lorenzo's hand moved to my throat, his fingers tightening around me, just enough to force my widened eyes on him.

"He had his moments of violence, and I truly thought he was going to harm Rick." I blinked the tears that'd collected in my eyes, clearing my glassy vision, "He used to use them as bargaining chips. It wasn't that I didn't try running earlier, or protest, but I learned in time to pick my battles wisely." I swallowed, "Carlo had a gilded cage for me, so you tell me, Lorenzo, is it wrong that I ran when I knew you were alive? When my guilt wasn't killing me every waking moment? Is it blameworthy if I couldn't escape the ghosts that haunted me until I knew you were okay?"

Lorenzo's eyes narrowed before his grip around my throat loosened and he reached up to wipe my tears with his fingers. "My family would have helped you."

"I thought they hated me. Like you."

Lorenzo dropped his head against the headboard, pinching the bridge of his nose as his other hand fell to my lower back, holding me steady on his lap.

"I should."

"What?"

"I should hate you." Lorenzo chuckled more to himself than to me, "fuck, I've never tried to do something more, but you're the one war I keep on losing."

I didn't know what possessed me to cup his face between my palms and press my lips against his, but I did it anyway, "It's only fair since I surrendered to you long ago."

My heart was racing, but this time, with something else altogether that had nothing to do with the foreboding that seemed to have settled eternally into the marrow of my bones. It was something different, something much more carefree and deep that I feared its absence might as well kill me. The air was heavy with the unsaid words between us, yet there was this awareness that was intelligible to both of us. It sunk into my heart as my flesh lit up with something uncharted but oddly familiar.

"What are you planning to do with Carlo?" I whispered, unable to help myself.

"Finish what you started." I opened my mouth to argue before he covered my lips with his fingers, "Go to sleep, mia cara. You've had enough for tonight."

I wanted to fight him for answers, but there was something I wanted more than that.

"Will you hold me?"

"Andrea."

"Just until I fall asleep." I added, "Please."

Lorenzo nodded stiffly before adjusting us so my head was against his chest, his steady heartbeat, a something lullaby for me. There was still so much uncertainty, so many dangers lurking right outside the door, but for this one night, I would let myself breathe a little without the fear of having it choked out of me.

* * *

Sooo... what do you think?

Any thoughts, or theories?

My semester is coming to a close so the workload is a little intensive right now. I'm truly sorry for the slow updates, but it's the pace I can go at for now. Also to make it up to you, I have some exciting announcements. As some of you already know next up after Lorenzo and Andrea is Alexandra AND this other surprise book whose characters refuse to leave me alone. Hopefully, that's the case when I get to writing it in the summer. If you have any theories about that and Alexandra, my messages (here and on Instagram) are always open for you!

Thank you so much for reading! Please vote and comment if you enjoyed!

I absolutely adore jlou_723 and her works! She's truly awesome, and the most versatile author I know! From a sweet romance to action-romance, there isn't quite anything that she can not write brilliantly. And so much drama, I swear she blows my mind each time!  The way her characters develop, I'm always left wanting more and more of them. If you're a lover of (no-so-cliche) high-school romance books, The Test Of Time is definitely for you, what's best is that its a trilogy in one book! And Brett and Sav grew a lot more than just in ages. From a stereotypical  highschool badboy to an actual grown ass man who wasn't toxic! I LOVED how it progressed! Tethered North, where do I even start, that story is fucking amazing! I absolutely can NOT get enough of Zac and Emilia, I think I have a soft-spot for Zac, he's growing on me Jess! Plus all your cliffhangers they *almost* make my heart stop! 

I'll stop fangirling now, but you should get the idea, on top of that jlou is one of the most kindest people I know on Wattpad, I am so happy I got to know and befriend her! Trust me, you do NOT want to miss out on all she has instore!

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