Chapter four

ELENA’S POV

The second Valentina finished telling me about her wedding plans, my phone buzzed in my lap.

It was a notice from my bank. The whole two hundred thousand dollars had just hit my account. Just beneath the bank alert was a text message from Valentina.”I paid you in full, Elena!Thanks for the great photos of me and my fiancé kissing. I cannot wait to print them and show Matteo how beautifully you captured our love.”

I stared at the bright screen with only cold relief. I wrote a simple one-word reply: "Received."

I pulled out my banking app and quickly transferred the payment to my main savings account. The last number on the screen updated. Three million dollars. I had finally reached my goal. I had every cent I needed to pay back the Romano family for everything they had paid for me in the last decade. A private, small smile flickered across my lips. I slipped away from the dinner table, went upstairs to change into a plain black dress and went out for farewell drinks with my best friends before I left.

The bar downtown was packed and noisy as I slid into the booth opposite my friends, Maya and Chloe. They were the only two people on earth that knew the truth about my secret relationship with my step brother.

“So how's packing coming?" Maya sipped her drink and said, " It's going to be ten days so quickly!”

“It’s going well,” I said, leaning over the table so they could hear me above the music. But I’ve got to tell you guys something important. I won't be in Florence for just a semester. I enrolled in the three-year course. I probably will never live here again."

Chloe's eyes went wide as she nearly choked on her cocktail.

 "Three years? Elena, you must be joking! So what does that mean for you and for Matteo?Yeah," Maya said, looking worried. 

"I thought you two secretly in love."What if he finds out you're leaving for good?" 

"“Nothing’s happening,” I said, and tried to keep it light and easy. “I’m so done with him. We’re done.”

My friends shot each other a quick, doubtful look across the table. They could feel very strongly that I was not telling them the whole truth.

"You're really over him, Elena?" 

“Chloe,” she said softly, reaching across the table to squeeze my hand. “You've been sneaking around for four years. You can tell us if you're hurting."I pasted a bright smile on my face. 

"I'm fine, honest." I was lying. "I need a new beginning. New country. New school. New life.”

Maya smiled back, not pressing me any further. “Well, if you want to start fresh, Italy is definitely the place to be! Elena, whatever you have to do, we support you.And what about all the beautiful Italian men in Florence!”

“Oh, absolutely!” Chloe laughed out loud, raising her glass. "You are going to find a handsome guy with a cute accent in your very first week there! Promise us you'll video call non-stop when you get settled into your new apartment.”

“I promise I’ll call you guys every week,” I laughed, clinking my glass against theirs. Their light-hearted encouragement lifted my spirits, made my chest feel lighter than it had in months. Sitting there with them made me want to go forward and never look back.

In the next few days Matteo vanished from the house completely, leaving early in the morning and returning late at night. I used the time to pack my suitcases and prepare for one last important task before I left the country. I was going to move my late father’s ashes to a new and permanent reburial plot at the cemetery across town.

My car wouldn’t start the morning of the appointment. I had to ask for a lift and Uncle Marco told Matteo to drive me. I sat in the passenger seat, clutching my father's heavy stone urn in my lap. But rather than heading straight to the cemetery, Matteo took a sharp turn downtown and stopped outside an exclusive coffee shop.

The passenger door opened and Valentina got in the front, so I had to get out and get in the back seat.

"What is she doing here?Why would you bring an outsider to my father’s private reburial?” I asked, completely surprised.

“Matteo asked me!” Valentina happily fastened her seatbelt. "Plans downtown this afternoon so I'm just tagging along for the ride!

I looked in the rearview mirror at Matteo, my chest tight with anger. I bit my tongue and kept my frustration in, I didn't want to waste my time arguing with him when I needed to get to the cemetery on time.

At the quiet graveyard I got out of the car and walked up the stone steps alone with the heavy urn. Matteo and Valentina were a few steps behind. We reached the peaceful green hill where my father's new plot was waiting, when Matteo's phone rang loudly in his pocket.Matteo stopped on the stone path. 

“I have to take this call for work.Go on without me. I'll be right over."

He turned and headed back to the parking lot to talk. I stepped forward to put down the urn, but Valentina suddenly stepped in front of me, blocking me.

“Get out of my way, Valentina,” I said softly.

She laughed at me, folding her arms over her expensive coat. 

'You look so sad, Elena.You really think Matteo came here today to support you? The only reason he said yes to drive you is because he promised to take me to the beach to watch the sunset tonight. Stopping at this dump of a cemetery was a convenience to our schedule.”

I paid no attention to her. My eyes were on the open grave, and I could see only my father, and the respect I owed him. Valentina was furious at my silence. She realized she couldn't get a reaction out of me and got angry, her face turning red.

"Don't leave me!" she said sharply.

Before I could get around her, she reached out and snatched the heavy stone urn from my hands and threw it down the concrete steps with all her might.“No!” I yelled.

The urn struck the hard stones with a loud crack and shattered into dozens of pieces. My father’s gray ashes fell over the steps. I dropped to my knees, stunned into shock, clawing at concrete with my hands, trying to get what I could. But before I could even get a handful, a strong gust of wind came across the hill and caught the rest and blew them off into the air completely.

My father was gone in an instant.

An overwhelming wave of grief and pure rage burst in my chest. I clambered up, went across to Valentina and slapped her as hard as I could in the face. The sharp sound reverberated through the empty graveyard.

Valentina gasped, her hand flying to her red cheek. I saw Matteo running back up the stone path towards us, out of the corner of my eye, startled by the noise. Valentina saw Matteo coming and her eyes sparkled with calculation. She deliberately flung herself backwards down the concrete steps, to fake a terrible fall. 

"Ahhh! "My leg!" she shrieked, falling down the bottom of the stairs and bursting into noisy tears.

Matteo came running, his face pale with panic. He didn't look at the smashed urn, or the empty stones. All he saw was Valentina crying on the ground, with a red mark on her cheek and her hand on her leg.

“What the hell have you done?" Matteo yelled and looked over at me, glaring. He didn't ask what happened, he immediately accused me.

 “Did you push her down the stairs, Elena? Are you nuts?”

“Well ask your girlfriend what she actually did!" "I screamed back at him, my body shaking with rage and heartbreak. "Ask her what she just did to my father!”

Matteo knelt beside Valentina, who sobbed out loud, clutching his jacket tightly.

 “I am so sorry Matteo! It was an accident! I bumped into the stone jar and tipped the urn over by accident! I said I was sorry, but Elena went crazy and attacked me! In revenge she shoved me down the steps!" Her fake tears looked up at me and she cried “I know I made a mistake, Elena, but my leg is ruined! Even now we're!”

Matteo looked at the broken pieces of stone on the ground and then at Valentina crying in his arms. He seemed torn for a brief second, but then his face hardened. Her tears swayed him. He looked up at me and started to defend her.

“It was an accident, Elena,” Matteo said, his voice tight. "You didn't have to go and hit her over a mistake—" 

"Get out!I yelled as loud as I could, finger trembling at the parking lot. Get away from me! Just leave me alone!`

Suddenly he hesitated, looking at my tear-stained face uncertainly. But before he could say something more Valentina shouted louder and caught his neck.

“Matteo, take me to the car,” she moaned in pain. “I don't think I can walk. I think I might have broken my leg. It hurts so much!"

Matteo’s jaw clenched. No other word to me, he slid his arms under Valentina and lifted her bridal-style against his chest. He turned and carried her away towards the car, looking back at me one last time over his shoulder before leaving me completely alone on the cold stone steps with the ruins of my father's ashes