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Home / After I Died, My Fiancé Went Mad / Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

All Chapters of After I Died, My Fiancé Went Mad: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

18 Chapters

Chapter 1

When Luca came home, it was already one in the morning.I sat in the living room waiting for him. The steak on the table had gone cold, and the candles had nearly burned down.Today was our tenth year together.Before he left that morning, he had promised me he would be back by eight.I had waited five hours."Why are you still up?" He took off his coat and came over to me. "Is the leg hurting again?"I didn't answer.He bent to lift me, meaning to move me from the sofa to the wheelchair. A faint scent of roses drifted from his collar.Not my perfume.I saw a lipstick mark on his white shirt."Did Victoria kiss you?" I asked outright.Luca looked down, and his face changed."The reception was crowded. She'd had too much to drink and stumbled into me. It was only a brush.""Why didn't you push her away?""Eve, I've been in meetings for over ten hours today, and two men died at the port. I didn't notice."He lifted me into the wheelchair anyway, then crouched to help me into my slippers.

Chapter 2

Luca and I had known each other since we were children.My father was a cook at an Italian restaurant, and his was the most insignificant driver in the Moretti family. We lived in the same old apartment building on Chicago's South Side.As a boy, he was always fighting.Once, to get back my dance shoes after someone threw them in a ditch, he was beaten bloody by three boys taller than he was.I cried as I cleaned his cuts.He said, "Don't cry. As long as I'm around, no one gets to bully you."At eighteen, I got into ballet school. Luca didn't go to college. He hauled cargo at the docks with a relative.He worked by day and came to pick me up after class at night. In winter, when it was too cold, he tucked my dance shoes inside his coat to warm them.At twenty-two, we were officially together.By then he wanted to break away from the Moretti family and start a legitimate shipping company of his own. No one would lend him money. I sold the necklace my mother had left me and gave him ever

Chapter 3

That evening, Luca came home early.He saw the necklace box on the floor, and my untouched dinner."Victoria was here?""She was.""She said you hit her."I looked at him. "You're here to take her side?""No. I want to know what happened.""She said the two of you were in a hotel room for two hours."Luca frowned. "She kept watch at the door while I met a witness inside. It involves the family. I can't tell you.""Why can she know?""Because she's my lawyer.""And because she doesn't hold you back. Right?"He fell silent.I knew I had hit the mark.Luca was exhausted. His eyes were bloodshot, stubble had grown on his jaw, and there was a fresh cut on the web of his right hand.Before, when he was hurt, I would tend to it. Now I needed someone's help just to get from the sofa to the medicine cabinet."Eve, I have never once thought you held me back," he said."Then why don't you tell me anything?""Because I don't want you touching any of this.""But you're willing to let Victoria touch

Chapter 4

A week later, I asked to move to St. Alban's sanatorium.Luca refused."There's a doctor at home, and a caregiver. Why do you insist on leaving?""Because I don't want to wait for you to come home every day.""I can go in to the company less.""You can't.""I can.""Something happened at the port last night, and you were gone in half an hour. Luca, you have hundreds of people to feed and a whole family to run. You can't stay here and look after me forever."He gripped the armrest of the wheelchair and said quietly, "I can arrange it.""I don't need you to arrange anything. I just want peace."He looked at me for a long time, and finally agreed.On the day I moved, he packed my clothes himself. My dance shoes were still on the top shelf of the closet. He took them down, wiped them, and put them in the suitcase."Take them," he said. "When you're a little better, we'll try a new rehab program."I didn't tell him there was no getting better for me.St. Alban's stood on the shore of Lake M

Chapter 5

Luca came every Friday.He brought me food, walked with me in the garden, and sometimes worked in my room.I was cold to him.For every ten things he said, I answered one or two. When my legs hurt, I no longer let him touch me.I had to make him get used to being without me.But Victoria came more often than he did.The first time, she brought photographs from a New York charity gala. In them, she and Luca walked the red carpet together.The second time, she wore the emerald ring and said Luca had reached an agreement with her father.The third time, she brought a brochure for a wedding venue and asked me what color Luca liked."Why do you keep coming to see me?" I asked."Because you're still in his heart." She said it bluntly. "As long as you're here, he'll never truly accept me.""Then you haven't got what it takes."She smiled a little."At least I can stand beside him. Can you?"She suddenly yanked my wheelchair backward.The glass in my hand fell to the floor, and I nearly tipped

Chapter 6

I had a lawyer draw up a separation agreement.The house, the company shares, and everything Luca had given me over the years, I didn't want any of it. I took back only the old photographs my mother had left me, and the pair of dance shoes I could never wear again.When Luca saw the agreement, he threw it straight into the trash."I won't sign.""We were never married. It makes no difference whether you sign.""Then why prepare this at all?""Because I want you to understand that I don't want you anymore."He stood by the bed, and the look on his face was terrible."Eve, look at me and say it again."I raised my head."I don't want you anymore."His eyes went red, but he didn't lose his temper."Is it because of Victoria?""No. It's because I've had enough of you.""You're lying.""I used to think you'd love me forever. Now every time I see you, all I think about is why I ended up like this."It was a cruel thing to say.Since the accident, Luca had believed he was the one who had ruin

Chapter 7

In my third week at the sanatorium, I dreamed of the explosion.Three years earlier, Luca had just taken over the Moretti family. Several of the uncles refused to accept him. In secret they moved a shipment of arms into the South Harbor warehouse, then sold the information to a rival family.I had a performance that day. Ten minutes before I went on, I got a voice message from Luca. He said there was trouble at the warehouse, and told me to go straight home after the show.Gunshots erupted in the background.I didn't go on stage. I drove to South Harbor. The warehouse was engulfed in fire, and the bodyguards held me back, saying Luca was still inside.I ran in through a side door and found him on the second floor. He had been shot in the leg, and a worker was pinned beside him. Together we dragged the worker to the top of the stairs, and then the ceiling began to come down.Luca told me to go first.I saw a steel beam falling and shoved him aside without thinking.When I woke, I was in

Chapter 8

After that day, Luca didn't come into the room, but he still had things delivered every day.Hot coffee in the morning, soup from my father's restaurant at noon, and a very short note in the evening. Sometimes "remember your pills," sometimes "it's snowing today, stay out of the garden."I sent everything back. The notes I secretly kept in the drawer.When Victoria found them, she took the notes out one by one."You say you don't want him, and you can't bring yourself to throw away a single one.""Put them back."She tore them up in front of me.I lunged to grab them, and the wheelchair struck the corner of the table. She watched me bend to pick up the scraps and didn't help."Luca is only doing his duty. Don't mistake duty for love."I picked the pieces up one by one, and the edges of the paper cut my fingers.That night, I taped the notes back together. The words wouldn't piece back together, but I still put them back in the drawer.I knew how pathetic I was. I had decided to leave,

Chapter 9

On my birthday, Luca didn't come.The nurse wheeled in a very large cake, sent by an anonymous guest. On top was a white swan in a tutu, and beside it the words: For my bravest girl.Only Luca would say that.When we were children, he encouraged me that way before every performance.I had the nurse share the cake among the other patients and kept only a small piece for myself.That night, a single headlight burned in the parking lot below. Luca sat in his car and didn't come up.I sent him a message: The cake was awful. Don't send any more.He replied at once: Next year, a different bakery.I looked at the words "next year" and cried for a long time.I had no next year.A few minutes later, another message: Happy birthday, Eve. I love you.I deleted the conversation and didn't reply.The next day, Victoria told me Luca had stayed in the parking lot until four in the morning."It's ugly, the way you torture him.""That's between him and me.""Not for much longer. Once you're dead, he'll

Chapter 10

The day before the fight, Luca had taken me to the sanatorium's small chapel.No one else was there. The speakers played music from my old performances."Why bring me here?""The doctor says you've been refusing rehab."He carried me to the practice barre and held my waist with both hands."Try standing. I won't let go."I knew I couldn't stand, but I went along with him and braced against the barre. There was no strength in my legs at all. My whole body hung on his arms.In the mirror, we looked like we were dancing something very slow."Remember the first time we rehearsed a dance?" he asked."You stepped on me eight times.""Not this time."He moved me half a step. Sweat broke out from the pain, and I didn't tell him to stop.After barely a minute, I couldn't hold on. Luca caught me at once and knelt so I could lean against him."That was already good," he said."Don't lie to me.""I'm not."He bent and kissed my forehead.I very nearly kissed him back.At the chapel door, Victoria

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