Leaving Was The Only War I Won Novels & Stories

The first month after I left, I went to a coastal city I had always dreamed of visiting to relax and heal. It was where I ran into my college senior, Theodore Ramsey. I didn't know anyone in the city, and my body was still weak from the abortion. That month, Theodore helped me a lot. I'd always been sensitive about feelings, and when I noticed the way he looked at me was more than just friendship, I chose to say goodbye and head to my next destination.

Upstairs the room was how I left it, almost untouched, my suitcase was already placed by the foot of the bed. The war was over, for now . I walked to the window and looked out into the darkness, somewhere in the darkness the world kept moving. I think either time for me to return back home. It time for me to start thinking about when I’m leaving not if I’m leaving. ♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

She turned and left, the door locking behind her. Her words echoed in Mia's head even as her breakfast cooled on the table. There are no winning sides in a war…

I met his eyes. “Together,” I said. “Or not at all.” The pack stirred. Murmurs rose. One voice cut through them all. “He died for her.” Another followed. “He chose her.” More joined. Louder. A shift. I felt it lock into place. Leadership. Not taken. Given. I looked down at Adrian one last time. “I won’t waste this,” I promised him. My voice carried. Steady. Unbreakable. “This war is over,” I said. “One way or another.”

Ever since I was brought back to the Colonna Famiglia, my adopted younger sister, Ilaria Colonna, has kept trying to push me into the arms of Luca Balzano, Don of the Balzano Famiglia. 99 times, to be exact. Every single time, she chokes out the same words to him. "The true Principessa of the Colonna Famiglia is the one you're supposed to marry. I'm nothing but an adopted daughter." She dumps every piece of jewelry Luca gives her into my room and keeps arranging opportunities for the two of us to be alone. She even drugs us both and locks us in a room together. Yet every single time, Luca pushes me away, choosing to spend the entire night soaking in ice-cold water rather than lay a finge

I go to war and I come back, I imagine someone looking me in the eyes and telling me that I did it, I won the battle. But when I remember I'm alone, I sit in my room and console myself, and I tell myself that I am great. I don't want to tell myself I am great, I want some one to tell it right on my face. I want some one who will tell me what's wrong and what's right, and I found this one person. Why? Why would you want me to walk away from your life after every thing?

I looked at her, the woman who had shattered my world and, in the process, made it whole. I was no longer the machine that had learned to feel. I was the man who had finally realized that the only way to win the war was to fight it with everything I had—everything I was. And as the limousine turned onto the main thoroughfare, the silhouette of the Glass Pavilion rising against the night sky, I knew—in the deepest, most certain part of my soul—that tomorrow, the world would see exactly who we were. The game was over. The Shadow Play was reaching its climax.