Novel & Cerita Vulnerable Hearts

It feels like death, just the same as bereavement and in quiet moments, it chokes my breath. Only Marvis whom I loved so much could be my assassin. It takes an inside job to attack one so resilient to emotional injury. That is my heartbreak. My heart has been shattered to millions of pieces that I don't even know how to pick and gather them so I can mend it.

I tried to touch his cheek but he slapped my hand away making me tear up. He placed my hand on his heart "Do you know how much hurt you have caused this?" he pointed to his heart. He chuckled "Of course you wouldn't know as you are too busy letting other men in between your legs" he spat with disgust. I stood there too shocked to say anything.

Mamá and Javier came over to me; Javier was bleeding from his mouth yet remained standing between me and the altar as if he could protect me from the apocalypse. “Flee mija " he croaked. “No " I replied. "We finish this as one.” Marco knelt in the middle of the golden fault lines his hands pressed flat against the ground blood streaming, from his eyes gold code flowing out rapidly than his body could produce it. “I can’t keep the patch on any further " he yelled. "The heart is resisting. It’s attempting to restart the bloodstream!” The scarlet heart perched over the altar pulsated once—BOOM—and all remaining reflections collapsed onto their knees heads lowered, as if in reverence.

He grabbed my wrist tightly, “You can’t start a new relationship on a whim! Come with me!” Godden sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, stretching our shadows across the floor. I pinned his hand down, trying to break free from his crushing grip. I stared at him with a terrifying calmness, “Vittorio, you are always so confident. But, how come you don't get that my heart was broken into a million pieces? It will never be fixed. Not ever.”

I walk straight into the heart of his attack. The pain is instantaneous and absolute. It is every doubt, every fear, every jealous thought, magnified a thousand times and poured directly into my soul. I feel like I am being flayed alive from the inside out. I don’t cry out. I keep walking. My eyes are locked on the core of his presence, a raging, wounded star of fury and pain. I see the moment he understands. The spear of venom wavers. The rage in his eyes fractures, replaced by a dawning, horrific comprehension. He sees what I am doing. He sees the absolute, trusting vulnerability. The love that is willing to be destroyed to prove its own existence.

A life is at stake here! His words left me dumbfounded and hurting, like I had my heart gouged out too. I held Stan's photo tightly against myself, but no matter how hard I gripped it, it wasn't filling the hole in my chest. "A life is at stake?" I laughed wryly, before snapping coldly, "When he just went missing for hours?! My dear Stan had an accident and then got his heart taken away! So I guess some lives are more at stake than the others?!"

I promise to build a home with you, not a fortress. Tomorrow is not the end of our story. It’s the beginning of the part where we stop fighting the world alone. I love you. Arielle --- Damian’s vision blurred. He pressed the letter to his chest, breath catching, not painfully, but fully, like lungs learning new capacity. This was what terror felt like when it was paired with hope. This was vulnerability without armor. He lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling, the room too quiet without her presence. The clock ticked with obscene volume.

I deepened the kiss, molding my mouth to his, praying he would just let the anger go and give in to the fire. In truth, I was terrified. My heart was lurching in my chest like a dying bird. If he pushed me away this time, if he rejected me while I was this vulnerable, I knew I would truly break. The fragments of Ophelia Vitale would never be put back together again. But he didn't push me away.

The harsh fluorescent lights of the hospital room bore into my eyes, amplifying the throbbing in my head. The antiseptic smell burns my nostrils, a sickening reminder of where I am and why. My body aches, each movement sending sharp pains through my bruised ribs, but it's nothing compared to the agony in my heart as I wait for news about Naomi.