I Was His Precious Until She Came Back Chapter 09
Whenever that happened, Victor and Nico turned deathly pale.
Sometimes I caught them clinging to each other and weeping whenever they believed I was asleep.
I hurried to wipe their tears and searched for the simple words that might finally ease their pain
“Don’t cry, because Lucia will die as promised and grant her brothers’ wish for Clara.”
“Please don’t cry, Victor. Don’t cry, Nico.”
Why did my brothers keep crying?
What did Lucia have to do to make them happy?
After I called Matteo’s name in my sleep for the ninth time, they allowed him to visit.
Seeing him carried me straight back to the storm that had changed our home.
I remembered Matteo telling me:
“Lucia, Amelia was my childhood sweetheart. I couldn’t betray her.”
I remembered the marks on Amelia’s neck and the cup of hot water she had thrown.
If Lucia could be generous with her brothers, she could be generous with Matteo.
If I no longer minded Clara, then true generosity meant making room for Amelia as well.
So I told Matteo:
“Matteo, you found a new family too!”
“My brothers found me, so you and I can’t be family anymore.”
Matteo collapsed beside my wheelchair and wrapped his arms around me, his voice frantic and pleading.
“We can. We can still be family.”
“I was wrong, Lucia. Matteo was wrong.”
“I shouldn’t have made you apologize, hit you, or deceived you into signing the divorce papers. I shouldn’t have…”
By the end, he could barely speak through his sobs.
“I corrected you 9,999 times before you finally learned not to apologize.”
“It took me six years to teach you to pout and ask for things sometimes.”
“In that basement apartment, I promised I would protect you for the rest of my life.”
Matteo cried until each breath became ragged and frightening, and the doctor led him away.
I wanted to follow because I was worried, but Victor and Nico stopped me.
They said Amelia would care for Matteo, so I stopped worrying.
My mind became foggier, even a few bites of food became impossible, and I slept far more than
woke.
Then one day, I woke with an unexpected clarity and almost no pain.
I told Victor and Nico I wanted to see the ocean.
The sunrise was beautiful, and the beach looked soft, though my wheelchair kept me from feeling
the sand.
The wind carried the clean, salty taste of the ocean but lacked the bitterness of tears.
I pushed myself upright and watched seagulls pass overhead.
Then I looked at Victor and Nico beside my chair.
“If there is another life…”
“Lucia doesn’t want to be your Clara again.”
My brothers were wonderful, yet I always made them cry.
Without a troublesome sister like Lucia, my brothers would surely be happy.
Darkness swallowed my thoughts, my body became weightless, and my perspective seemed to
shift.
My body slid from the wheelchair until Nico caught it in terror.
“Lucia, don’t do this or scare us when you know Nico has always been the coward.”
Victor’s and Nico’s tears fell hot and helpless across my cooling face.
