FLASHBACK (6 years ago)

"I love you Alie," Adriano said kneeling down on one knee, holding a diamond ring in his hand and looking so gorgeous. Those grey eyes shone and looked at me with so much love in them. I couldn't look away from them. They were mesmerizing.

"I love you too Adri" I smiled, which made him smile too. My eyes watered, overwhelmed by everything happening around me. He slid the ring into my finger, stood up towering over me, and kissed me softly yet passionately, expressing all his feelings towards me while holding me tight in his arms. The kiss was soft, which sent butterflies in my stomach. I could feel all his emotions but the most powerful was love.

Everyone clapped their hands for us. I turned, still in his arms while smiling widely, to look at my parents. Mom was leaning on dad wiping away her tears and dad had a soft smile on his face and a few tears in his eyes which he was trying to blink back. Jane had a huge smile on her face with a glass of wine in her hand and when my eyes met hers, she winked which made me chuckle. Jake was jumping up and down, chocolate was all around his mouth and he was still eating one. He looked adorable. Grams was whistling. I rolled my eyes at her playfully. My typical overdramatic grandmother. Mr. and Mrs. Angelo, more like my soon-to-be dad and mom were also clapping while smiling brightly at us. Aunt Melissa and her daughters were trying to hide their scowls and clapping as if they were forced to do so but that was the last thing I cared about. Right now I was so happy and lucky. I turned my head to look back at the man I fell in love with and be safe in his arms. He looked at me with those beautiful grey eyes and kissed my forehead gently.

"You are mine" I whispered.

He chuckled lightly and dipped his head towards me "I am yours." He said kissing me passionately.

Little did I know this wasn't going to last long. Everything was going to change soon.

******

I just woke from another nightmare. My throat was dry and my bottle was empty, so I decided to walk toward the kitchen to grab some water. When I was almost about to reach the kitchen, I stopped in my tracks as I suddenly remembered that I left my robe in my room. I was only in my pink spaghetti strap crop top and white pj's. My arms, legs, and back were exposed. My brain was filled with questions. What if someone sees me? Should I go back to my room to grab my robe, I am almost near the kitchen and it's already 3 in the morning, everyone would be asleep. I sighed, it wouldn't take me long, so I decided to quickly go to the kitchen, grab a water bottle and run back towards my room. I opened the fridge and took a bottle out from it. I was about to close the fridge when suddenly the lights were switched on. I panicked, my eyes widened and I turned swiftly.

The entire color from my face got drained when I saw the person who was standing in front of me.

"Adriano" I whispered.

He was wearing a translucent white t-shirt and black joggers. His exposed right hand had a tattoo of a snake, a black king cobra with gold, red and white accents, crawling up towards his neck from his fingers, where it curved to cover the left side of his neck, its mouth wide open as if it was going to eat his prey while showing off his canines and the venomous tongue. My eyes traveled from his tattoo toward his face. His eyes raked my body and landed on the marks. His eyes widened for a second and a scowl made its way to his face. Then I saw his jaw clenched and fists balled.

"What are those marks?" he asked me in his thick Italian accent. His deep voice always sent shivers down my spine.

I held the bottle tightly near my chest as if it would cover me up and save me. I was so shocked that I couldn't even come up with an excuse or a sarcastic comment.

"N-Nothing" I cleared my throat and said again, trying not to stutter. "T-they are nothing" Bloody hell I still stuttered.

I need to go away from him or else he would not let go of this topic. I decided to ignore him and walk past him. I was about to walk away when he grabbed my arm and made me turn towards him. Our noses almost touched. His hot breath fanned my face. I lifted my head to look at him.

"Those are not nothing Alice! Those are marks you'd get from a leather belt or worse a fireplace poker" he spoke with his deep voice and looked at my scars, then looked back at me in the eye.

I didn't know what to say I just looked back at him. I wanted to break the eye contact but it was as if he had cast a spell on me. I was trying hard to mask my feelings but failed miserably. At this point, I was quite sure he could see everything in my eyes. Soon my eyes started watering remembering everything I went through these past 6 years. I tried to blink back my tears but his eyes were holding me captive and were stopping me from doing anything.

"Who did this to you Alie? What happened?" he said softly after seeing the hint of tears in my eyes. He lifted his hand and gently placed it on my right cheek while his thumb gently grazed my cheek. I didn't flinch at his gesture like I normally would.

No Alice you can't let this happen. You can't tell him the truth and you definitely can't lean on him. After all of this is over, you'll be left alone again as you've always been. You cannot drag him into your hell. He's a good man and the person who you love the most, you can't risk his life. My inner voice told me.
I jerked away from him and wriggled out of his hold. I pathetically tried to cover myself with my arms. It was almost laughable to watch me do this with the bottle in one hand, my other one barely covering anything but neither I nor he had any intentions of laughing.

"It is my problem Adriano, you shouldn't care. Stop meddling and being concerned over me. Neither of us has any right over each other to question anything. Goodnight." And with that, I moved past him. When I was out of his sight, I ran towards my room and locked it.

"He saw my scars. Oh my God! He saw them. Now what? He wouldn't leave this matter. What do I do now?" I kept on mumbling and curled up on my bed.

"Stupid Alice! Why did you forget your robe? It's your entire fault."

I kept on cursing myself. Sleep wasn't going to come to me tonight and for the entire night I kept on dreading what might happen tomorrow.