Chapter 27: 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟐𝟔

FINN

[Seven years old]

“Sarah!”

Sarah looks up from her place on the sofa as I enter the house and run towards her, throwing myself in her arms.

“Oh my God, Finn!”

A giggle leaves my mouth as Sarah quickly holds me and I wrap my arms around her neck in a tight hug.

Sarah doesn’t visit home often after she got married to a stupid giant man named Matteo. I hate him. He’s ugly. Bleh.

I kiss Sarah’s cheek before I pull away and sit beside her, “how long are you going to stay?” I ask, excitedly.

“One day.” She replies, taking off my bag.

My smile turns into a pout, “that’s not fair. You visit after months and only stay for a day,”

“I know but I have work too, Finn,” she says and kisses my cheeks, “I’m sorry,”

“I’ll forgive you if you stay a week,”

Her face turns into sadness, “I can’t,”

I sigh, “it’s fine. I’ll take you away when I get rich. Richer than your stupid husband.”

She chuckles, “really?”

“Yup! I’m the smartest in class anyways,” I say, proudly.

Sarah stays a lot more sad after she got married and I blame mom for it. She never considered Sarah’s feelings and forced her into a marriage with an idiot.

Sarah doesn’t even share if she’s happy or not, dad tried to ask her so many times after he failed to save her from getting married but she doesn’t open up and always tells us not to worry.

When I grow up and start earning, I’m going to take Sarah away from everyone here and move somewhere else- New York, where her friend Veronica lives.

Sarah will be happy there.

“I heard you got a complaint from school,”

I blink at her, “huh?”

“Finn.”

“What?”

“Did you say something to a girl that made her cry?”

I fold my arms and squint my eyes, trying to remember if I did that-

Oh.

“Um…”

“Finn.”

“I told her to stop being mean to her friend! It wasn’t anything rude,”

“How did you say it?”

“Stop being mean to her. You look mean to everyone,” I repeat the words I said to the girl, “then she left crying,”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have said the other sentence,”

“I only told the truth,” I smile at her, “anyways!” I stand on the couch, “we’re going to go outside and play today,”

“First, you need to eat,”

“Yes!” I jump off the couch. “Food!” I yell, throwing my arms up.

Sarah chuckles and ruffles my hair, standing up.

“Alright, what do you-” Sarah’s sentence gets cut off when she suddenly starts coughing.

She falls back on the couch, covering her cough with one hand and placing the other on her chest. Her face showing that she’s in pain.

Scared, I hurry to the kitchen and bring her a glass of water. After she calms down, she gives me her sweet smile and takes the glass.

“Thank you,” she whispers before she takes a sip of her water.

“Are you okay, Sarah?” I carefully ask, clutching her shirt.

“Yeah,”

“Don’t lie to me.”

She chuckles, “I’m fine, Finn.”

“But.. you were in pain. We should tell dad, he’ll take you to a doctor-”

“No, no. I’m fine.”

“But-”

“I’m fine and you need to eat.” She says and puts away her glass. She stands up again carefully, placing her hand on her chest then holds my hand, “lets go,”

I quietly let her lead me into the kitchen and keep praying that she’ll be okay.

She won’t leave me.

ᯓᡣ𐭩

[Present]

Sarah passed away in her sleep two days before her twentieth birthday.

We had made plans to go to New York to visit her friend and spend her birthday there. We wanted to go to the place we would move to as soon as I had gotten stable.

But she left before any of that could happen.

She wrote you a letter. She wanted me to give it to you when you would be old enough to understand…

My mother had trailed off after that. She didn’t know what to say.

Old enough to understand what? The hell she put Sarah through? How blinded she was to throw her into the hands of a man she barely knew and expected to live happily? The man she married was an asshole, part of the Cosa Nostra. Their lives revolved around danger and she threw her into their world without thinking twice.

I drag my hand across my face, releasing a heavy sigh.

I’m still at Bree’s apartment. After we finished hugging, I helped her clean her room then she started dozing off so I tucked her in and lay beside her, staring at the ceiling, replaying my childhood memories in my head.

I had never been able to talk about Sarah without feeling a part of me break down so I don’t do it. Even the guys don’t know everything about Sarah, I only ever shared that I had a sister that I lost to an illness and after confessing that, I had completely shut down.

But today, as soon as Bree engulfed me in her comfort, I wanted to tell her everything. My fears. My dreams. My hopes. My regrets. Everything that I had been carrying for so long.

But only a few things left my mouth.

“Mom..”

I turn my head towards Bree at the sound of her murmuring sleepy voice.

She’s talking in her sleep.

“Dad..”

I lay on my side and watch her peaceful beautiful face.

Bree sometimes talks in her sleep. Sometimes she’s apologizing to someone and sometimes she’s talking to her parents.

One time, she was telling her parents that her favorite cartoon character was her best friend.

Don’t tell her I know that.

“I..” she murmurs, “I have a boyfriend..”

A smile takes over my lips as she hums in her sleep.

God, she is so adorable.

I lift my hand and place it on her face, gently caressing her cheekbones with my thumb.

I don’t know how I survived these years without her. Now, I can’t get through my day until I’ve seen her and held her.

Bree slowly starts to wake up. She rubs her eyes then she looks at me.

She smiles, “hi,”

I smile back, “hi, amore,” I kiss her forehead, “how did you sleep?”

She hums, “good,” she places her hand on mine which is caressing her cheeks, “did you sleep?”

“If I had, I would’ve missed you telling your parents you have a boyfriend,”

Her smile widens, “I wish I could introduce you to them,”

“Really?”

She nods, “maybe then, we wouldn’t have to worry about Ryan.. mom would make him understand. Though, dad might take his side..”

I chuckle and kiss her forehead again, “it’s okay. I will make sure Ryan sees I’m serious about you.”

“You still want to be with me?”

I give her a soft smile, “Always, amore,”