“He can’t be gone,” Livia whispered next to me. “H-he can’t be…”
All of Rome’s sisters were standing shell-shocked just outside of his office. Lucia was crying in Mateo’s arms, and I could hear Malachi storming down the stairs in the distance.
“Bec,” Will whispered my name, as if he was scared his words would spook me and send me running, but that was the farthest thing from my reality. I was rooted to that spot… the world had collapsed around me. I had nowhere to go. The only place I wanted to be was with Rome, but he wasgone.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
BEC
1 Month Gone, November 6th
Istared out of Rome's bedroom window. I wasn’t sure what day it was, let alone the month—time had ceased to exist in a world without Rome.
Grief was a fascinating journey. I waffled between depression and denial, but didn’t believe I would ever reach acceptance.
Lucia sat next to me on his bed, reading through letters Rome had sent his family while he was deployed.
She pointed to a line. I could barely make out the words; his handwriting was atrocious, but oh so him. “He always talked about his friends throughout these, never himself.”
I smiled softly, “He was subtly selfless.”
Lucia nodded, “Just like his father.”
“How did you survive that? Losing Romeo?” I asked.
Lucia sighed, her head falling against the headboard softly. She was an incredibly strong woman. We spent many of the days together, and she kept me briefly distracted from my grief with her stories. She had immigrated here with her first husband, Romeo, against all of her family’s wishes. While she eventually reconciled with her family, during the first decade of living here, she was on her own. Lucia hadn’t meant to get pregnant, but when she did, she knew that Rome was sent to make her life a little brighter. Herlittle light, as she called him.
“Rome. I survived because of him,” she answered sadly. “I couldn’t drown in my grief, because he needed me. He was just a little boy who had lost part of his world and was too young to understand. I survived losing his father, because I had him.”
I felt a tear slide down my cheek slowly, my heart breaking at her words, “How do we survive now… without him?”
Lucia took my hand in hers and held it tightly. “We survive for him,piccina.We wake up each day and spread the light he would have,for him.”
Mateo then stuck his head through the cracked door. “You have a visitor.”
I sat up slightly as Alexandra made her way into the room. She had been on the other side of the country for the last month. She had called every day, but it didn’t make up for herphysical absence. Seeing her here, in Rome’s room, caused me to instantly break down.
“Alex,” I cried, and she closed the distance between us, sitting on the bed with Lucia and me… wrapping me in her arms.
“Shhh,” she murmured. “I know it hurts. I’m so sorry, Bec.”
We sat there for a while as I cried in my best friend's arms.
2 Months Gone, December 11th
They had never found his body.
Andi had led the police to where she claimed Rome had been shot. According to her official statement, after they were taken in the car, the two were drugged. She awoke, tied up in the back of a van. Rome was unconscious next to her as their captor pulled her out and deposited her in the corner of the warehouse. Her captor was masked, and she claimed that he told her she was simply collateral damage. She stayed, forgotten in that corner, as Rome awoke, and she witnessed his death.
Her captor fled after Rome was shot. This gave Andi the chance to run as well, after getting herself untied. That was all of the story I could bear to listen to. I did see where he was shot. I had to in order to believe it. They had tested the blood, and every last drop belonged to Rome.
No one could have survived after losing the amount of blood that was found… not even him.
People were investigating. At least, I assumed they were. I didn’t care anymore. None of it mattered. After it was announced that Rome couldn’t have survived that blood loss, I completely checked out. The people responsible were still out there, but Rome wasn’t.
It had been two months since Rome had died, and none of us were able to move on. We didn’t have any form of closure, and it was hitting Rome’s family the hardest.
My heart broke for Lucia. They were burying an empty casket next to Rome’s father. We had waited a month, hoping to find anything, and then we waited another. There was hope that by some miracle, Rome was alive out there. That he would pop out of the shadows with that smirk of his. But it was time to put Rome to rest, to give us all some closure.
