"Come, let s get you cleaned," He says, once we release from our hug or rather once he is able to peel my hands away from him.
He captures my hand in his and walks us to my restroom. I fall into a daze as I watch him move. It is still unbelievable to me that he is alive.
He puts the toilet seat down and asks me to sit. Once I am seated, he tries to remove my clothes.
"I can do it," I tell him, but he stops me.
"Let me do it," He says, calmly and I drop my hands and allow him. He slowly takes off my blazer and sets it aside. He carefully unbuttons my blouse and takes it off too.
"If you take off my clothes, what will I wear," I ask
"I asked your secretary to get you new clothes while you were shooting Vladimir multiple times."
"You have been here since then. How come I didn t notice someone was in the room" I say, surprised.
"I think it s because all you cared about at that moment was making sure Vladimir never comes back alive."
"I guess so."
Stefano continues helping me clean off the blood. He uses my bloody blouse but the inner side to clean all the blood on my face and neck. He asks me to stand up so he can remove my pants. It s a good thing I wore pants today. I am sure if I wore a skirt, blood would have been all over my legs.
Once Stefano is able to remove as much blood as he can with my clothes, he walks us to the sink. He carefully washes the blood off my hands and face. He leaves and comes back with clean clothes Emily bought. I try to put it on myself, but he stops me. He helps me put on the clothes. Once we are done, we walk out of the bathroom.
We walk out of my office together, and before I leave, I tell Emily to call Santiago to come and help me clean up the trash in my office. Stefano and I walk out of my office building and into a car that has Samuel waiting for us inside.
"Is he real, Samuel?" I ask once we are inside the car
"I was shocked as you are, ma am, but he is real," Samuel says, smiling. This is the first time I have ever seen him smile.
"I am real, my love," Stefano says, kissing my fingers.
I don t say anything or take my eyes off Stefano the whole ride. Once the car comes to a halt, I walk out with Stefano by my side. I am not taking any chances. I refused to let his hand go for even a minute.
We walk inside the Costanzo hotel and take the elevator to the penthouse. Once we are seated, I ask the questions roaming in my head the past few minutes since I saw Stefano.
"How?"
"I am here with you, my love, because of Vladimir s mother."
"His mother?" I say, not sure I heard him well.
"Yes, she saved me."
"Explain"
"When I was kidnapped, Vladimir s mother was the one who took care of me. I noticed he mistreated her, so I promised her if she got me out, I would take her away from Vladimir and keep her safe."
"How bad did he treat his own mother for her to betray him?"
"If he claimed to love you and beat you almost to death, imagine what he would do to the woman who killed his father."
"Why did his mother kill his father?"
"His father used to abuse his mother."
"If his father was an abuser, why would Vladimir hate his mother for killing him?"
"His father might have been a monster, but Vladimir adored him."
"How can he adore a man who beats his mother?"
"His father made him believe that using your fist is the best way to make a woman do what you want."
"Wow, he must have treated his mother really bad if he believed his father."
"Yes, he did, and that s why she accepted my offer and helped me escape."
"I am so happy she did, but I am still a little confused."
"About what, my dear."
"Now I understand how you escaped, but why did Vladimir fake your death?"
The body we found was definitely not Stefano s because he is sitting in front of me right now. I am sure they probably photo-shopped his face into the video.
"He faked my death because he wanted my family to think I was dead so that they would stop trying to find me."
"And why is that?"
"He needed my family to believe I was dead so that he could torture me forever."
"He did not have to fake your death for that."
"Actually, he did because as far as I am alive, my family would stop at nothing to find me."
"Yeah, that s true, but making your family believe you were dead just made him a bigger enemy to the Costanzo family. They would have stopped at nothing to kill him."
"Yeah, but he already had people who would take over even if he died."
"He hated you that much."
"Yes, he did."
"Wow, Vladimir is one fucked up guy and did he burn someone alive in place of you" I know Stefano s face was photo-shopped into the video, but the screams I heard watching that video did not sound fake.
"No, he didn t, the grunts you heard were mine, but they burnt a body already beaten to death."
"At least he wasn t crazy to the extent that he would burn someone alive to fake your death.
"Yeah, he wasn t, and enough about him. I want to apologize to you, my love," He says, taking my hands in his and makes me look him in the eyes.
"For what?"
"The pain I caused you because of our breakup. I thought it was the right thing to do, and I am sorry I put you through such pain," Stefano says with his eyes pleading with me.
"You don t need to apologize because you did it to protect me," I say, giving his hand a warm squeeze.
"I am truly blessed to have an amazing woman like you," He says, cupping my face in his palms.
"I guess you are," I say, smiling.
"Be mine again," He says with his forehead against mine.
"I am yours," I say and seal my lips with his.
"I love you," Stefano says once we release from our kiss
"I love you too," I say,
A few weeks have passed since Stefano came back from the dead. We are on our way to the villa on the private Island owned by the Costanzo s. Stefano and I decided to take a little trip before the baby comes and before it s unsafe for me to travel. I also think we needed a vacation after all the drama and stress we faced because of Ivan.
From when we left the airport, I couldn t help myself but admire the lovely Island. I have been to many places, so for me to be in awe, you know this place must be beautiful. While looking out the window, I feel a pair of warm rusty hands cup mine. I turn around and face Stefano, who has a lovely smile on his face.
"We are here," He says, opening the door and walks out first before helping me out.
He holds my hand as he walks us into the villa. The place is beautiful. We step into the living room, which has a gorgeous pool across it. Stefano gives me a house tour, and the whole place is magnificent. Once we reach our room, we quickly shower and go to bed.
The following day I wake up to a beautiful aroma in the air. I open my eyes, and Stefano is not in bed. I wonder where he is. I am about to step out of bed to look for him when I see him walking into the room with a food tray.
"Good morning, luce del sole," Stefano says, smiling, and places the food tray in front of me.
"Good morning, you didn t have to," I say, smiling.
"I know, but I wanted you to start your day with that beautiful smile on your face you have now," He says, pecking my forehead and rubs my growing belly. I am 20 weeks pregnant.
"Thank you," I say and take a sip of the tea he made for me.
"You re welcome, and after breakfast, do you have anything, in particular, you want to do today?"
"No, I don t. Do you?"
"I don t either, but I am thinking we could go into the city and have a good stroll around the Island. Maybe while we are walking, we might find something to do."
"That seems like a good plan."
"Yeah, and how are you feeling today?"
"We are doing fine," I say, rubbing my belly.
"That s good to hear, and if you feel any discomfort, let me know."
"I will," I say, smiling.
After breakfast, Stefano and I shower together. Which takes longer than supposed to, but it was a fantastic shower regardless. We spend the morning at an art museum. It was one of the first places we stumbled upon once we entered the city. We are at lunch right now.
"I have something I want to give you. Please don t be angry at me," Stefano says, and I wonder what he will give me that would make me angry at him. "Here," He says and places a book on the table. I look at the book, and I freeze in my actions.
The book has Andrea Lopez written on the edge of the book and Bullied as the title.
"Please say something," Stefano says, noticing my frozen state. "Oh my God, you are crying." He says, and I notice tears are falling from my eyes. "I am so sorry. I knew you were not confident in your work, so I thought it might boost your confidence if I published it and told you what an editor said about your book. I did not know it would bring this kind of reaction out of you. Please forgive me; I will have the book burnt."
"Stefano, I am crying because I am happy. These are tears of joy. I am just overwhelmed with seeing my book in a physical form and not on my laptop screen. Thank you so much for doing this. I am so happy you did."
I was shocked and a little angry he published my story without my permission but the more I looked at it, the more my emotions started to change. It s one thing to read the name of my book on my laptop screen, and it s another to read it from a book in front of me. It looked so beautiful and unbelievable.
"Really, you are not angry?"
"No, I am not," I say, smiling
"That s good, and I am happy you like it."
"Like it? I love it. Stefano, do you know what it means to have your words looking at you on paper"
"I don t know, but I can tell from your face it s an amazing feeling," He says, smiling.
"Yes, it is," I say, smiling.
"You should really conquer your fear of people judging your book and publish it. The editor I gave your book too said your story is magnificent and would be loved by many"
"Really, the editor said that?"
"Yes, she did, and if you wish to publish it, I will give you her number any time you are ready."
"I will think about it. Thank you again for publishing it for me."
"Anything for you luce del sole."
Later in the evening, Stefano and I head to a hot spring to enjoy the night.
"Why haven t you gotten in," Stefano says, walking up to me by the edge of the spring, looking as sexy as ever in his bathing suit that hangs loosely around his waist. It does little to hide that v line of his that I love rubbing my hands over. "You know I am all yours, right," Stefano says, cockily with a smirk on his face. He grabs my hands and uses them to gently rub his abs. I can feel myself getting hot. "This is all yours, baby," He says, whispering into my ears as his hot breath fans my neck. He nibbles my ears before moving away from me. I am about to kiss him, but he jumps into the water.
"You did that on purpose?" I say, with my mouth hanging open. I can t believe he got me hot and left me dry.
"I don t know what you are talking about," He says, swimming in the water, pretending not to know about what he just did.
"I will get you back," I say, entering into the water. Once I am inside, he pulls me closer to him.
"You can try, baby, but I know your body better than you," He says and kisses my neck. He does not stop there and continues down my body but stops once I release a moan. "As I said, I know your body better than you, baby," he says and swims away from me.
"Stefano!" I say, wide-eyed as I realize what he just did.
"I love you too, mi amore," He says, smiling as he continues to swim away from me. I just shake my head and try to forget that my core is crying right now for Stefano to fill it up.
After having a lovely time swimming in the hot spring Stefano and I are watching a movie in the living room. While watching the movie, I feel Stefano staring at me, and he has since we started the film, which was about 20 minutes ago. I wonder why he is looking at me. He suddenly carries the TV remote and switches it off.
"Why did you switch it off?"
"Do you know I am the luckiest man on this earth to have such a wonderful woman like you by my side? And not only that, you are the most beautiful and courageous woman I have ever met. I feel I don t deserve you, but I am selfish, so I won t let you go either. You made me understand that love is beautiful. You make me the happiest man alive every day. I am more than grateful to God for putting you in my life again. I am sorry I was a jerk when we first met again, but I would live the rest of my life making it up to you. I love you."
"I have long forgiven you for what happened in the past, and you are not the only one lucky here. I am also lucky I was graced with someone as wonderful as you to love and cherish me. I would live the rest of my life showing you what a wonderful thing love is and continue to make you the happiest man alive the same way you make me the happiest woman alive. I love you too," I say, wiping the tiny tears of joy that escaped my eyes. He pulls me closer to him and captures my lips in a passionate kiss.