I rose. My knees protested with sharp creaks. My hand brushed across the tile, smearing pride and dust alike. I moved to the bathroom, closing the door gently, staring into the mirror at a stranger: puffy eyes, flushed cheeks, tangled hair. A woman who had tried to cry underwater and failed.
No funeral, yet the mourning was real.
Not for him. Not for us.
For me.
For the girl who once existed before love stole her name and silence stole her voice.
A moment later, he passed the door. No knock. No check-in. Still on the phone, laughing—then pausing long enough to say, “Pack my things. Business-leisure trip. We leave tomorrow.”
No “please.” No glance. No trace of care.
I nodded. Not that he noticed.
I dried my hands on the crooked towel, then stepped into his room like a servant. Chaos greeted me: suits tangled with polos, shoes buried under heaps of laundry. A grown man living as if he were still sixteen.
I started folding shirts—white linens, navy power suits—and polished his cufflinks with my sleeve.
Then my elbow hit the side table. A folder slipped. I picked it up, expecting tax papers. But inside—cruise tickets.
I blinked.
Read them twice. Fingers tightening around the edges.
Marcello Morocco. Vivienne Morocco. Antonio. Chiara. Enzo. Nico.
My name? Absent.
Not even as a +1. Not even a footnote.
The cruise I had dreamed about… gone.
Vivienne’s birthday in three days? He remembered hers. Mine? Never. Not once. Not ever.
I folded the tickets carefully, as if they could bleed.
Then I packed his bag. Polished shoes, ironed pants. Lined up deodorant and vitamins with the meticulousness of hotel staff.
Antonio barged in, no knock. “Ma, pack my stuff too. Chiara’s busy,” he said, sipping beer. “Don’t forget the twins. Nico wants his charger. Enzo needs the blue swim shorts. Snacks—don’t skimp, they get bored.”
He left, and I packed it all. Tiny shorts, rolled T-shirts, Chiara’s perfume tucked in a sock, snacks in ziplocks labeled with love.
I retreated to my room. Door closed silently.
Sitting on the bed, hands trembling, my mind wandered to the girl I had been at eighteen.
When Marcello wasn’t a man who kicked me in the knee, who left me off cruise lists, who had forgotten my existence.
Back when his words sounded like promises.
---
Fresh out of school, unsure of my own shadow, I stood before him.
Marcello’s eyes were steady, serious, soft as if I were the only anchor in his chaotic world.