~ELENA~

The minutes crawl by after Riccardo leaves. I can still hear the faint echo of his words…“learn to live with it.”

How can I? How do you live with something like that?

I stand up from my bed and walk to the dressing mirror to look at myself.

My reflection in the mirror looks like a stranger. My eyes are bloodshot, my hair a tangled mess, mascara streaking my face like dried tears that never stopped falling.

I walk to the bathroom and splash water on my face, but it doesn’t wash away the heaviness sitting in my chest.

I keep on washing my face till I finally look...