Page 21 of Forsaken Promises
What if we could find a way to move past the hurt and the anger? Maybe start anew? To forget about the past and try again?
But I can’t help but fixate on Dom’s words from earlier, his threat to seek an annulment, to end our marriage before it even truly begins.
I should be relieved. I should be thrilled at the prospect of being free from this sham of a union, from the man who shattered my heart into a million pieces.
And yet…
And yet, the thought of Dom leaving me, of his walking away from our marriage… it feels like he’s breaking up with me all over again.
It’s a sickening, gut-wrenching feeling, one that I thought I had buried deep down along with all the other painful memories of our past.
But now, in the darkness of the bedroom, with the weight of his words hanging in the air… it all comes rushing back.
The pain, the betrayal, the utter devastation of watching him turn his back on me, on us, on everything we had shared.
I hate him for making me feel this way. I hate him for still having this power over me, even after all these years.
But most of all, I hate myself for caring.
For feeling anything at all beyond the cold, hard fury that has sustained me for so long.
I don't want to admit it, even to myself, but I clearly still have feelings for him.
Despite everything he's done, despite all the pain he’s caused… there's still a part of me that loves him.
A part that never stopped loving him, even when I convinced myself that I had moved on, that I had put our past behind me.
But I can’t let myself dwell on those feelings. I can't let myself be swayed by the traitorous whispers of my heart.
Because an annulment would ruin everything. And that… that is something I cannot allow.
No matter how much it hurts, no matter how much it tears me apart inside… I have to make this marriage work.
I have to find a way to coexist with Dominico, to play the role of dutiful wife and partner.
Because in the end… it’s not about me.
It's about my family, my sisters, the legacy that my father has worked so hard to build.
And I will do whatever it takes to protect that legacy.
My mind moves to our argument, and I can’t help but replay Dominico’s words from earlier, his accusation that I’m immature, selfish, and melodramatic for holding on to the pain of our past.
How dare he? How dare he minimize the hurt he caused me, the scars he left on my heart?
He thinks he knows what it means to be melodramatic? He has no fucking idea.
I grew up with three sisters. I’ve seen my fair share of dramatics, of tears and tantrums and hysterical fits.
But this? This pain, this anger, this all-consuming rage that threatens to swallow me whole? This is something else entirely. This is the kind of pain that changes you, that reshapes you from the inside out. The kind of pain that never really goes away, no matter how much time passes, no matter how hard you try to bury it.
And for him to dismiss it, to call me immature and selfish for feeling it…
It's a slap in the face, a knife to the heart.
But you know what? Fine. If he wants to see melodrama, if he wants to see just how dramatic I can be…
I’ll show him. I'll show him exactly what it means to be Sofia Marino, the queen of dramatics.
