PROLOGUE
1351 Words
“Lena! You wont believe this!”
Antonio’s voice echoed through the apartment as the door swung open. He stepped inside, laughing under his breath while balancing a bouquet of white lilies in one hand and a half-buttoned suit jacket in the other.
He kicked the door shut with his heel. “Babe?” he called again, heading down the hallway. “You won’t believe who just confirmed they’re coming to the wedding…Uncle Vito finally said yes! Can you imagine?”
No answer.
He grinned, shaking his head. Typical. She probably had her headphones on again.
“Elena?”
The apartment was unusually quiet. Only the faint hum of the air conditioner filled the space. He paused at their bedroom door, hand still gripping the lilies. “Alright, you better not be asleep,” he teased lightly. “I’ve got news that’s gonna….”
The rest of his words caught in his throat.
He expected to find Elena stretched across the bed, perhaps scrolling through her phone, or humming to one of the songs they had chosen for the wedding. He pictured her smiling up at him, teasing him for the way he couldn’t stop talking about their big day.
But never what he saw.
Antonio stood frozen in the doorway, staring into the scene that made the lilies slip out from his hand, watching their white petals scattering across the wooden floor like fragments of something fragile breaking apart. For a heartbeat, no, for an eternity, his mind refused to catch up with his eyes.
“I…” The word barely left his lips.“I can’t believe this,” Antonio whispered to himself. Perhaps he was the one who couldn’t believe what was happening.
In the silence that filled the room, they sounded loud, too loud. The kind of sound that didn’t belong in a space that had once felt like home.
There were movements, one that involved sheets twisting, limbs tangling, and a rhythm that spoke of intimacy he was never meant to witness. Elena’s body was pressed against another man’s, and her head was thrown backwards so that he could see and hear the sound of pleasure caught in her throat until the door slammed against the wall.
“Ele…na?” His voice fractured, carrying the weight of disbelief, carrying the weight of someone clinging to a reality already slipping away.
Elena’s head snapped toward him, and time stood still.
“Tony…” Elena’s voice trembled. “No---wait--”
He took a step back. “Tell me this isn’t what it looks like.”“Tell me this isn’t real!”
She stood abruptly, dragging the bed sheet around her bare body as though the linen could hide the truth.
“Tony...I…no..no, it’s not..please,” Her voice trembled, breaking apart before it could find shape. She took a step toward him, but he moved back immediately.
“Don’t,” he uttered. “Don’t come closer.” Antonio continued while pacing and feeling lost. He tried to catch his breath and calm his nerves. None was working.
“It’s not what you think,” she said again with her voice shaking
“Then make me think something else!”
“Antonio, please…” “It wasn’t..”
“Wasn’t what?” His tone cut through her words, “Weren’t you? Wasn’t real? Because I saw it, Elena.” He gestured helplessly, trying to think of what to do. “I saw you. In our bed. With…” His gaze finally turned to the stranger, “him.”
“Who’s this!” he said, moving furiously towards him.
The stranger flinched, stumbling off the bed. He was half-naked and clumsy in his rush to gather his clothes. He wore his shirt inside out and his belt half-hanging from one hand.
He looked younger, maybe mid twenties, with the kind of face that might’ve once been confident, now flushed with shame.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered hoarsely. “I…” he continued, with one hand clutching his shirt and the other hovering midair as though it could defend him from what he’d just been caught in. “Hey, man, listen…”
“Don’t you dare talk to me,” Antonio snapped, taking another step closer.
The man swallowed hard, taking two steps back while his body shrank back instinctively, curling inward under the weight of Antonio’s stare.
Elena’s voice wavered again. “Tony,” she breathed, “please… just listen…”
“Who are you?” Antonio asked ignoring her, looking directly into the stranger’s eyes. “Who the hell are you!”
“I…. I didn’t know she was…”
“Didn’t know she was what?” Antonio let out a sharp laugh, one without humor. “Engaged? Living with someone? Wearing my ring? You didn’t see it sitting right there?”
“Tony, please stop,” Elena whispered. “You’re scaring me.”
He turned to her, and this time with his eyes burning. “ You? What is this? Is this the cake sampling you told me about?” He took a slow step back, “Do you even understand what you’ve done?”
Elena’s face crumpled, tears spilling freely now. “I made a mistake…”
“Stop calling it that!” he shouted suddenly. The outburst startled even him. “You don’t call betrayal a mistake. You don’t ‘accidentally’ destroy everything!”
The stranger took this as his chance to move. “I should go….”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Antonio snapped, blocking his path. “Not until I’m done.” “Done with this….done with you!”
The man raised his hands slowly, defensively. “Look, I’m sorry, alright? I didn’t know she was taken. She didn’t…”
“Didn’t mention the man who’s been building her a life? Didn’t mention the wedding that’s supposed to happen in a week? Oh my God…” He snapped, looking right into his eyes. This time few steps away from the stranger.
Elena choked on a sob. “Tony, please…”
“Shut up, Elena!” The words came out harsher than he meant, but he didn’t take them back. “You don’t get to say anything right now.”
His eyes found the stranger again, “You came into my home,” he said slowly, “You touched what’s mine.”
The man’s composure cracked. “I didn’t mean to…” he barely uttered.“Believe me, Man”
But that was it.
The moment something inside Antonio snapped. Before either of them could react, his fist collided with the man’s jaw and straight up his face. The stranger stumbled backward, crashing against the dresser, knocking over a lamp that shattered to the floor.
Elena screamed, clutching the sheet tighter. “Tony! Stop!” she was helpless. Perhaps she hadn’t imagined things to turn out this way, never thought it would get this messy.
But he didn’t hear her. He lunged forward again, grabbing the man by the collar and slamming him against the wall. “You think you can just walk into my life, take everything from me, and say sorry?” His voice was hoarse now, thick with tears and fury. “You think sorry fixes this?”
The man grunted, trying to push him off. “I didn’t know, I swear!”
Antonio’s grip tightened. “You should’ve known.”
“You should!” He screamed, backing off and slamming his hands into the wall right next to him. That act seemed to curtail his anger. Perhaps he felt ‘to what end?’
Not like this was going to fix everything. He stopped, stepped back, and breathed, blinked, once, twice, as if the image before him might shatter if he refused to believe it. But it didn’t.
At that moment, Antonio’s mind raced, desperately trying to make sense of what his eyes refused to deny.
This was Elena…his Elena. The woman he was supposed to marry in a week, the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
But here she was….with another... In their bed.
- Writer
