Prologue
ANTONIO
(Past)
It hurt.
I didn’t think it was supposed to hurt that much.
But no matter how much it hurt, I couldn’t cry.
I couldn’t scream.
And I couldn’t ask for help.
If I cried I’d be nothing but a weak little boy, no matter that I was just ten years old.
If I screamed Caterina would hear me and she would cry. If she saw what that fucker, who was our father but we hadn’t called him that in a long time, had done to me. It will hurt her.
And out of her loyalty to me she will go against that bastard and to make him see his mistake which will be just another mistake on her part. And if that happens, this time I will not be able to save her. Not with the pain that was spreading through the soles of my feet that seemed to be on fire as I stumbled and took support from the
