The Goodbye
1161 Words
Everything had suddenly gone silent. The music, the laughter, and the conversations that had filled the garden with joy just hours earlier had completely disappeared.
What had begun as the happiest day of Isabella Romano’s life had turned into a nightmare she never could have imagined.
The forensic team and other personnel arrived shortly afterward to take charge of Eduardo Romano’s body.
Isabella remained motionless as she watched them carry her father away.
She couldn’t accept that this would be the last image she would ever have of him. Her mind kept replaying that phone call.
Her father’s weak voice. His final words. “Come quickly…”
But she hadn’t made it in time. A hand gently rested on her shoulder.
“Isabella…”
She didn’t respond. She simply kept staring toward the doorway through which they had taken her father.
“We need to get you somewhere so you can rest for a while,” a woman’s voice said beside her.
It was Victoria, her best friend, the only person who had stood by her side since they were little girls.
“I can’t leave,” Isabella replied in shock. “My dad is all alone.”
Victoria’s eyes filled with sadness. A lump formed in her throat, and she could barely force the words out.
“Isabella, I’m so sorry about what happened to your father.”
Those words made the tears stream down her cheeks once again, and Victoria gently embraced her.
After several minutes, she finally managed to convince Isabella to return to the room where she had gotten ready for the wedding.
When Isabella walked in, the room no longer felt like it belonged to her. She was still wearing her white wedding dress.
The shoes she had chosen with so much excitement now felt unbearably heavy.
Worst of all, everything around her reminded her that only a few hours earlier she had been a happy woman, and now she could barely recognize herself.
She looked at herself in the mirror. Her makeup had been completely ruined by her tears.
Her face was pale, and her eyes reflected a pain that was impossible to hide.
Victoria picked up a damp towel and gently began wiping her face.
For several minutes, neither of them spoke. Until Victoria could no longer remain silent.
“Isabella…”
She looked up with overwhelming sadness, her eyes brimming with tears.
“What?”
Victoria hesitated before asking. She even cleared her throat before saying what had been on her mind.
“Do you think Alexander…?”
She didn’t finish the sentence, but Isabella understood exactly what she meant. Her expression changed for a brief moment.
She thought about Alexander, her husband, the man who had sworn to love her, the man she had found standing beside her father’s body.
“I don’t want to think about that right now. My father just died,” Isabella replied, her throat tightening. “I can’t think about anything else.”
And it was true. At that moment, she couldn’t hate Alexander, nor could she defend him.
Her heart was simply too broken to make any decision.
Hours later, Isabella remained beside her father’s casket.
The funeral wake was filled with relatives, friends, and acquaintances who had come to say goodbye to Eduardo Romano.
But she barely heard the voices around her. She felt trapped in a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from.
“Isabella,” someone said as they approached her.
She looked up. It was Daniel Montenegro, an old family friend.
Someone who had always been close to her and who, although he had never admitted it openly, had been in love with her for years.
“You need to rest,” he said with concern. “It’s been an incredibly difficult day.”
Isabella refused to do what he was asking. Under no circumstances could she leave that place.
“I can’t leave him. He’s my father, and I don’t want to leave him alone. He must be so cold,” she replied as tears fell onto the casket.
A painful knot tightened in Daniel’s throat as he watched her suffer.
“Isabella…”
But before he could continue, she lost all her strength.
Everything around her began to blur. The voices faded into the distance, and before she collapsed to the floor, the last thing she heard was someone desperately calling her name.
The following morning, Isabella slowly opened her eyes. For a few seconds, she couldn’t remember where she was.
Then reality became painfully clear as she looked around.
Her father was dead, her husband had been accused of murdering him, and her life would never be the same again.
Victoria walked into the room. She was dressed in black, and the sight of it pierced Isabella’s heart. That color spoke only of mourning.
“I hope you were able to get at least a little rest.”
Isabella slowly sat up in bed, her eyes swollen from crying so much the night before—the night that was supposed to have been the happiest of her life.
“I think I did.”
Although she knew no amount of sleep could erase her pain, she got out of bed and walked toward the wardrobe.
“I’m going to get dressed.”
Isabella took a black dress from her closet, looked at it carefully, and headed straight to the bathroom.
An hour later, everyone had gathered at the cemetery. A gentle breeze blew as the farewell words echoed through the air.
Isabella stood beside Victoria and Daniel, but nothing could ease the emptiness inside her. Tears streamed endlessly down her face.
It was as though a part of her was being buried alongside her father.
When the final moment came, Isabella felt her legs give out beneath her.
She watched as the casket was slowly lowered into the ground.
“Dad…”
Her voice broke completely. She fell to her knees on the earth, unable to contain her grief.
Daniel hurried over and tried to help her, but she refused to accept his assistance.
“Isabella, please… you have to get up.”
She shook her head as she cried, wishing she could be buried beside him at that very moment.
“I can’t leave him.”
“You have to,” he said sadly. “You’re only going to hurt yourself.”
Victoria also came over and took her hand.
“He’s right, Isabella.”
She looked at her father’s grave one last time, knowing that nothing would ever be the same again.
“I’ll hate whoever did this to you for the rest of my life. I swear it, Dad. I’ll hate them forever,” she said through clenched teeth before finally getting to her feet.
With the help of both of them, she managed to stand, but as she walked away, one question continued to torment her.
If Alexander was innocent… then who had destroyed her life?
- Writer
