Page 35 of Tristano

Pushing off the wall, I walk to her and pull her into my arms without a second thought. At first she was tense in my arms before finally relaxing. Her hands grasp onto my shirt as if it was a lifeline as I press my face into the top of her head.

“I feel broken,” she rasps.

“No,” I say gruffly. Leaning back, I cup her face and make her eyes meet mine. “You are not broken, Serena, but even if you are, that’s okay too.”

“What makes you so sure?”

Her eyes look like the deepest of pools with tears falling down her cheeks.

“Because even broken things can be put back together. The pieces might not fit perfectly, but there’s beauty in the imperfect at the end of the day, and you, Serena, you are beautiful. I’ve watched you from afar pick yourself up and put yourself back together, and you’ll do it again.”

Serena shakes her head. “I-I don’t know if I can. I don’t know if I have it in me. For fuck’s sake, Tris, what were the chances of me getting taken not once but twice in my life?”

“Then I’ll do it for you,” I say full of conviction. “You have me.”

She pulls her face out of my hands and buries it against my stomach to hide her tears.

“You said we couldn’t be together. How are you going to put me back together when I can’t even be with you?”

“We make changes. Fuck,anima gemella,I will tell my Don I’m out right now if that’s what you need,” I tell her as I run my hands through her hair.

Serena takes a deep breath. “Tris…”

Before she can say anything else, there’s a knock on the door.

“Yeah?” I call out as Serena pulls away, wiping away her tears.

The door opens, and Declan pops his head in. “Sorry to interrupt, but Sabrina is the only one left I need to interview.”

Instinctively I want to say I can do it, but I don’t know if I would be able to separate myself far enough from the situation to be able to do so. There’s no way I would make her go through all of that without stopping her to make her feel better.

“Is that alright with you,anima gemella?” I ask her.

“If you trust him, then so do I.” She smiles at me softly before turning to Declan. “Let’s do this.”

Declan comes in and shuts the door behind him. He takes a seat and holds out his phone. “Is it okay if I record you?”

“Of course.” Serena nods, taking a seat as well.

“Will you stand for a minute, please,anima gemella?”

Serena’s brows crinkle, but she does as I ask.

“What are you doing?” she asks as I sit down in her chair.

I hold out my hand, and as soon as she places hers in mine, I pull her down so she’s sitting in my lap. Wrapping my arms around her middle, I lay my head on her back.

“Are you ready?” Declan asks.

I feel her take a deep breath. “Ready.”

As Serena gives him a play-by-play from the moment she left work to the time we found her, I hold on to her. Doing everything in my power to give her every ounce of my strength and to hold her together.

It fills my chest with pride when she says that she knew I would come searching when I didn’t hear from her, but it breaks my heart when admits toward the end she started to give up hope.

“The other girls mentioned being drugged and losing pieces of time,” Declan says, pulling me out of my head.

“They would give us medicated water and would check under our tongues to make sure we swallowed. I attempted to try and withhold from drinking it as long as possible. I hated losing control like that. I would only sip it, pouring the rest out when I heard them coming.”

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