Screams in New York - Book Three

~Chapter Ten~

Chapter Song

New York City – The Chainsmokers

_______________✏

Two Weeks Later...

She was spiralling again.

Falling down the longest, most twisted rabbit hole to the depths of despair.

That fücking shoebox.

She hated it and all the happy people smiling back at her day after day after day. They were mocking her. Setting her up for failure. Her mind was frazzled, she could feel it leading her down a path of self destruction. So she called Stefano at twelve-forty in the middle of the night, to which he came to her without any fuss making it to her within ten minutes.

"Babe what's wrong?" Making his own way into the penthouse she was sitting on the floor, the coffee table had been moved, the notebook was beside her and photos were covering every inch of the cosy rug.
She looked like a mess.

"I'm so sorry!" She sobbed uncontrollably, it was clear she had been crying for at least a solid half hour. "I know I'm being stupid, and I shouldn't bother you, and you gave me time to cry it out but-"

"No... This is good..." He encouraged coming closer, shoving some of the photos to the side to sit by her. "You're not feeling like yourself, so you called me, that's exactly what you should do babe, you actually did the right thing!"
He had to get it through to her, ensure she knew this was exactly how things should be, she couldn't spiral alone, not without Salvatore around.

"These stupid photos aren't helping you Ade, they're driving you nuts!"

"I keep calling the phone numbers!" She revealed speaking of the photos with details written on back. "I go to pay phones and I call them, hoping... I don't know what I'm hoping really!"

"Jȅsüs Adriana, I told you, we called them, stop running off to payphones, I mean I'm glad you were smart about it but please. This has to stop, don't you want to stop?"

"I can't!" She sobbed throwing herself into his arms desperate for comfort. Her parents had been useless lately. They hadn't cut her out completely, but they refused to allow her to speak about Salvatore or Luca. They didn't want to hear any of it and resented the fact that she had accepted Salvatore's marriage proposal.
"Luca needs justice, he-he never got it! A-and Elena she was involved in everything she has to know something! And the blood Stefano... All the blood!"

"Shhh calm down..." He held her close trying to make sense of it all. "What blood babe? Ben? The cop?" He queried trying to hurriedly skip to the same page of the story as her. "He fückĩng deserved that shĩt!"

"No..." She sobbed, "the blood on my hands, my arms, it went past my elbows. He washed it off at the hospital, but I remember it, I remember every single detail Stefano... There was so much..."

He held her closer, much closer than his boss would ever allow. But she needed this.

She was spiralling.

"Listen to my voice Adriana. Breathe with me. It's going to be ok." He steadied his voice, tried his absolute best to sound neutral, tried to pretend that what she was saying wasn't affecting him even though every word cut him deeply.
It was clear, she remembered every second of being on top of Luca's lifeless body, her hands covering his fatal wounds, the ineffective CPR she had administered to a dead friend.
This wasn't something anyone should remember. But she did. Every detail.