Losing Love

56

Hope's POV:

"Ms Ficci, glad you could fit us into you busy schedule today" the professor announces sarcastically, referring to the past few months I've skipped my lectures, as I step through the large oak doors. I don't make any efforts to respond, I just nod my head and take a seat in the back of the silenced room.

Dominic won't let me go anywhere without at least three of his men with me. Therefore, the three men follow closely behind as all eyes in the room turn to us.

The professor clears her throat and continues her lesson as I open my laptop to take notes. My face reflects off the black screen and I can easily see that my dark eye bags from the weeks of continuous nightmares and sleepless nights are visible for everyone to see.

The laptop's screen turns on and it opens up to the photos app, the first image that pops up is the photo of Dominic and I in front of the Eiffel Tower. I stare at it for a bit longer than I was supposed to, looking towards my stomach, before shaking my head and closing the tab.

I can't bring myself to do anything else now so I focus mainly on my school work, so far I've caught up on all my missing assignments.

Dominic's POV:

I tilt my head up to the man who caused all this. Matteo stays attached to the steel chair with blood dripping down his face and neck. The bruises on his cheek fit perfectly with the bruises spread across my knuckles, he has cuts and bruises elsewhere from Cole, Kyle, and Carter. Mainly Cole though.

There are clear imprints on parts of his body formed by the heavy ring that rests on my right hand's ring finger.

I bring my eyes to look right back into the ugly goblin's swollen, bruised eyes. "Why don't you just kill me?" He spits out, the guy is both ugly and stupid if he doesn't already know.

"Death would be a gift for a man like you", I snarl as I slide on my brass knuckles and bring my arm back up. I let my fist surf through the air, until it finally hits his distorted face with all my force. His head slams to the other direction before hanging low, his eyes held shut.

Breathing heavily, I storm out the room and slam the door behind me. I pull the brass knuckles off and toss them to the ground. Sliding out my phone, I check the time; 7:46pm.

Hopping into my Mercedes AMG, I speed my way back to my house and instantly go to take a cold shower in the dark tiled bathroom. After my shower, I head to the guest bedroom. I knock on the door lightly, I hear a muffled 'come in' and I open the door.

Hope is sitting on the bed with her pen in her mouth, shes wearing my black hoodie with her hair in a messy bun that sits on the top of her hair. She's also wearing a pair of black shorts. She's leaned over a textbook as she types something harshly on her laptop's keyboard.

"Hi" I smile from the doorframe, she finally turns to me and drops the pen on her bed. "Hi" she smiles back, I walk and sit in front of her on the bed as I place my phone on the table next to it, "studying for graduation?" I question her, she nods, "I only have one more exam", she smiles widely. We continue a friendly conversation, obviously avoiding the topic of Matteo or our baby, before she kicks me out and yells about having to study.

I go to my office and sit on the chair behind the dark oak desk.

A while later, I look around the table for my phone but can't find it. I must've left it in Hope's room. I check the time on my laptop and it's 1:28am so Hope should be asleep by now.

I open Hope's door slowly, making sure I don't wake her from her sleep.

I step into the dark room and towards the table, before I hear Hope groaning. She's flailing her arms across the bed in a panic as she lays on her side, "no, no, no, please, no" she groans, clearly distressed as her cheeks flood with tears.

I run up to her, she continues her cries as I place my hand on her, shaking her awake. At first she doesn't budge, but suddenly she jolts awake and looks around the room quickly while taking short irregular breaths. Her eyes land on me as I wrap my arms around her tiny, shivering body.

She flinches away but eventually settles, "I'm not going to hurt you" I whisper in her ear, her body still tense. "I love you so much", as if those were magic words, she relaxes under my touch and brings her arms up. She wraps them around me and leans her head into my shoulder as she lets out cries.

"I'm sorry" she whimpers, "for what?" I ask her, looking down at her head burrowed into my shoulder. "For being so afraid" she responds. I pull away from her, holding onto her forearms, gently rubbing my thumbs in circles as I stare into her flooded grey eyes, "baby, nobody knows fear like we do. Don't apologise, you have every right" I assure her. "Do you want to tell me about it?" I ask her. I was expecting the same response I had been receiving for the past three weeks, but to my surprise, she nods.

"I-I was in the kitchen and I was making pancakes. I called for you and someone called Rico. You and a little boy come in, h-he looked exactly like a mixture of you and me" she smiles distantly as she pictures the boy. I notice her eyes glisten with tears once again, "he holds your hand and pulls you into the kitchen, he says goodmorning and h-he called me mo-mommy, Dominic. He called me mommy" a single tear falls out of her eye and down her cheeks, I cup my large hand around her face and wipe the tear away. "I bend down and hug the boy, I tell him how much I love him and then the whole kitchen goes dark", she takes a deep breath in as another tear rolls out of her other eye, "Matteo rips the boy away and walks away with him". She can't stop herself and she starts to break down. Through her sobs, she continues, "he was screaming and begging for me to let him live". My heart shatters at this, our baby didn't even get the chance to live. "I got up and tried running to him but you hold me back and y-you tell me that it's too late" she finally finishes.

Her head falls forward and into my chest, I wrap my arms around her back and pull her slower to myself. The pressure builds up and salty tears begin to slide down my cheeks.

It's too late.