Matteo wakes up early in the morning. He never feels this refresh in his entire life. For the first time in his life, he has a good sleep. The nightmare that always haunting him seems doesn't haunt him for the entire night and he feels grateful for that. He looks at his girl's sleep peacefully beside him.
He doesn't wake her up and decides to let her sleep for another couple of minutes. The movie still playing for the entire night. He remembers slightly that she talks about something in his sleep. He remembers what she says but he doesn't understand what she is trying to say. He needs to confirm what she says last night; he is curious about what she means.
As usual, he goes to the gym to work out, he doesn't forget to left her a note to come to the gym when she wakes up. She needs to start a workout and start to build her strength before he starts to teach her self-defense. He isn't a fool; he knows to bring her to his side will make her a dangerous target to bring him down. Besides all bodyguards she has, he will make sure she knows how to defend herself.
He starts with the punching bag. He punches the bag with all the strength he has. In a time like this, he always remembers all his hatred so he can put it out in his punch. With this, he can put out all his stress. He remembers how his father forced him to be like him, a monster without feelings.
The five-year-old Matteo was dragged by his father to the punishment room. Just because he's crying. He remembers that day clearly. He was still asleep in his bed when suddenly he heard his mom screaming. Curious and worried about his mom, he sneaks from his room and breaks his dad's rules not to interfere with his business and stay in his room no matter what.
That time he sees his mom getting beat by one of his men's dads. He tries to separate his mom from the man and biting the man's hand. He tries to protect his mom. Even when his mom doesn't care about him, she is the one who is nice to him. He loves his mom very much. When his little face gets a slap from the man he's crying so hard because he's hurt.
His dad came and dragged him to his punishment room. He is crying for his mom to save him but she just turns around her head and runs to her room. He is hurt by his mom's rejection but the hurt was overthrown by his fear for his father. That night for the first time, he feels his dad whipped him until his little back is injured and bleeding so much. That time he learned not to cry ever in his life.
Leora wakes up with a happy smile. After finishing all his morning routine, including pray to her God, she starts heading to the gym. She almost gets lost when searching for the gym, but one of the maids leading her to the gym.
When she sees his naked back while he punching the bag furiously, she closed her eyes and her face starts getting warm. But she tries not to shy over him. She walks slowly with a head down and tries to tap his back.
But before she taps his back, he suddenly strangles her make her suffocate because of lack of air. Her tears start to flows to her cheeks. She can see his cold eyes staring at her with murderous intent. She whimpers quietly because air tries to leave her body. She can feel she starts to lose her consciousness. But before she lost all her consciousness, she can see his eyes start to softening and he loosen his grip on her neck.
"I'm sorry bambina." He whispered and bring her to his hold and start to kiss her bruised neck.
He keeps repeating how sorry he is to injure his precious girl, while his girl still tries to recover from coughing because air is forced to get to her lungs. She is still in shock and crying. She can't think of anything right now. She can only feel pain in all her body. She can't believe that he can hurt her like this, and she doesn't know the reasons why he does that to her. Right now, she can only feel scared and close her eyes hoping that this is just all the dreams and the pain will be gone.
He phones one of his men to bring the doctor to his room. After that, he carefully brings the crying girl to his room. Never in his entire life, he feels guilty and worry about anything. But this girl in his arms brings a lot of alien feelings to him.
He keeps her close to him. He makes her laying in his body while she curls and hides her face on his chest. He keeps repeating how sorry he is and whispers to her ears. He strokes her head and back gently lulled her to sleep. She still whimpers slightly and crying in her sleep. Her mental is frightened makes her body frailer and tired. He needs to make sure she has a lot of rest so her mind and her body will heal.
There is a knock on the door, he let the knocker in knowing that it'll be the doctor. He makes sure that his man brings a female doctor, he doesn't want any man to touch her beside him. The doctor knows that she can't ask anything about what happened, she just needs to do her job and get out from there without telling anyone about anything. She has had this job long enough to know the rules. So he doesn't need to worry about his girl's information leaking. If his enemy knows about her, it will make her position more dangerous.
When the doctor examines her, she tells that Leora needs a couple of days to recover. She will need a lot of nutrients and soft food because it'll be difficult for her to swallow food. She doesn't allow her to speak for two days, because her throat is injured. Fortunately, her throat is not swollen, he holds her not too tight to make her injured badly but enough to make a nasty bruise on her delicate neck. After leaving a lot of medicines for her, the doctor leaves the sleeping girl.
He feels remorseful after doing such a bad thing to her. He promised her to not ever hurt her but at the end of the day, he still hurt her. He feels bad but he doesn't want to let go of his girl. He will try to be better for, he will try anything so he can earn forgiveness. He keeps stroking her head and whispers sweet nothing to the sleeping girl.
Two hours after staring at his sleeping beauty, her eyes finally fluttering to open. She blinking slightly and start whimpering from the pain in her throat. He brought her close and attempt to hush the girl. But he can feel her rigid body, he can tell, he successfully makes her scared of him again.
"I'm sorry. I don't intend to hurt you. You are scared of me again." He stated the fact.
Leora can see how much despair is in his eyes. She knows he doesn't mean to hurt her. She already forgives him, after all, she can see how hurt he is and how he cares for her. She understands that he doesn't express his feelings to anyone, but now she can see how he feels guilty and scared that she will hate him.
When she tries to tell him that she doesn't scared of him, she winches at the pain in her throat makes her tear up again. He knows she wants to speak and he hushed her for not speaking. He takes warm water and the pain medication and lets her consume its first to decrease the pain.
"Don't use your throat. You don't allow to speak for two days long. Here write it on here." He gives her, his phone to write what she wants to says.
'I'm not scared of you. My body does. After all, my body is still in shock of what happens and it's not my body's fault to be guarded around you. But please believe that my consciousness is not scared and already forgive you.' She writes on the phone and gives it to him.
He reads and feels relief and grateful that she forgives him. He knows he needs to makes her comfortable again around him and that includes not touching her forcefully like he always does. He will make some distance from her. She needs her rest and he needs to make sure she can restfully for two days long.
"I don't deserve your forgiveness but thank you bambina." He says smiling beautifully at her.
She blushes and hid her head behind the blanket. He laughs at her cuteness, besides this rough morning, he can enjoy the day because of his girl. He thanks whatever Gods in there for letting her stumble and falling in his hand. If it is a mistake makes by God, he doesn't care, he will make sure she will always be here in his hold the place she belongs.
"Sleep bambina, you need a lot of sleep. I'll be here for you if you need anything." He whispers sweetly in her ears and kisses her forehead after he sees her yawning. The medicine makes her sleep so her body can rest. When she wakes up again he needs to make warm soup for her.