Alina:

“I’m sorry, love. I really am, but it was her last wish. I hope that you’d at least give it a try,” my father said to me, worry evident in his trembling voice.

“Please, Papa! There has to be another way.” I pleaded desperately as I sat on a chair beside his hospital bed. His hands trembled in mine, but it wasn’t due to old age. My father was dying and this...was his last wish.

“There would have been if Sheena was...” His eyes watered as he spoke her name, my beloved mother, and my heart broke all over again. He loved her even now, even years after she was gone. I knew that part of the reason his condition kept getting worse, even after the best treatment in the world, was because he had given up on life the day my mother’s heart stopped beating.

The only thing that held him here, right now, was me.

“B-but I don’t want to get married, Papa! Not yet! I’m only twenty-two.” I tried to keep my voice pleading, but even I could hear the panic seeping in.

“I’m so sorry, my darling. I don’t want to see you get married so early either, but I don’t have much time left. I have to know that you’ll be well taken care of,” my dad said sadly, “that you’ll be safe.”

“But, Papa, they’re va—”

“Ms. Deluca, visiting hours are over.” The nurse cut me off as she strode into the room, saline bottle and more medicines in hand. “He’s been better this past week, so try to visit as much as possible, but he does need to rest now,” she said with a smile.

My lips trembled, but I kept my emotions in check. I didn’t want my papa to see me crumble in front of him…it would break him further if that happened. So I had to try my best to keep it all in.

“Yes, of course. I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodnight, Papa.” I gave him my best smile even as tears pooled in my eyes and planted a kiss on his forehead before I turned to leave.

“Goodnight, my child. Be safe.”

Safe? That wasn’t a word I could use casually, now, could I? Not after the mess my life had become.

I walked out of his cabin and said goodbye to people I knew, the nurses and doctors who had been tending to my father for years now. Occasionally, I also waved at little children who skipped and pranced around me as they made their way to the playroom in the children’s ward. I already knew some of them since my father’s room was right next to the nursery. Today, though, I couldn’t even manage a smile. The instant I walked out into the parking lot, the heavy rain hit me like a bullet, drenching me from head to toe.

Good, I thought. At least, it would hide my tears. It would keep people from knowing the demons that haunt me every waking hour of the day, and of the secrets I could never tell even if it killed me.

I stood alone in the parking lot next to my car with the rain mercilessly tattooing against my skin. The only thing I wished with all my heart was to erase a night four years ago that had changed my life forever.

But it seemed…that would no longer be possible.

Because now…I was about to get married to the last person that I ever wanted to see again.

My tormentor…my bully…the Vampire Prince.