All I Believe Read Free

your break-up would help you, too. It’s not good to leave this stuff bottled up.”
    “Last night just caught me off guard, that’s all. I’m fine, Jessie. Really.” It was a lie I told so often that it had started to sound convincing.
    He watched me for a few moments, and I offered him a little smile. I knew how to make that look real, too. Then he said, “Well, okay. But if you ever do decide to talk about it, I hope you know I’m always available, twenty-four-seven.”
    I thanked him and gave his arm a squeeze before turning to look out the window. All of Los Angeles stretched into the distance. It was just after sunset. The sky was purple, and lights were coming on all over the city.
    If Erik still had the same shift at the hospital, he’d be coming home to a pretty, white house in the hills right about now and turning on one of those lights. Gavin, my former best friend, would get home soon after. I pictured them in the kitchen making dinner together, my kitchen, which I’d painstakingly renovated when Erik and I bought that house. I’d done a lot of the work myself. It was a labor of love. I’d thought I was making a home for us and that we’d live there forever. I’d been so naïve.

Chapter Two
     
    The overnight flight from L.A. to Rome was capped off with a second flight from Rome to Catania, on the east coast of Sicily. Jessie’s suitcase and all nine of Nana’s bags made it. Mine did not. I sighed quietly as the gate agent assured me they’d put a trace on it and deliver it to my hotel when it was found.
    A town car and driver were waiting for us in Catania. It took another forty-five minutes to drive down the coast to Viladembursa. I’d never been able to sleep on planes, so by the time we arrived at our destination, I was pretty much ready for a cameo on The Walking Dead.
    Our hotel was the same one my family had stayed in when we visited over ten years ago, and it had changed very little. The lobby was opulent with a tasteful undersea theme, and decorated in rich shades of gold and royal blue. Big sculptures that looked like coral and lavish floral arrangements punctuated the huge space. I noticed the flowers only because I almost knocked over a vase as I leaned on a side table and waited for Nana to complete check-in.
    We had a spacious suite on the top floor. Three bedrooms surrounded a light, airy living room with high ceilings. I got a vague impression of pale blue walls and blue-and-white pin-striped furniture as I said goodnight to Nana and Jessie and made a beeline for my bedroom. I had no idea what the local time was, and I didn’t care. I dropped my backpack on the floor and collapsed face-down on top of the fluffy, white duvet.
     
    *****
     
    I awoke with a start sometime later. The room was dark and stuffy. The clock read five-thirteen, and my jetlagged brain eventually worked out that it was early morning. I swung out of bed and crossed the room to a set of double doors, which opened to a narrow balcony overlooking the town’s piazza. The suite was on the top floor of the six-story hotel, and since it was the tallest building around, the view was terrific. Viladembursa had begun as a quiet fishing village in the sixteen-hundreds, but it had expanded over the centuries to a city of nearly thirty-thousand people. You’d never know that from my vantage point, though.
    The large hotel made up one side of the historic town square. Directly across from it was a row of businesses, including a bakery, a couple shops and restaurants, and a café, all of which I remembered from my last visit. The sea was directly behind us, and beyond the piazza, the original part of the city blanketed the hillside. To my left was an ornate building that had been divided into apartments at some point, and to my right was a farmer’s market which probably hadn’t changed at all since the town’s inception. I took all of that in before turning my attention to the large fountain.
    It wasn’t dead-center