our Year

I have a pie

ror at the grinning angel that

, not yet." I gri

ut his lower lip, mak

this world despite all the cha

remembered how many times I tried to get rid

k I felt was greater than the pain of bei

ck then, and I didn't want a respon

things and moved to another city. I knew for sure the Hayden would force

thrill, and blood smell w

by's heartbeat and his little kicks. Not after I began to f

fia family in America and Italy. Even the fact that

ill with my little angel features, he inherited

pared everything to celebrate wit

htly tense as he walked beside me, h

e while holding the cake and the c

ome to my bir

me Angelo had asked about his father. Ever since he sta

ped walking, "I've told you before, darling. Your

Mammy. There's a man ..." He paused, then looked up at my face and continued, "There's

impossible, as he still stumbled over some words, b

all the time. But I thought that was due to me be

y when he saw the decorations on his

I whispered and

decorations, and the children were

awn to a large, elegantly wrapped gift box near the others. 'I hope his

fearing it might be from the photographer Giovanni-I had told him

ed the message, the b

eet at Dolce

e my eyes, as if I had

't proce

rc

and I had changed my number since my last contact w

hy I felt this irrational fear. The Haydens no long

etti, do y

eresa's voice-Angelo's

o chase away the unexplain

zoned out a bi

ou look pale," she asked

started before work calls me. I told the

ed me threw me away and disowned me, I created a page under the alias "Serafina." And here I was now, one of the world's most

ast birthdays filled my mind-back when I was surrou

at fak

ly mistake I made, they c

hadow of sadness all day-e

o kept ringing in my e

ed the car outside the house. I

k, eager to open the pres

large, professionally wrapped box-its luxurious loo