A Lifetime With You by Athrhteera

Matteo

We had spent almost an hour in the bathroom, enjoying ourselves. We were comfortable in the bathtub as we cleaned ourselves up that we had forgotten it was already late and we needed to get some rest. At least for tonight, we could sleep better knowing we were together.

It had been tough for me to get a good night's sleep after she was taken away from me.

I had tried to come home but whenever I was alone, I kept seeing her around the house. I keep hearing her voice. It was beginning to make me go crazy because I knew she wasn't there, those were just memories of us. Alena had had decided to ecided to sleep in my clothes because she wanted to smell me. It helped to calm her down and I couldn't help myself from smiling when I saw her sleeping soundly beside me in my sweatshirt and shorts. She had her arm wrapped around my waist as she snuggled as close as possible, afraid if I was ever going to leave. always loved watching her sleep. Even

I had during the early stages of our marriage. After Mikhail and Alexei took her away from me that night, I had tried to calm myself down but nothing worked. I had thrashed the house and broke a few things but luckily enough, Angelo was there to help me out-he was worried, he almost called Luca. Luca found out about it in the morning and he had sworn to seek revenge.

As

s much as I liked the idea of killing Mikhail and Alexei, I couldn't. They were two important people in Alena's life and they were her family. As much as they threatened me, as much as they tried to reason with me in the beginning, they had no right to take her away but I knew they just wanted to protect their princess. As if I couldn't protect her well enough. It had ruined me.

I had lost myself.

When Alena was gone, I had

It wasn't easy for me and Ale and Alexei knew that, he saw it when I had begged for his help. I felt as if I was betrayed when he decided to listen to Mikhail instead of trying to reason. For once in my life, I life, I wasn't afraid to admit about my failure. I had failed to protect Alena when she was kidnapped because I knew I should've tried harder to look for her when she left. She wasn't even anywhere unknown, she was at our vacation. villa. I should've known better than to better than look elsewhere. Ever

Mikhail and Alexei assumed as if I never cared for my wife. They assumed as if I was incapable of taking care of Alena.

since the shooting incident where I was shot, I had slowed down on joining any dangerous activities. I focused on interrogating because I didn't want Alena to worry about my safety, I didn't want her to lose me. Besides, I knew I wasn't ready to leave her behind. I had to find another way to settle this issue between her family had to.

I looked down at Alena before kissing the top of her head.

My Alena was fragile. As strong as she appeared, she was fragile. If I was destined to not live a long life with her, she deserved to be protected from all harms of the world but death took me away, I wanted to be the one to protect her. "Can't sleep?"

I blinked a few times before looking at Alena, seeing her sleepy eyes staring at me.

45

45

My lips curved up into a small smile, finding her to be cute. Her gaze was adorable and she never failed to make me fall in love with her countless times; even if she told me she wasn't doing anything. She didn't have to do anything to make me fall for her.

Alená just needed to be herself. Herself was already perfect.

I shook my head as an answer.

"What's wrong? What are you thinking about?" She asked, adjusting her head on the pillow.

I turned to look at her, "About you."

"About me

t me?"

I

I nodded, smiling.

"What about me?"

"About how much I love you."

"But you look a bit worried,"

"Still. Just worried about you, baby."

You told me not to worry. Now, you're worried?"

Alow chuckle escaped my lips after realising. My wife was a clever one and I could never deny that, she could counter me with another comeback if she wanted to.

"Clever little one, aren't you?" I playfully pinched her nose.

"Mm! It's not fair. Matteo.

Mm! not fair, Matteo.

"I'm just thinking about you, Alena. That's all."

"You can think about me as much as you want but you can't be worried. You told me not to worry and overthink, you shouldn't either." She replied, grabbing onto my hand before kissing the back of it-the action had calmed me down immediately. I I watched as she continued to stare at me.

I couldn't remember the countless times I had wondered about her. About how lucky I was to end up with a woman like her, a perfect one. I knew our lives were aligned and we were always destined to be meet each other but I couldn't help wonder. Alena was too good for me. Too perfect.

I had tainted and ruined the good parts in her. If she met someone else instead of me, she was probably going to be safer and happier but I knew that wasn't the truth. That night, she could've kissed someone else but she kissed me. She could've chosen someone else to marry but she had chosen me.

I was supposed to be grateful for being her husband.

"Matteo!" She called, breaking my thoughts.

laughed, "I'm listening. I hear you,"

You were zoning out."

I'm not, baby. I promise."

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A frown had appeared in between her brows as she pouted, "If you're going to worry and overthink, don't get mad if I overthink too."

"Okay, okay, I'm not overthinking. I'm just thinking about how lucky I am to have you in my life, Alena. I'm just thinking about how perfect you are," I replied with a smile plastered on my face, trying my hardest to convince her. She sat up before squinting her eyes, trying to find any lies. You're just trying to make me smile," she replied.

"Is it working?"

It took her a few seconds to finally give in and a smile had appeared. It wasn't the same smile as before, it wasn't a grin but it was enough to know I had caused her to smile. It was enough for me to know I could still make her smile. My hand reached out to grab onto her face before slowly kissing her lips, loving the feeling of the softness. If I could kiss her every single minute, I knew I would because I couldn't get enough of her. She had became the air I breathed. I leaned back, looking into her eyes.

"We'll find a way to settle this, I promise." I said, assuring her.

"Without guns and knives?"

I stayed still for awhile, trying to think of the ways it could happen without violence. As long as Mikhail and Alexer wanted to keep their guns away, it was fine by me. As long as we could discuss as grown adults without harming anybody, it was certainly better. It was for Alena's sake.

Alena had changed me for the better because before she came into my life, I only wanted things to be settled my way. I was never bothered about the amount of men I had killed as long as I could things done but with Alena

of the consequences.

orthe

With Alena Rose Lerclerc in my life, I had to think of her first.

"Without guns and knives.

She smiled again before kissing my cheek, making me smile back.

y life, I

I

I had to think

If I could turn back time, I wanted to. Not because I wanted a life without Alena but I wanted a life where everything was perfect with Alena. A life where I had chosen differently just to make sure she was safe by my side but I knew that was impossible. I could never turn back time.

We had made the choices when we had the chance and now, we were forced to live in it.

"I love you, baby." I whispered, looking in her eyes. "I love you,

too. I wrapped my arms around her to pull her in for a hug, wanting to have her close. Whenever things were rough, this could make me feel better. We didn't have to spend hours talking, we just needed to be in each other's arms for comfort. At least that was it for me. I had lived a life before I knew Alena and it was dull. I had lived a life without Alena after I had known her, it was suffocating. We were destined to be together and we needed to work as hard as we could to make sure we remained together, regardless of the amount of obstacles we were going to face in the future.

Alena and I needed to figure out the situation with Mikhail. Once that was settled, I needed to find out about the culprit

behind Alena's kidnapping. If I could work together with Mikhail and Alexei, we could find him quicker.

The longer he remained free out there, the more danger could come to us. To Alena.

My safety was no longer a priority at this moment. Alena's safety was the priority, she needed to be safe first before I could prioritise mine and I needed a solution as soon as possible. It was clear to me, I had to begin with Mikhail and Alexei.

The Russians were powerful, they had a lot of power and alliances.

If their main concern was their Bratva princess, they had to listen. Despite the bad blood between the Russians and the Italians, it left us with no choice but to push it away-we had to push away our differences and disagreements, we had other important things to think about. We shared the same priority.

The Bratva hated me? They despised me?

Ironically, their Bratva princess was my wife. SENDContent (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.