Prologue
Noa 2024
As I stand here in a graveyard looking at the casket of the man I love, I want to die. I want to die but then I look down and see the beautiful hazel eyes of our daughter, Willow. Her eyes were big and bold just like his. Her nose has the same button tip just like his. We created a beautiful little girl. My heart shatters at the fact that she may never remember her father. She only had three years with him and she was supposed to have many more. Will I be strong enough to tell her the memories I have of her father? Will I be strong enough to explain to her the line of work her father was in? Do I have what it takes to protect her from the dangers that come with the last name De Luca? I’m wearing his favorite black dress, the long one with gold buttons down the front. He loved it because it was his favorite thing to unbutton them. I dressed Willow in her big black tutu because her daddy loved it when she wore tutus. I have been such a wreck these last couple of days, this is the first time I have tamed my curly hair. I wore the first pair of black Christian Louboutin pumps Aldo bought me. I finished the look with my black Prada shades. Everything I wore was something that Aldo bought me. Something he loved to see me in. I was his muse. I was his everything.
I look at this black casket and have flashbacks of Aldo’s lifeless body lying in our living room, the gunman standing tall over him. I will never be able to get that image out of my mind. I will never forget the feeling I felt, the urge to run to my love but also the urge to go grab our daughter and keep her safe. I have flashbacks of the love Aldo made to me when he found out I was pregnant. I only got eight years with him and Lord knows I deserved many more. Willow deserved to be a big sister to four younger siblings. Aldo and I were supposed to grow old together, it was not supposed to end this soon. Our life was planned out, we were supposed to move away from Lake Como and move somewhere off the grid. I feel like he betrayed me. I’m angry with him. How could he leave me like this? Just like my mom and dad. Noa Jade, the girl with no mom, no dad, and no husband. Standing next to me is Aldo’s mother Anna, his father Antonio, his sister Caterina and his brother Enzo. Behind Enzo was my best friend Steph. Anna is a beautiful woman with long black hair, today she has it tucked in a tight bun. She’s wearing an elegant custom Louis Vuitton dress with So Kate heels. She wore beautiful Van Cleef bracelets, earrings, and a matching necklace. Antonio was just as handsome as Aldo. His hair was grey and slicked back. He towered over Anna but like how Aldo towered over me. He wore his typical all-black suit with an Audemars Piguet on his wrist. Aldo always told me how his father’s watch collection was full of them. Caterina looks stunning as always. She was a sight for sore eyes. Even when she was grieving she was angelic. She wore her hair down with a middle part with black Louis Vuitton shades. She wore a long black gown and her signature Versace pumps, gifted to her by Donatella herself. Enzo was dapper as always. He was so handsome, I just wish his temper was better. He wore an all-black Celine tux with Jimmy Choo dress shoes. He wore his usual Chrome Hearts accessories. Steph stood behind us all with her head down. She wore a custom Versace gown with matching heels. She paired the look with jewelry from her mom’s jewelry company. They aren’t surprised that Aldo is dead. They expected it. I look around the casket and I see all of the men who worked for Aldo standing alongside their wives. They all look amazing, Aldo would be proud that they pulled it together for his funeral. He loved fashion and he always wanted everyone around him to dress just as nice as him. Aldo was loved by so many. I wish my mother was here. I wish she could hold me, I feel so alone right now. Everyone is looking at me with so much sympathy, looking at me just waiting for me to fall to the ground. If it wasn’t for Willow I’d probably be trying to open the casket to get to my love.
“Noa, would you like to say any words before they lower the casket?” Aldo’s sister asks taking me out of my trance. I had zoned out. Through all the speeches I was zoned out, through all the prayers, I was zoned out. Before I knew it the funeral was about to be over. I wasn’t ready for it to be over. They can’t put my love into the ground. I nodded and gently handed Willow to her aunt. Willow was a ball of energy and she was so happy to be around her aunts and uncles. When I made my way to the casket, my heart felt heavier than it had already felt. “To my love, how did we get here?” I started my speech with a shaky voice. I had not planned to say anything today. “I look at our daughter and I just want to fall to my knees, I wish she had more time with him.” Willow is giggling in her aunt’s arms as Enzo makes silly faces at her. Even though Enzo has a bad temper, I will say that with Willow he was such a teddy bear. “Aldo loved each and everyone here, he was truly an amazing man to love and I feel blessed that I knew him.” I take a deep breath as I can feel an anxiety attack coming. I place my hand on the casket, even when he’s dead he’s calming me down. “Aldo my love, please come visit me in my dreams. I don’t know how Willow and I are going to go on without you. I am going to need your guidance.” I begin to sob, and I feel a familiar set of hands, Steph is grabbing me and moving me away from the casket. Aldo’s mother and father make their way to the casket and say a prayer in Italian. His mother looks so exhausted. No mother should have to bury their child. She hugs the casket and her husband has to pry her off. She doesn’t want to let go of her son. As I watch them lower the casket to the ground, I lose it. I can no longer keep it together, it just all feels too real. Caterina kisses me on the cheek and places Willow in my arms once I get myself together. She whispers in my ear “ti amerà sempre”he will always love you.
Aldo and I had the greatest love story of all. So much passion, adventures, and true love. Aldo was the first man I have ever loved and he will be the last man I ever love. No one is ever going to make me feel like Aldo has. He made me feel beautiful. He made me feel like I was the only woman in the world, the only woman he saw. I’ve never met anyone that knew all the correct spots to touch. He knew how to make me cum with just his tongue. He knew how to make love to me. Aldo was a man that was so gentle with me. Constantly kissing me, never letting a day go by without telling me he loved me and constantly holding me. A man who cried like a baby when he first saw Willow. A man that was going to leave the mafia when Willow turned four. Who’s going to hold me? Who’s going to love me? Who’s going to save me when my anxiety gets the best of me? Who’s going to reassure me I’m a good mother? Aldo did all of that for me. Aldo De Luca was and will always be the love of my life and our story will be heard far and wide.
