Legacy.

July 2017, Turkey.

Martina:

It was another warm sunny day in Turkey. There were people anywhere; All streets full of people, both families, elders, and young people. The same goes for the beaches, the hotels and anywhere else. Ever since I turned eight-teen, my best friend and I have been traveling to Turkey every summer, and here we are once again. We are ready for another summer full of drinking, dancing, flirting, one night stands, and sun. This trip has always been my favorite, and I was always looking forward to it, and this year was no exception. I wanted a summer full of partying and fun nights, but what did I get? I fell in love for the first time and got my first heartbreak at the age of twenty years old. Which woman hasn’t been in love before they turn twenty? Not anyone I know, that’s for sure.

It was now our last day in Turkey for this time, and I wasn’t ready for him to break my heart. He hadn’t said he would break it, but I knew he would. Why, do you ask? Because I’m a twenty-year-old woman and I had never felt anything for a man before I met him, he made me doubt everything I have ever believed. He made me feel like I was a little girl who was about to open presents on Christmas eve. He tore my legs away from me with his charm. He was every woman’s dream, and he chooses to use a whole summer on me, I don’t understand why a man like him would want to spend every single day for months with a woman like me. It was late afternoon and the evening sun was here, there weren’t many people back on the beach. I walked away from the people and walked out to the water, I walked into the water so my feet could feel the warm water and I looked at the beautiful sunset, and just like that, I was lost in my thoughts. I’m not sure for how long I was lost in my thoughts, but suddenly, I couldn’t feel the sun anymore because of his shadow. He was here, the man who had made me fall madly in love was here. I turned around and saw him.

Kol Santoro. He has some slicked-back black hair, and it’s wet, beautiful dark brown eyes, and doesn’t even get me started on how good his body looks in those black shorts and that grey tank top. You could see he was pumped and some of his many tattoos. He has tattoos on both arms and shoulders, and they made him a hundred times sexier. Kol has a hot and dreamy body, and I can’t deny it. But what made me fall in love with him was his charming personality and how loving he is. He stood about ten meters from me and looked at me with a flirty yet lovely smile and a twinkle in his eyes.

Kol:

I came down to the beach to meet Martina, and I stopped around ten feet away from her. It looked like she was in deep thought while looking out in the ocean. The sun made her long blonde hair shine like gold, and her neutral skin color had never looked more beautiful than in the evening sun. Martina is the most gorgeous woman I have ever met in my entire life, and I have met a lot of women. But no woman has made me fall madly in love with them in such short of time, but Martina did, and tonight might be the last time I will see her. It breaks my heart to know that I might not see her again after tonight, but at the same time, I want to spend every second with her and not let any time go to waste.

By the time I came out of my thoughts, Martina was facing me and smiling at me with her little innocent smile. Martina has long blonde hair, the most beautiful ice blue eyes which you could easily get lost in, the most innocent but yet charming smile. Martina didn’t use makeup for the most part, and when she does, it wasn’t much. I love how natural she is. Martina was wearing some tight shorts and a black kind of bra. But It didn’t matter what Martina was wearing or how she put her hair, for to me; She will always be a gorgeous woman and nobody can beat her. Martina started to walk towards me slowly after we had been staring at each other for a few minutes. We met halfway, and when we met, I lifted her, and she twisted her legs around me. I kissed her softly but with so much emotion in that kiss. It was almost like a magic kiss. Martina withdrew from the kiss, and we looked at each other deep in the eyes, and at that moment, I knew it. Martina my only one for me, and I will do anything to see her again when we get home.

″I love you, Tini. ″

″I love you too, Kol. ″

Martina’s smile disappeared, and sadness came over her face, I kissed her on her forehead and whispered:

″ What’s going on with the sad face? ″

″ What if we never will see each other again? ″

I took a deep breath but kept eye contact with Martina because the thought of never seeing her again broke my heart.

″ If we are meant to be, we will meet again.″

″ Do you think we are meant to be, Kol? ″

″ I know, we are meant to be, Tini, and that’s why we will see each other again.″

But I was wrong, we never saw each other again, and that was the thing that broke me. ____________________________________________________________

February 2020, Fallsdale.

Martina:

In some mouths, it has been three years since I last saw Kol, but it doesn’t hurt anymore because I moved on. I fell madly in love and got my heart broken in all three months, and honestly, I never want to feel that kind of pain again. I know to different types of pain, but heartbreak was one of the worst kinds of pain I have experienced. I’m standing in front of the mirror in my room, about to get ready for work, but somehow my thoughts found back to Kol and how long I took to get over him. Every time I ended up thinking of Kol and what we had, I just want to go back to bed and stay there. But, I can’t do that anymore and I shouldn’t want to do that because it has been years since we dropped the contact. I got lost in my thoughts again, but suddenly, I came back to reality when I could feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. I took my phone up and saw Hayley was calling me, and I already knew I was going to lose my shit, she’s kinda annoying. Hayley started to work in the same place as me a few months ago. It’s not because she isn’t a nice woman, but she seems like the sugar-sweet kind of person, and I’m not like that. We’re just very different people. I don’t have any patience. I dyed my hair from blonde to some Rose pink color because I wanted to try something new, and all my customers think it’s funny and fits with my job. I don’t really have friends, not because I can’t get any, but because I don’t do the whole ″friends″ thing, I don’t trust anyone besides my father, and he’s all I need. Hayley kept calling me, and I was already in a bad mood, so I guess it can’t get any worse.

″What do you want, Hayley?″

Hayley started to complain about Jeff and apparently going crazy at work. I often come late to work, and Hayley always covers for me, but Jeff found out, and now, he’s going crazy. To my luck, I know Jeff would never fire me for coming late because the customers love me, and I’m good at my job.

″I’m on my way, Hayley, I will be there in 30. I will handle this, ok?″ I said, annoyed, and hung up. I looked at myself in the mirror; I’m wearing some old dark blue jeans and a loose white top and put my hair up in a messy bun and walked down in my living room, where my father was asleep on the couch. My father is an alcoholic; he did try to become clean, but then he lost his job a year ago, and that made his drinking problem much worse than it already was. I don’t care or give a shit about much in life, but I do when it comes to my father, he’s everything I have. My mother left us when I was little, so for a long time, it has just been my father and me. I’m okay with that because that’s all I know, I don’t even remember having a mother so why should I care? But it breaks me to see my father hurting so much. He never got over my mother leaving us, and a few years ago, he started to drink, and with time, it became worse and worse. My father has done everything right when it comes to me, he tried his best to give me a good life, and I don’t have anything I can complain about, because he tried and he never left me as my mother did. I won’t say I hate her, because that’s a strong word, but I hope she will stay away from us forever because she has destroyed my father.

My father can come home late at night, and sometimes even in the early morning hours covered in blood, he can become violent when he drinks too much, but he has never hurt me in any way. I have tried to help my father to quit his drinking, but he always falls back into it. I took a deep breath and left for work because I need my job to could pay for our home, food, my father’s alcohol, and everything else we might need.

_____________________________________________________________

″ Oh lord! ″ Jeff moaned.

″ What? ″ I said, annoyed.

″You never fail to impress me, Martina, you know how to make me feel better. ″ Jeff said breathlessly.

″ I should be good when it comes to sex, I mean, it’s my job after all. ″ I said with a little smile on my face.

″ There is nobody better than you in this industry, I wish I could have you all to myself. ″ Jeff said

I got up from the bed and started to take my clothes on, and I could feel Jeff’s eyes looking at me.

″What are you doing, Martina? ″ Jeff said in a tone like I had forgotten something.

″I’m taking my clothes on because your turn is over. I have other customers than you, Jeff. ″ I said with my arms crossed.

″ I’m more than just a customer. ″ Jeff said.

″ You’re a customer just like anyone else Jeff, why would you else take my time? ″ I said.

″ Because I want you, and you know that I always get what I want and, it’s the only way I can get a conversation with you. ″ Jeff said bossily.

″ We’re not a fucking couple, Jeff, and we will never be. Do you understand what I’m saying? ′ I said angrily.

I took my shirt on and left the room while slamming the door in anger. I went into our break living room. I went over to the couch to lay down before my next customer would come. I know that I can’t keep this job forever because for how long do I want to sleep with men for a living? For how long can I do this without getting caught? I’m a prostitute, and I’m not ashamed of myself. I love sex, and I couldn’t get any other job, so here I am. I don’t have any education or even finished high school, I’m not good at many things, but having sex? That’s something I’m very good at, and my customers never complain. In this business, we can’t use or real name, so I choose to use my nickname ″Tini″, and my customers love the name and my rose pink hair, and then we always have costumes on to make it more of a game. I never thought this would be my life for long, but now I have been doing this for one and a half years, and I kind of like it now, so why not just continue?

_____________________________________________________________________

London, England.

Kol:

It was another cold day with snow here in London. I enjoyed the cold and the snow on the closest playground with my twelve-year-old daughter. Amara is my biggest love in life. She makes me happier than I have ever been before, and I could never regret having her because she’s the light in my life. Amara’s mother, on the other side, I can’t take that woman. Davina is terrible and such a bitch. I can go as far as to say I even hate her, but she’s Amara’s mother, so I don’t have a choice than try to get along with her. Amara was playing with her friend from school, and the friend’s parents were standing at the other end of the playground and talking, I sent a smile their way, and I got a warm smile back. While I was sitting on a bench with a warm coffee, my mind found back to Martina. I began to think about our summer together and just her in general. I was often thinking about her even after two and a half years. I know that it sounds strange that I still think of Martina, but I do.

Analyze’s show that we never forget about our first love, and I begin to think that’s true. It may seem strange that a twenty-six-year-old man only has had one bog epic love, and for me, that was Martina. We dropped contact three months after we came home from Turkey almost three years ago because we live in two different countries and none of us were able to travel and visit the other. Our relationship fell apart, and we never spoke again. It broke me that I knew Martina wasn’t mine anymore or wasn’t she even mine in the first place? Probably not, because I never asked her to mine, and I regret that in some ways now. I was in a dark place for a long time afterward.

Nobody besides my best friend Zac knows about Martina and me because I was cheating on Davina with Martina, but I don’t regret it for a second. Davina and I started as a one night stand, and two months later, she tells me that she’s pregnant. I’m not a person who ever would walk away from a child, and especially not my own. So, I did the thing my parents wanted me to do, I married Davina, and we moved into this big house here in London. Davina and I haven’t been together since that one night, and to be honest? I’m not planning on sleeping with her, because god knows how many men she’s sleeping with every time I’m out for business. We don’t love each other, and we never will. We’re only together because of Amara. I came back to reality when my phone started to ring. I took it up from the table and saw it was Shella Renaldi. An old friend of my family and I haven’t heard or seen her since her daughter died some years ago.

″ Shella, what can I do for you? ″

Shella was all over the place. She was crying but was happy at the same time. At first, I couldn’t understand anything but that she wanted my help with something. And, of course, I would help her if I could, but what she told me had me in chock.

″ I will be there tomorrow, you know that I always am here to help if I can. ″ I said happy and hung up the phone. I called on Amara. She ran over here with the biggest smile on her face. She was now sitting next to me on the bench.

″You have to leave again, aren’t you, daddy? ″ Amara said with sadness in her eyes but with a little smile on her face.

″Yes, I have to go on a little trip to help an old friend. Don’t be sad, Amara, I will be back home before you even know it. I said with a warm smile.

″I’m just going to miss you, daddy. ″ Amara said sadly.

″I’m going to miss you much more, cutie-pie, you know that I have to leave you, but I have to help my friend Shella. ″ I said.

Amara’s smile was now long gone, and I hated to see her sad because she’s my little girl, and I want to do anything to make her happy.

″Come over here and give your old man a big hug, and then we can go home and watch a movie and maybe even get some ice cream. What do you say? ″ I said with hope for a smile from Amara.

Amara came over to me and gave me the biggest hug, I hold her tight to me, and I smiled.

″I love you, Amara. ″ I said.

″ I love you too, daddy, but you need to let go of me because you’re hugging me too tight. Amara says and laughs.

_______________________________________________________________________

That night back in Fallsdale.

Martina:

When I got off work today, I was so pissed at Jeff, who do hell does he think he is? Jeff acts as he owns me at work, and when I meet him randomly. I hate it because nobody fucking owns me, I’m a person, not a fucking object. I walked home in the dark streets, which was so stupid because I live in an area, and it isn’t safe for a woman to walk alone in the dark here. But as always, I don’t really give a shit about it, and besides, I can take care of myself because I don’t have anyone to do it, but I don’t need one to protect me either. I had a bad day. I have a lot of bad days lately, and I’m not sure what I can change in my life for the days to get better. Maybe this is just how my life is meant to be; No happiness, no love, no friends. Only my father and me living together.

For the first time in weeks, there was light in my house, which was very strange because my father uses to have left by now to go out drinking at a bar or something. Maybe he forgot to turn the light off when he left because he has forgotten that before. I walked up to the door and wanted to lock the door up, but it wasn’t locked, and then I just knew my father must be so fucking drunk somewhere. I don’t care how drunk he gets and what he usually does, but I want my door to the house to be locked because we can’t afford to move to another home. I walked in, and I could hear voices in the kitchen, which was very strange and never had happened before. I stop up and look at my phone, the time is 11 pm, and now I could hear my father and a woman’s voice. I walked out in the kitchen, and my father wasn’t drunk or anything. He had showered, and he has very formel clothes on, I will go as far as to say that he wanted to impress this older beautiful woman. She had blonde hair, and it was sat up in some fancy hairstyle and had formal pants on and a business jacket.

My father and the woman hadn’t noticed me yet, so I thought, why not listen to what they’re talking about.

″Have you told her anything yet? ″ The woman said with sadness in her voice.

″No, I don’t know how to tell her. We made a deal, and I didn’t want to break it. ″ My father said.

″Athena’s death changed everything, John. ″ The woman said.

What were they talking about? It all seemed so strange to me because my father didn’t have friends, and especially not a blonde woman as a friend. My father saw me and took a deep breath, and the woman was also looking at me now.

″You’re home early, Martina. ″ My father said with an unsure smile.

″No, dad, I’m home late, but you don’t use to be home when I come home from work. ″ I said.

″You look exactly like your mother. ″ The woman said with sadness yet happiness.

″I’m sorry, but do I know you? ″ I said.

″This is Shella Renaldi, and she’s your grandmother. She’s here because she wanted to tell us that your mother has passed away. ″ My father said with sadness.

″Are you sad over the woman who left us are dead? How? She destroyed your life, dad. ″ I said, annoyed.

″Your mother did what she had to do, she loved you so much, Martina. There didn’t go a day where she didn’t think of you. ″ Shella said while a tear runs down her cheek.

″I should have told you the truth a long time ago, but I couldn’t, Martina, and I’m so sorry for that and for being a terrible father for you. ″ My father said.

″I don’t want to listen on this anymore, that woman abandon us! Why should we care about her death? ″ I said angrily.

″Because your mother was the queen of the island Mljet, and without you, our legacy will die, Martina. We need you. ″

″I couldn’t tell you anything about your mother or who you are because of a contract we made when you were a baby. ″ My father said while looking down on the floor.

″Let me understand this right; My mother didn’t leave me, and you kept for me who my mother was and that she loved me? And now I never get the chance to meet my mother?! ″ I said in anger.

″I can explain... ″ My father said.

″I won’t hear another word! You lied to me about who I am, and now because she’s fucking dead, I get to know the truth about my mother?! ″ I yelled while tears run down my cheek.

″Martina...″ My father said.

″No! You lied to me for my whole life! You could have stopped me from all my mistakes if you had told me the truth! ″I yelled.

To be continued...