89. Man in my bed...

After leaving Frankie to scream and burn, Zeno headed straight back to the DeFalco mansion, and he met Edoardo still inside Luna's room, he had fallen asleep there. He woke the man up and told him to get some rest.

Left alone with her in the room, he climbed onto the bed and laid down beside her, and he held her tiny hands in his own. She was covered in plasters and band-aids from head to toe. "Forgive me," And he leaned closer to her and kissed the side of her head, gently squeezing her hand in his own, he kissed her forehead too, and her eyes. "Forgive me, my love." He says again, and there was a cut on the side of her lips, and he leaned in and kissed her there too. Taking his palm to her face, caressing her gently with his thumb.

"I can't take it if you're angry at me for too long. So you have to forgive me, my love." He kisses her cheek. "Life without you is just too hard to bare. I'm sorry for being a coward, I'm sorry for not letting you in earlier, I'm sorry for not acknowledging you as a woman. I'm sorry for all those things I said. I do need you by my side, every time. You don't make me sick__ I get sick without you beside me… So help me Luna, I need you, my love. Help me with your love."

That evening, when Maria had gone back to check on her, she found them both asleep on the bed, with Zeno's arms carefully wrapped around her body, and she just let them rest, instructing everyone not to cause any noise that could wake either of them up, since both Zeno and Luna seemed to need their rest.

When it was already past midnight, Edoardo too had gone to check on them, and they were both still sleeping soundly. And he had left them after a goodnight kiss on Luna's head, and a little pat on Zee's.

"How did I end up being an incapable father?" Edoardo breathed, as he sat in front of the fire drinking tea with Maria. "And what makes you say that?" Maria asks.

"Isn't it obvious? Look at Luna? I can't even take care of my own kid. And Zeno? His parents left him in my care, and I made promises to always protect them both. I promised my wife, and I swore it to Zeno's parents, and yet I have failed." He simply says. You could hear the pain in his voice, and see the love in his eyes, and Maria placed her cup of tea down on the table, and took his hands in her own, gently patting the back of his hand, stroking his fingers.

"How big these hands have grown." she smiles. "They were so small back then when I first stepped foot inside this mansion." She takes a hand to his head, and pats him there too. "And how big your head is now… oh! It was always big." She says, and they both laugh. "But now you have serious things to think of with this head… and wow! Look how wide your shoulder is… it's now big enough to carry a lot of things."

"Oh my little Eddie," She calls him by the pet name she used for him while he was still a child.

"how big you've grown… I've watched you since you were a child, and I'm proud to say, I was part of the people who brought you up to be the man that you are today. I've watched you grow from a baby into a boy, and I watched that boy grow into a man, and I'm glad I got to see my little boy become a husband, and father. And I also watched you when Luna's mother passed away. I watched you become a father and mother to your child. And when Zeno came to live here in the mansion, I watched you treat him the exact way you treated your own child, with love and care."

"Eddie, you have raised two brilliant children to become an excellent woman, and an outstanding man. You haven't failed Eddie, you did a good job raising them both. Your wife and Zeno's parents will be proud of you. I am proud of the man you've become, and the children you raised. So never call yourself a failure, and just thank God for what he has helped you create." Maria pats his head like a little child again. And he gently pulls her in a tight hug, as she continued patting him on the back.

" Thank you Nanny Maria, thank you for saying that. I never would have made it through without you. Thank you." He says and kisses the side of her face.

"Now, go get some rest. I feel like you'll be needing your energy tomorrow morning when Luna wakes up… And if you can't fall asleep, you know no child is ever too big for his nanny. If you want, I can pat your head till you fall asleep."

"No! Of course not… Good night Nanny Maria." He says, and she laughs and stands, "But on a second thought, it will be nice if you can pat my head till I fall asleep." He says with a boyish smile and he lies on the chair, and she sits close to his head, patting him till he fell asleep. And she covered him up with a blanket like she did every night when he was a boy, and she kissed his forehead. "Goodnight my boy"

The night went by uneventfully, and soon the sun had risen over the DeFalco mansion. Birds and humans chirping and working, everyone busy doing anything and everything. The house was in a buzz as Maria was personally cooking and baking every dish and snack she knew Luna loved eating. Edoardo, who was supposed to go on a rally that day, had canceled his appointment and instead he was busy helping Nanny Maria in the kitchen to make everything perfect.

While the whole house was running up and down to make things work, Zeno and Luna still slept, cuddled up in each other's arms. Even in her sleep, she could feel something warm and strong next to her, and the warmth was so good that she snuggled in closer to that heater, and he held her closer to his body, all the while dreaming good dreams. Dreams of her, and only her. Of her smile, and her laugh, and her frown and her scream, and her love. He could see it all, and it was a good dream, calming, soothing. Nice.

Hours passed, and Edoardo started wondering if maybe they should go wake them both up, because it was already past twelve. But Maria had told him to call the doctor and ask, and the man had told them it was better to let her wake up by herself.

And if they were going to let her continue sleeping, it only meant that they had to leave Zeno too. Because waking him up might result in waking her up too.

With that in mind, Zeno and Luna slept for almost three more hours, until Luna's eyes slowly fluttered open, and she tried to stretch her arm, but then she realized that something was weighing her down.

An arm was wrapped around her, slowly, she turned to look at the man beside her, and her face dropped at first as she thought… "Everytime, it has to be you. Every time I wake up. Why can't I just erase you from my mind." She raises her hand high up in the air like she always did anytime she started seeing things, and landed a mighty slap on him. But this time, he didn't turn to smoke and disappear into the air like he used to, this time, he groaned in pain, and she watched with an awestruck expression as his eyelids lifted up, and his blue eyes came into view, a sweet captivating smile crawling up his luscious lips as her picture became clearer in front of him.

"Good morning, my little devil," he says sweetly. "you're still my effective sleeping pill." Her eyes dilated even more, and the sound was building up inside of her, she was about to explode, and…

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

Chapter Epilogue.

By the time she woke up, it was already dark, her entire body ached from the beating Luna had dished out to her. She staggered to her feet and made her way into the bathroom, coughing and sniffling as she washed her face, carefully as every part was swollen. "that short bitch!" She hissed as she looked herself in the mirror.

She walked back into her room, and picked up her broken phone. It was damaged beyond repair, and Luna had done well to take out the memory card. She takes out her laptop, and as soon as she switches it on, she receives an email stating that she was being sued for defamation. And as if that was not enough, more emails and social media messages started to troop into every of her social media accounts.

"You are such a whore,"... "you're the scum of society."... "you are one of those ladies who give women all over the world a bad name. Shame on you."... "You better watch your back now, because people like you shouldn't be living among humans."... "you're a liar and a slut."... "I'm so disgusted that we bare the same name that I'm changing it first thing tomorrow."... "You should be in an asylum, you're missing some screws in your head."... "Throwing yourself at a man and then claiming he raped you, you are the cheapest thing I know."... "I can't wait to see you in real life, I'll beat you till you can't lie again."

The messages just kept on coming, some attached with the video of Zeno clearly stating his intentions in his car, and her, easily giving him herself. Others were attached to audios on how she had threatened to lie about her being raped when they had finished having sex.

Joanna just couldn't believe her eyes, she was ruined, her entire life was ruined. And as if that was not enough, another email entered her phone, telling her not to resume at work because she was fired.

"No, this can't be happening!!" She screamed, tossing everything on the table to the ground. "NO!!!__You can't destroy me like this. I've worked so hard to reach where I am, you can't just bring me down like this… No! NO!!!"