Chapter Forty One - The Wedding
Milo's P.O.V -
Once Lucy and Wyatt finished their dispute on whether it was appropriate for Lucy to be in only her underwear in front of other guys. They agreed to disagree.
"Alright give the phone to Milo, I need to talk to him." Wyatt said making me sit up from the bed.
"Oh right yeah." I mumbled grabbing my crutches.
Lucy frowned at me then looked back at her phone. "Why? What are you talking about?"
"It's private Lucy." Wyatt told her which confused her even more.
She looked at me with a raised brow. I shrugged as she passed me the phone.
"I'll just find somewhere private." I stood up.
I made my way to my mums room stepping in expecting her to still be downstairs.
"Milo?" My mum frowned at me.
She was sat on the edge of her bed with tears streaming down her face.
"Mum?" I spoke concerned. "What's wrong?"
I tossed the phone onto the bed forgetting that Wyatt was listening.
"Oh it's nothing." She forced a laugh wiping her face.
"Please don't lie to me." I mumbled. "You already kept nonna's condition from me."
"Milo please can we talk about this after the wedding?" She pleaded.
"No." I insisted. "If you're crying then clearly there's something wrong and we should talk about it right now."
"It's just about my parents." She admitted. "Nothing you don't know already."
"Actually, I still don't know." I told her. "Can Nonno talk? Because he hasn't since we've been here?"
"I didn't know how bad he had gotten." She mumbled her voice wavering. "Roberto didn't tell me."
I remained silent not knowing what to say as she began to cry more.
"I'm going to stay here." She whispered. "Roberto and Zola have to take care of them along with their children, it's not fair on them. They should be going on a honeymoon and celebrating their marriage not taking care of everyone else."
"So you're staying here for Christmas?" I asked her. "I'll stay here too then."
"No." She responded. "To both things."
"What?" I asked confused.
"I'll be staying here for longer, until Nonno..." She trailed off not finding the words but I understood what she meant. "And I don't want your last memories of him to be him slowly getting sicker and sicker."
"But, w-what am I supposed to do without you for that long?" I stuttered. "You can't leave me by myself for Christmas."
"I'll make some arrangements Milo, I won't leave you by yourself." She glanced down at the cast on my leg. "Especially since you still need to be driven and taken to appointments."
I looked down feeling my eyes water. "It's not about that, I just want you there."
"Milo." She spoke softly wrapping an arm around me. "I don't want to be apart from you either, but right now my father needs me and so does Roberto."
I nodded wiping my eyes before tears could escape. "What about work?"
"They can fire me for all I care, they probably should have weeks ago with the amount of time I've taken off." She smiled.
"But we need the money-" She cut me off.
"That's not for you to worry about." She told me.
"I'm not going to go to Rome with Lucy." I stated. "I need more time with Nonno and Nonna."
"Okay Milo." She kissed my forehead. "If that's what you want."
"It is." I spoke confidently.
She stood up walking towards the door. "I'll let you finish that phone call then."
She gestured to the phone on the bed before leaving. My eyes widened and I turned to stare at the phone seeing that Wyatt was still there.
I picked up the phone. "Sorry, I forgot you were there."
"Uh, no it's fine." He spoke awkwardly.
"What did you have to say?" I asked him seeing that my face was slightly red in the corner of the screen.
"Um, if now isn't a good time I can tell you when you get back." He offered.
I forced a smile. "No it's fine, I'm fine. Say what you were going to say."
"So, it's about Lincoln." He started.
"Oh?" My curiosity spiked.
"He's not coping." Wyatt stared at me dead in the eye. "Being away from you is impossible for him."
"Well I know he doesn't like it-"
Wyatt cut me off. "No Milo, it's worse than that."
"What do you mean?" I spoke concerned.
"He's distant because he's constantly thinking about you, he thinks you're in danger and that something will happen again." He explained. "This is causing him to have panic attacks."
"Panic attacks?" I frowned.
"He has so many, too many." Wyatt spoke sadly. "You've been apart for five days and he's had nine panic attacks, I think. Maybe a couple more that I haven't seen or heard."
"Because of me?" I whispered, guilt began to fill my stomach and rise up my throat like vomit.
I coughed trying to clear it but it stayed, irritating me like a sour throat.
"This isn't your fault Milo." Wyatt responded immediately.
"Of course it is." I replied. "Is that all that happens? The panic attacks?"
"He hardly sleeps." Wyatt spoke quietly. "And when he finally manages to, he gets woken up an hour later with nightmares. He doesn't eat much now either, he's thrown his food up two or three times."
I pinched the bridge of my nose scrunching my eyes closed before taking a deep breath. "Okay, when I get back I'll try to fix this."
"Thank you." Wyatt spoke sincerely. "I've got to go now, I'm sure you need to sleep anyway."
"Yeah." I breathed. "Goodbye."
"Bye." Wyatt said. "Milo this is not your fault."
He hung up before I could object. I sat silently for a few moments deep in thought.
I just told my mum that I would spend the entire trip with my grandparents, but that would destroy Lincoln. Lincoln has been looking forward to this trip with me and his panic attacks might increase the longer I'm away.
However, Nonno was dying and this was the last time I would ever see him. I couldn't give up this time with him. Not even for Lincoln. I'd just have to make it up to him in five days time.
I returned to my bedroom finding that Alfie was sleeping while Lucy was sat on the edge of her bed waiting for me.
"What did he have to say?" She spoke anxiously. "Did I do something?"
"No." I reassured her with a small smile. "It was nothing to do with you."
She stared at me for a moment to see if I was lying before nodding.
"Goodnight Milo." She said as she crawled into her bed.
"Goodnight Lucy."
***
"Wake up!" Someone knocked on the door over and over again.
I groaned pulling the duvet over my head as the door opened.
"Wake up." Emilia told us, she was Alfie's oldest sister.
"We have to get ready for the wedding." Aria, the middle child, said.
"Get out." Alfie groaned sounding as tired as me.
"Lucy is already getting ready." Emilia responded. "Like you two should be."
I pulled the duvet from my face looking at them, there hair was already styled but they hadn't yet got dressed or put makeup on. I glanced over to Lucy's bed to see that she wasn't there.
"She's downstairs with the hair stylist." Emilia explained.
I nodded sitting up with a yawn.
"Make sure he doesn't fall back to sleep, and start getting ready." Aria gave me a pointed look before walking out with Emilia.
I grabbed my crutches standing up and walking over to where our suits were hung up in bags on the wardrobe door. I grabbed mine laying it down on my bed, I pulled the zip down so I could see the suit.
I tugged off my shirt tossing it onto the bed.
"Shit." Alfie mumbled.
He was sat up staring at me through squinted tired eyes. I swallowed uncomfortably glancing down at my torso where his eyes were focused.
"What?" I spoke concerned covering the largest scar on my chest with my hand.
"It's just-" His face pulled into a frown. "I can't believe he really shot you."
My hand instinctively moved to the bullet wound. "Yeah, neither can I."
"And just because he found out that you're gay." Alfie shook his head finally looking away from me.
Also because I was dating an alpha werewolf but I couldn't tell him that.
"It must've been Anna." Alfie spoke as he stood up.
"Huh?" I stared at him confused.
"Anna must have caused him to snap." Alfie explained. "When she died I mean."
"Yeah, I think so too." I responded.
We didn't speak for the rest of the morning and simply got ready in silence.
***
"She looked beautiful." Lucy said as we entered the reception of the wedding.
"She did." I nodded in agreement.
I looked Lucy up and down quickly. "So do you."
She smiled warmly at me before doing a small twirl. "Thank you, you look handsome."
"Maybe I would if it wasn't for the cast and crutches." I replied.
She raised an eyebrow pulling her phone out of her clutch and taking a photo of me before tapping away at her phone.
"Seriously?" I deadpanned. "I was not at all prepared for that photo."
"You look fine." She mumbled not really listening to me.
"Who are you sending that to?" I asked once I noticed she was on her text messages.
"Lincoln." She answered.
"What?" My eyes widened slightly. "Wait, no. Take another picture, I wasn't ready for the last one."
She smirked before shutting off her phone. "I've already sent it."
I huffed. "I'm going to send a picture of you to Wyatt when you're not prepared."
"Okay." She smiled before continuing the walk to the reception venue.
She didn't care because she looked good in all photos no matter what, she was annoyingly photogenic.
I rolled my eyes before following after her.
***
I waved at Lucy forcing a smile, she smiled back before turning back to Alfie and Emilia. They continued to dance with everyone else while I sat at the table with Aria.
"Are you sure you don't want to dance?" I asked her for the third time.
"I'm not a good dancer." She responded. "I would only embarrass myself."
"None of them are good dancers." I gestured to them with an amused smile. "Well, Lucy is alright at parties but not in family events like this."
"Not the right type of dancing." Arya nodded in understanding. "Emilia is the same, I mean look at her."
I laughed at her waving her arms around erratically, she had a large smile on her face despite people staring at her.
"So what are your plans for after high school? College maybe?" She asked starting a conversation.
"No, not college." I replied. "I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'm not smart enough to get into a college worth going to anyway."
She frowned but did not argue. "So, are you going to stay with your mum? In that town?"
"What wrong with it?" I furrowed my eyebrows.
"Nothing, it's just-" She thought for a moment. "There's so much more than that town, I just think it would be a waste. You'd miss so many great experiences."
I looked down and was about to respond when someone sat down beside Aria.
"You two look like you're having a tense conversation." Emilia looked between us with a smile. "What are you talking about?"
"I was just saying that Milo shouldn't spend his whole life in that town without experiencing anywhere else." Aria explained.
"You should live with us in New York!" She exclaimed with wide drunk eyes. "It would be so much fun."
"Uh, no thanks." I continued to look down. "I think I'm happy where I am."
"You think?" Aria spoke questioningly.
"I know." I spoke confidently looking up and meeting her eye. "I don't want to leave my mum alone."
Emilia shook her head. "She wouldn't want you to stay there for her."
"She'd be alone." I commented.
"Our Dad would be with her." Aria pointed out.
I bit the inside of my cheek. "There's other things worth staying there for."
"Like what?" Emilia asked taking a large sip of champagne.
"Lucy." I looked over at her. "She's staying there, and so is Lincoln, and Lucy's boyfriend is too."
"Lincoln?" Emilia looked at me confused.
"He's probably the boyfriend Alfie told us about." Aria told her to which I nodded. She then turned to me with a curious expression. "He's not the reason your staying is he, you've only been dating him for a few months."
"He's one among many reasons why I'm staying." I answered.
Aria nodded satisfied.