Sharon
Sharon’s jaw dropped. So many of the guesses had failed that she hadn’t really expected her last attempt to work. The safe door hung open, practically beckoning Sharon to open it. She did, slowly.
The safe was smaller inside than she had expected it to be. The inside was clean, white and broken into two shelves. On the top shelf, Sharon saw two impressively thick, tightly banded stacks of money. She thought she recognized the black butt of a handgun, which she had no interest in touching. On the bottom shelf, there was a worn-looking cardboard box. “Old Shit” was written sloppily on the side in black permanent marker.
Is that what Vittorio’s handwriting looks like? Sharon wondered, feeling closer to him and like she was invading his privacy all at once.
She took careful hold of the box and pulled it out of the narrow shelf. The old cardboard was soft and pliable in her hands. The contents of the box forced the breath out of her lungs.
It was mostly photographs. Pictures of a beautiful girl with long strawberry-blonde hair and sparkling hazel eyes. She was lithe and lean, often dressed in flirty dresses and always smiling bright white into the camera. This has to be Lara, Sharon thought as she flipped through the stiff sheets of photo paper.
She was beautiful.
Further into the stack, Sharon started finding pictures of Vittorio and Lara together. In one, a younger bald-faced Vittorio with almost no tattoos draped his arms lovingly around a beaming Lara’s waist. Sharon had never seen two people look so in love on film. They were gorgeous together. Sharon could imagine them, how they would be if Lara had survived. A family unit with beautiful children, being photographed for the style section because they were just so stunning.
Sharon had never felt so self-conscious. It was no wonder Vittorio preferred the rough, emotionless sex style that he did. He had lost the happy ever after he had wanted with this lovely young woman. How could Sharon ever hope to live up to this literal angel?
The next picture was Vittorio on one knee in front of Lara. He smiled as he held up a little velvet box. Sharon couldn’t tell where the pair were, but darkness extended behind them. A lovely little garden arch lined in fairy lights lit Lara from behind as a single tear crested her high cheekbone. It was the type of photo Sharon would balk at if she saw it on social media, but she knew Vittorio. At least, she felt like she did. She had never seen anything vaguely resembling the true joy on his face in the picture. Her heart broke for him all over again.
Her heart broke for herself too, though. Sharon would never be Lara, she knew that. Not only was she not as pretty, but she couldn’t bring out that level of adoration in the man she was falling for more and more every day. Hopelessness overwhelmed her, with just a dash of self-loathing. Any hope she had that Vittorio might fall in love with her withered like a dying rose. Sharon finished flipping through the pictures and looked under them, where her fractured heart finally shattered.
It was Lara’s ring.
Sharon carefully examined the ring, in awe of the perfectly cut, gigantic diamond wrapped in strands of tinier ones. It was a glorious ring, Sharon had only seen rings this nice on the snootiest of the snooty women she’d seen around New York. It had to be worth… Sharon shuddered at the thought. She didn’t want to know.
She put the ring and the pictures back where she found them, suddenly wiped out. Guess curiosity really did kill the cat, she thought morosely. She’d gotten what she wanted. She knew what was in the safe and now she wished she didn’t. She put the box back on the shelf where it belonged, just how she’d found it, then closed the safe. She closed the latch and spun the dial so that it landed on a random number. The secret wasn’t going to be easy to keep, but Vittorio couldn’t know that she’d essentially broken into his safe.
Sharon flopped backwards down onto the white bed and blew out a heavy sigh. The whirlwind of self-doubt and pessimism about her future, not only with Vittorio but just her future in general, overwhelmed her. Her eyelids felt heavy.
Suddenly, there was a sound outside the bedroom. The front door open and shut and Vittorio called out, “Hello?”
Shit, Sharon thought, panicking. She brushed her stickies onto the floor and hurried to the door. Just as she came out of the white bedroom, Vittorio came down the hallway.