Forever, For Always - Sabrina Quinn

Forever,

For Always

By: Sabrina Quinn

© 2015 by Sabrina Quinn

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Cover designer- Sprinkles On Top Studios

Photo courtesy of Vita Eterna Photography

Model: Maria Jaramillo- Modeling

Prologue

I smile, looking down at my left hand, clutching one of the steaming lattes that I’m carrying. Seeing that diamond on my finger will never get old. That’s because it means that I will grow old with the one and only person who has never let me down in my eighteen years on this earth.

~

I was born unwanted and that stigma followed me all of my life. I was not wanted by my mother or father, not by the several foster families that I bounced from until I was eight years old, and definitely not by the man who fostered me until my eighteenth birthday, just yesterday. Well, he did want me, but not in the way I had wanted. In the beginning, he used my adoption as a ploy to make himself look better after the mysterious death of his socialite wife. I was what cleaned up his image in the tabloids afterwards. I became the poor little girl who he “saved” from the foster system. It made him look like he had a heart of gold. It worked too, and oh did he soak up every last bit of that while it lasted. He was a genius when it came to marketing and business. I was dubbed by the newspapers as, “Little Orphan Addy.”

I prefer to be called Adaline.

Once my story became old news and Vincent Rossi’s sparkling image had returned, I only saw him when he needed me for something. Until then, I was tossed to the side and raised by the nannies. But, that meant I got to spend all of my time with my ally, Vincent’s son, Dominic. He was a year older than me and hated his father almost as much as I did. He was my protector whenever I needed him. Unfortunately in the household we were growing up in, it was all too often. He looked out for me from day one. It wasn’t until two years ago that we realized we had stronger feelings for one another. We got married yesterday in the Catholic Church. It may have just been the two of us, the priest, and a few nuns as our witnesses, but that is all we needed. All we have in this world is each other.

Dominic and I are leaving today and never looking back on this hell we have been living. Neither of us wanted the life we were given. It may look glamorous on the outside, but it’s every bit of ugly on the inside. There’s no other way out but to run. Dominic drained what was available in his trust fund and was able to get us set up with new identities.

Connections.

That was one of the very few advantages he had as a Rossi. We don’t know exactly where we are going yet, but that doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we are together and won’t ever have to live another day in the Rossi name.

~

I walk into the empty elevator, humming the tune of our song, It Will Rain, by Bruno Mars, and hit the button with my elbow, trying to not spill the coffee in either hand. Dominic’s apartment is on the tenth floor. He told me to meet him at nine a.m. sharp, but I’m running a little late since the impromptu coffee run took a bit longer than expected. I knew we both would need some caffeine with the amount of time we’ll be on the road today, especially running on no sleep. My blissful mood changes to on edge the instant I step off of the elevator. Something just doesn’t seem right. I head left down the hallway and I immediately notice his apartment door is ajar. I take off in a sprint to the end of the hall until I make it through the opened door.

“Dominic!” I yell frantically when I do not see him in the kitchen or living room. I continue to run down the hall, which seems like eternity. Dropping both coffees, a blood curdling scream escapes my throat when I see him sprawled across the bedroom floor. His light blue shirt is soaked with an angry hue of red