Aurelia closed her eyes wearily as the sharp pain in her stomach twisted her insides and left her breathless.She remembered how she had once set off fireworks with Santino,too,on her birthday,when he had planned it days in advance,even designing the shapes of the fireworks himself,just to make her smile.
A burst of dazzling light lit up the night sky outside the window,scattering sparks of color across the darkness.
Another birthday had come,and again she was watching fireworks.Only this time,they were no longer for her.
Looking out the window,Aurelia shut her eyes before the glittering sky and made the same wish she had never once changed.
Every year on her birthday,her only wish had been that Santino’s life would be safe and smooth.Ever since meeting him,she had stopped making wishes for herself.
Santino never came to see her again.He seemed truly busy,caught up with school seminars,buried in laboratory data,and so occupied that he no longer had the time or even the desire to spare a single extra word for her.
In the past,Aurelia could still catch glimpses of his life through the posts he made on social media,but now,with Astrid beside him,even those had vanished.