June 26th

Tuscany, Italy 

Her screams were bone-chilling. 

They filled the space, bouncing off the walls and slamming into anyone and everyone who was near. 

Her skin ached as pain caressed her with it his long frangible fingers. He pressed in her spin and she bowed her back, sunk her immaculate nails into the leather of the couch and drew large sums of air into her lungs. 

She wanted to die. She wanted to feel the life slip from the body, to obey the sweet whispers coming from the abyss. Why must it hurt so bad? Why must she feel like her stomach is being split in two?

"Breathe Contessina" Her mother-in-law whispered harshly. The woman never seizes to amaze her, no words of comfort, no comforting caresses, nothing. Only rawness, that was all she could offer. The raw power of her hatred, of her disappointment even when she's about to deliver the spawn of her son. 

They moved her, they placed her on soft sheets in a room to white to be earthly. A woman entered, small and heavenly. She spoke with a soothing voice, one that rushed over Contessina and settled the nerves that stirred in her chest. 

The thing was in a hurry to enter the world, there was no waiting, no patience. It was its father's child, demanding, inconsiderate. 

She gritted her teeth and she pushed. She squeezed her thighs and she screamed. She gave it her all, she took the pain and made it pleasure. Her heart raced when the doctor announced that she could see the head. 

A chain. That was all she saw. Another form of bondage, another reason to remain a Padrona. Which mother hated their child? Which mother could leave their child? The Lord is about to make her guardian for another creature, shield for another soul. 

With one last hard push, it was expelled from her. It detached itself from her. 

They placed it on her arm, it was small, pale with a full head of charcoal curls. Its little pink lips were wide as it wailed its heart out. Eyes shut tight. Contessina's eyes roamed from its head to its toes before settling between its legs. 

Her heart stopped. She inhaled silently and sent a prayer to the heavens. She held it close to her breast, to her heart and within seconds she was in love. 

"Mireya" She whispered to the women in the room "I shall call her Mireya"