Once upon a time, in Sicily, the time when the aroma of the orange trees filled up the streets, where joyful children would play and jalapas by night were in vast array, there was a young girl. . The mayor’s daughter, Veronica Savvaliarri.
Veronica came from the wealthiest and most respected families, with the highest expectations, in the alluring, famous town, Syracuse.
One day, Veronica went by the local, open market at the town centre to buy some groceries for her mother. Her silky, soft hands touched the tomatoes, one by one to sense which tomatoes she would pick. The smell of the newly baked bread and the sound of people shouting all they could, to get people to buy the market sellers products and the harmonizing melody the birds sang around her filled her up with happiness.
Veronica Savvaliarri was not like her mother at all. She was a girl of simplicity and purity but further joyful factors in her life made her the happiest girl alive.

She was so focused on her senses and her feelings that she didn’t pay attention to what was going on in reality. She lived in her own imagination. Without noticing, a street thief took her purse from her and ran away with it. The man behind the stall shouted at the thief to stop but as old as the seller was, he could unfortunately not run after him. Although, a mysterious looking young man in the corner of the market was observing the phenomenon and rapidly ran after the thief, taking him down with his steady and hard punches and later on returned the purse to Veronica.
Veronica was amazed by the young man’s beauty, from head to toe, but the one thing that caught her adorable hazel brown eyes, mostly was the man’s mesmerizing, glowing, emerald green eyes that were an open door to the thoughts and feelings the mysterious young man kept inside. Veronica could feel the psychological torture the man was going through.

Time stopped.
They both gazed into each other’s eyes for what felt like centuries (but it only took a few seconds) for the mysterious man to disappear into the crowd like they never had had an encounter. Veronica tried searching for him everywhere around the market stalls, but he was gone, and a deep, melancholic feeling took over Veronica’s fast-beating heart.

When Veronica got home, she told her mother all about the mysterious man that returned the purse to her from the incident and how to her, he saved the day; was her hero.
She mentioned his magical eyes and how intense he stared, deep into her soul.
She described him as flawless and that the whole day next day, she would search everywhere to find him. Veronica was a girl that liked to see the good in people and so she did the same with this mystical man.

Next day, Veronica’s mother went out to the town to shop. She stopped and saw her daughter, Veronica, talking to a tall, dark-haired man, matching Veronica’s description exactly and there was something about his appearance, something about him, that triggered the mother’s memory.
The mysterious, tall man Victoria’s mother was observing, the man that matched with Veronica’s description, was the most wanted criminal in every country located in the Mediterranean sea.
Valentin Greco. She ran up to them, grabbed Veronica by the arm and violently dragged her home. Furiously, Veronica’s mother told Veronica about the man’s identity, Valentin Greco, the most wanted criminal in the country, with a history of stealing wealthy families with a manipulative mindset followed by diabolic intentions. Grew up on the streets, stole to survive at the age of seven, when his family got shot in front of his bare, innocent, childhood eyes.
The mother threatened to kill her and Valentin if they ever met again. The thought of Valentin stealing from them was not a worthy risk to Veronica’s mother and since she had an addiction to the ownage of materialistic obsessions, it was no discussion. Her daughter meant nothing to her. For her, it was all about money and protecting her wealth.

The thought of never meeting Valentin again, for Veronica, was devastating and her first reaction to the hurtful words, coming out of her evil mother’s mouth, made her run up to her room. Locking in herself, falling onto the cold marble flooring she screamed until it got hard for her to breathe and she cried out every tiny, little tear that was left in her hazel brown eyes.
She couldn’t stand the fact that she never could meet Valentin again and in a matter of some minutes, Veronica sneaked out of the window to go and find him.
Valentin and Veronica met each other secretive, seven nights. Seven midnights.
Every night, Valentin would show her parts of her town, she didn’t even knew existed, and every night, Valentin revealed one more heart shattering experience he had gone through and had to live on with, in his already tragical life. But one thing that never changed, was Veronica’s opinion about him, she never judged him for who he was, who he was labelled as nor his actions.
She started to fall in love with him.

By the seventh night, Veronica’s mother stayed up late, watching the graceful view of the Ionian sea from her balcony. She suddenly heard a man and a girl laughing in the distance. The mother walked up to other part of the balcony and got furious with the sight she looked at.
Veronica and Valentin held hands and laughed at each others jokes. Veronica’s mother felt the rising anger in her but decided to accomplish smart actions.
The next morning, her mother took off to Venice, in the search for the famous Wizard of Venice. After three days, searching for the world-famous wizard, she finally found him and they came up with an agreement. The wizard would give her a beautiful, young woman to seduce Valentin that could keep his mind off Veronica and afterwards, the woman would stab him to death. But, for that to happen, Veronica wouldn’t be able to find love again with only one, almost impossible exception.
-” Except if she kisses her true love, before death does.”
The mother agreed to the agreement with a laugh and shortly after, travelled back to Sicily.
That day, Veronica and Valentin were supposed to meet at the open market and when Veronica was already there, waiting, she saw him in the distance smiling and talking to a gorgeous, foreign, blonde that was blessed with an angelic face and that was dressed in expensive clothing and jewelry, from head to toe. Veronica wished she never saw that, she wished she had never seen Valentin, the only man in her life that she loved, smiling, touching another woman. She felt nothing but betrayal, the feeling of being worthless.
Just when Veronica thought things couldn’t get worse, the blonde beauty took Valentin by the hand, leading him away from the crowd and just as much as she never wanted to see Valentin’s face again, she decided to follow them. Veronica followed them up a cliff, until they stopped and the woman kissed Valentin. Veronica’s heart stopped beating. She got the sense of hearing her own heart, shatter, and just when she was on her way to confront them, she stopped. Something wasn’t right. Veronica shifted her eyes to the woman, where she held a sharp, long, knife in her left hand, hid behind her back.

In milliseconds, before Veronica could move a toe, the woman shoved the knife deep into Valentin’s back, making him fall senseless onto the compact, cold, stoney ground. Seconds right after, the woman ran immediately and jumped off the high cliff, hitting the huge rocks and falling into the calm sea that turned from a deep blue colour to a blood red. Literally.
Veronica ran up to Valentin’s bleeding body, letting out a silent, long scream, that felt like she held for hours. She bent slowly down and kissed the love of her life for the very last time. When her lips touched Valentin’s, Veronica felt a hand reaching out to her. Without a reaction, her hand automatically glued onto the reaching hand. Veronica opened her eyes and saw two mesmerizing, emerald green eyes staring deep into her soul. Valentin’s beautiful eyes. Veronica had broken the curse and brought her true love, back to life. She let out a long sigh and started crying out of joy in Valentin’s bosom. Veronica immediately called for help and after Valentin’s seemingly endless rest at Sicily’s best private doctor, he was finally healthy again.
Veronica and Valentin bought a magnificent house together and decided to start their own family.
After three years, Veronica and Valentin got two handsome twin sons. Mattias and Nickolas, that looked just like their father. After everything the couple went through, they decided to move to another county, far, far away from Veronica’s mother, where she couldn’t harm their children, where everything was safer and where they could live happily ever after.
Or so they thought.