The shards of his broken coffee cup cut into his skin, drawing dark red lines. Yet, he does not take much notice of them as his tears splash onto his face. The only time a lawyer can cry is when it's all over.
The past week has been a direct descent into madness. He'd been across the room when Mia had suddenly slumped over the table, her cheek pressed against the glass and her mouth still open as if she had just been about to take another sip of coffee.
He had run over as soon as he noticed her, amidst the stares of everyone else in the courthouse cafeteria. The red-headed girl with the pretty face sitting across the table had looked up at him with tears swimming in her eyes and his hands had clenched into fists. He'd had to grab his own sides to stop himself from swinging his arms right into that pretty face and exposing her for who she really is: a demon.
"Is she going to be all right, Mr Armando?" the voice that asked the question had been layered with sugar and spice and all things nice, but the way her lip had quivered at that exact moment had almost looked like a smirk to Diego.
"She fucking better be," he had growled, his hands gingerly lifting Mia's off the table. "Look at me, Kitten, please."
But her eyelids hadn't fluttered and that was when the crowd of concerned onlookers started appearing around them. Not soon after, full-scale pandemonium had occurred in that courthouse cafeteria and Diego's memories from then started running into each other: backdrops changed as different voices tried to separate his hands from Mia's.
He'd had to let go, eventually, but as soon as they would let him into Mia's room, he'd sat by her side, holding onto her hands, so pale, lifeless and limp and he hadn't been able to help but remember times when they had been more lively…
His lips on her neck as she stands on the tips of her toes and pushes herself against him, arms twining around his back and hands dipping down lower, fingers wriggling past the belt and gliding underneath his pants…raising an eyebrow at her as she smiled and stretches her fingers out further…
Her eyes glint as she steps back away from him, content for now just to hold his hands, even though they're sweaty and sticky. Then, leaning forward again, she whispers into his ear, "I love you."
He wraps her arms around her, nose nuzzled between strands of brown hair. Lips on her ear, he tries to repeat the words, but they seem to have difficulty forming. "I love…everything about you," he whispers, and she smiles, and for him, it seems good enough for now.
He was never able to say no to Mia when she got that look in her eye, and that had been his undoing. He'd allowed her to come along to question Dahlia Hawthorne and now…now everything was a mess. He'd promised to keep her safe but he hadn't even been able to do that.
Every day that week he had sat beside her. Sometimes he had talked, but mostly he'd just listened. She never said a single thing, or moved a single inch. People come and go, but he had only times he had left were when the nurses had kicked him out. The entire time he had sat next to her, he had held her hands and told himself that when she woke up, he was going to be there. He would never leave her side again. He would tell Mia that he loved her.
Then there is today.
If the past week has been a descent into madness, then this surely is the destination.
His hands are no longer holding Mia's, because now there is blood all over the palm of his hands, and he uses them to wipe dismally at his watering eyes. Sweat, blood and tears mix on his face.
The only time a lawyer can cry is when it's all over.
For Diego Armando, it is over.
Mia Fey is dead.