Loving Two Men: A Story of Forbidden Love and Silence
Louisa Messa
CHAPTER 1 — Evening Confidences
Acte I
2025 /Where Secrets Begin
Evening settles over the house like a warm blanket. In the living room, the lamp with its beige shade barely lights the corner of the sofa. Shadows stretch along the walls, peaceful, as if they, too, were listening. A soft, familiar scent of verbena lingers in the air.
Célia has settled beside me, her knees tucked beneath a woolen throw. She has that luminous face of someone in their twenties, curious and whole. When I look at her, I recognize something of my daughter, but also a brightness I never had. That quiet confidence born of a freer time.
She studies me for a moment, then her smile widens.
“Grandma, tell me another story from before. A real one. One of those you’ve never told.”
I smile. She believes stories lie dormant, ready to emerge the moment they are called. But some sleep in places where memory no longer dares to go. And I, Dyana, now called “Grandma,” carry within me more stories than she can imagine… stories of youth, of choices, of secrets, of roads taken without knowing they would change us forever.
“A story from before?”
“Yes. Not the ones I know. Another one. A special story.”
