CHAPTER ONE

Bones

Butterflies are meant to be free. I clipped her wings, and broke something that has been broken before. Only the most vile of human beings would take such beauty and crush it beneath their feet. When I was a boy, my mother warned me; ‘You can’t keep butterflies, Luca. Admire the beauty and then let it go. We don’t destroy the things we love.’

Like the pretty blue butterfly all those years ago, I tried to keep her as my captive. My mother was wrong. I do destroy the things I love.