Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Anastasia
I hated hospitals. The last time I had been in one, I had lost my baby, and the time before, that I had lost my parents. Only bad news came from these places, and the longer I sat in this waiting room, the more dread sunk into my bones.
My leg bounced up and down impatiently as I watched the clock tick on. It had been three hours and twenty minutes since they had taken my brother back there.
How long did it take for a bullet wound to be fixed? Had we been too late? If he were dead, then we would have heard by now, so it meant that he was still alive.
Positivity. Positivity. Positivity.
My hands were covered in my brother’s blood. My body had not stopped shaking since we had left that bunker. My brain moved a million miles a minute, and all I could think about was the fact that my brother had jumped in front of a bullet to save me. He had jumped in front of me to save my life while I had wished that he wasn’t my family.
“I didn’t mean it.” I didn’t even hear my own voice when I spoke.
“What?” Valerio, who had been by my side this entire time, turned to me.
“I didn’t mean what I said to him.” My voice cracked. “I didn’t mean it, and if he dies before I can tell him I didn’t mean it, he will die thinking that I hate him.”
“Of course, you don’t, cielo .” The tenderness in his voice did nothing to ease the ache in the middle of my chest. “It was a heated moment. You said things you didn’t mean, like any normal person would. He knows you love him.”
I shook my head. The pain behind my eyes increased with each passing second, and my heart crumbled to the floor.
The air didn’t feel like it was enough in my chest. I felt like at any moment, I would collapse on the floor.
“He can’t die, Valerio. My brother needs to live so I can apologize to him.”
“He won’t die.” He threaded our fingers together and kissed the back of my hand. “You will see and speak to your brother again. I promise you that.”
“You can’t possibly keep that promise.”
“Whatever your heart desires, I will make it come true for you, cielo .”
His words carried a weight behind them that I didn’t know how to sustain. I opened my mouth to speak, but then the door opened and out walked the doctor who had rushed with Danny inside the room.
I hopped off my seat and rushed to him. My heart was in my mouth, and my stomach was in knots.
“How is my brother?”
“He’s awake now.”
When the doctor said those three words, I doubled over with my hands to my knees. The anxiety that had been pressing down on my lungs finally released, and I found the reprieve.
He’s alive. My brother was alive.
Valerio rubbed my back as I let out a cry of relief.
“Thank God.” I lifted to my full height. He wasn’t dead, which meant that I could right the wrong I had done.
“He’s out of surgery, and he’s awake. He just needed a little bit of time before he speaks to you.” The doctor offered me a small smile. “He’s waiting for you.”
My head bobbed up and down frantically. “Please, take me to him.”
“Of course. Right this way.” The doctor led us both down the hallway and toward the ICU, where he was being monitored.
I stood outside the room feeling nervous. The last thing I had said to him was that I wished I was never his family. I feared what he would say to me.
As soon as the door opened, he turned and looked at me with a smile on his lips. But it didn’t quite reach his eyes. His eyes were sunken, and the bruise on his cheek had darkened.
“Hey, Danny,” I spoke past the lump in my throat.
I didn’t know what to say after our fight. I had said so many things that I wanted to take back now. I didn’t mean them, and he never deserved that from me.
“Ana,” he said my name lowly. I could tell that he was in a lot of pain. Tubes were coming out of his arm, and he was attached to a bunch of machines that were likely keeping him alive.
The pressure in my throat increased, and my heart cracked in my ribs. Looking at him now and realizing just how close I had gotten to losing him made all the stupid anger I held evaporate. I had been so focused on wanting a life away from this place that I didn’t realize that I already had one within it.
I walked over to his bed slowly. If I was being honest, I was scared. His eyes watched me carefully as I approached him tentatively. This was a space that neither of us had ever existed in together.
I stopped when I came to the side of his bed. The sadness that had riddled my chest from earlier melted away, and suddenly the tears welled in my eyes as the damn had reached its capacity.
“I’m sorry.” My voice broke as the tears flowed from my eyes. “You are the best brother that a girl could ask for, and I was mad, but those words should have never left my lips, and I?—”
“You were right,” he interrupted my thoughts.
“What?”
“You were right in what you said, Ana. I was a dick to you, and I should have never put you in that position. You didn’t deserve that, and I can't apologize enough for what I did.”
“You don’t have to apologize.” I sat down on the edge of the bed and stared into his eyes. Those eyes that I had thought I would never stare into ever again.
“Come here.” He opened his arms to me.
“You’re hurt. I don’t want to make anything worse.”
“Anastasia, I almost died. Give me a damn hug.”
I laughed through my tears and hugged him as he wanted. I made sure to be extra careful with him so that I wasn’t pressing on anything that would cause him any pain.
“You were right. I should have never put you in that position to begin with.” He patted down my hair at the back like he used to when we were kids. “I should have been more considerate of you, and I am sorry that this need to establish our family took over me completely. I was wrong, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me, one day.”
I let out a shaky breath, the anxiety and stress of how this moment was going to pan out leaving my body. All that remained was gratitude. I was thankful that he was alive. I was thankful that he was my brother. And I was thankful that we were both in this hospital room, able to apologize to each other instead of burying either one of us.
The tears flowed down my face.
“I almost lost you.” I buried my face in the crook of his neck. “I can’t lose you, Danny.”
He pulled away from me. “You won’t. I’m right here, Ana, and I’m not going anywhere. It’s me and you for life, sister.”
“Me and you for life.” My heart was full.
“Do you love him?” He asked the question after a few minutes of silence.
I brushed the last remaining tears from my face. “I do. He makes me happy, Danny.”
He pursed his lips together. “I still think he’s not good enough for you. But no one will ever be good enough for you in my eyes.”
I placed my hand on top of his. “I know that. But he is the one person who makes me feel most alive. He doesn’t make me feel incapable or just another piece on the board.”
“Have you told him all of this?”
I shook my head. “Not yet. But I will, soon enough.”
He threw his head back and let out a dramatic groan. “I mean, you could do worse, I guess. I can’t be mad at your choice. He clearly has good taste.”
“Don’t flatter me, brother.”
“It’s only the truth,” he teased. The light returned to his eyes, and it looked like whatever weight had been pressed on his chest was slowly beginning to lift. “I’ve only ever wanted you to be happy, Ana. You deserve the world and more. I’m sorry that I almost robbed you of the happiness that came with choosing your own life.”
I squeezed his hand on mine. “I forgive you, Danny.”
I could feel the shards of my shattered heart slowly coming back together again after years of having been broken.
“You can come in, Valerio,” my brother said after a bit, raising his voice. “I know you’re waiting by the door.”
A few seconds later, Valerio peeked his head through the door. “I just got here. Thought I would give you two a minute.”
His eyes moved from my brother’s face to mine, and then down to our joined hands. The warmness in his eyes made my small heart melt. I saw the tension visibly leave his body, and he smiled my way softly.
“You okay?”
I nodded. “Better than okay.”
My brother made a hurling sound, “You two are going to make me sick. Get in here and close the door before I change my mind and kick you out.”
Valerio walked inside and made his way to the side of the bed I was sitting on. He placed his hand on my shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. The little buzz that always erupted within me filled my body at the contact.
“So, this is happening?” He gestured between the two of us.
“It’s inevitable,” Valerio said without hesitation. “You may just have to get used to it.”
My brother’s eyes narrowed on Valerio. “You think you’re hilarious?”
“A fucking comedian, if you ask me.”
They were just pulling at each other. I knew they were only trying to get under each other's skin. They had been too at odds to be friendly right off the bat.
“You saved my life,” Valerio said. “And hers as well.”
“She’s my sister,” my brother quipped. “You were just saved by extension. I would have let you die.”
“Danny!” I gave my brother a pointed look.
He held his hand up in surrender. “Fine, I choose peace. I’m glad you aren’t dead.”
“The closest thing I will get as an I love you from you.”
A small rumble of laughter left my brother’s lips against his will. When he noticed it, he quickly tried to cover it, but it was too late.
A long pause of silence filled the room. Neither of the two men spoke. But unlike the times before when they had been face to face, there was no thick-layered tension. The atmosphere was easy and breathable.
“Take care of my sister, Valerio.” His words came out a little louder than he had been speaking before. “She is the most precious thing in my life, and she is all I have in this world. I’m trusting you with her.”
My heart swelled thinking of how huge of a deal this was.
Valerio curled his arm around my waist and pulled me to his side. I turned to look into his eyes, and I could quite literally see the love swimming in them. Now I knew what they meant when they said that love roared in the eyes and whispered in the heart. I was seeing it first-hand.
“I will make sure that no tears ever touch her eyes out of sadness.” He spoke the words to my brother, but his eyes were set on me. “She will be in my care until I take my dying breath.”
It was a promise to me and our future.
For the first time in what seemed like years, my heart and soul were completely and utterly at ease. I didn’t feel like the world was about to cave in on me at any moment.
“Yeah, yeah, don’t be all cheesy and corny. It’s gross. And I still don’t like you.”
“Still don’t like you either, buddy. Ya skoro budu tvoim zyatem .”
I'm going to be your brother-in-law soon.
My brother rolled his eyes. “That is, if she doesn’t decide to drop your ass after a year. If not less.”
“Not going to happen.” Valerio pulled me into his side. “She’s with me for life now.”
The two of them bickered some more while I just sat back and watched the two most important men in my life finally come to a middle ground.
They didn’t know it yet, but I was sure that this was the start of a beautiful friendship.