Chapter Fifty-Nine Ella
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Ella
Two hours.
That’s how long Tiero has been in surgery.
There’s been no news. But that’s a good sign, isn’t it?
For the first hour of waiting, I was frozen. Completely numb. No tears, no thoughts. Just emptiness.
Everything still feels dull and muted now. Even the brilliant blue sky and sunshine outside the window look wrong. But I cling to the good weather as a sign.
If Tiero wasn’t pulling through, the sky would be gray and rainy. That’s how it works in the movies and books.
I need it to work that way in real life too.
After I was forced to let go of Tiero, Dr. Smith took me to an examination room, Lex, Rhia, and Claudette close at my side. Antonio tried to follow, but I made him wait in the corridor.
He’s the last person I want near me, but unfortunately, he’s in charge of my security until further notice. As the highest-ranking of Tiero’s men, he’s taken over until Mateo gives new instructions.
I moved through the examination in a haze of icy disbelief as Dr. Smith checked me over. I was unharmed, except for my arm. The bullet didn’t penetrate, only grazed it, carving a scorched furrow through my skin.
The sight of the wound made my stomach turn.
I looked away as it was cleaned and stitched, focusing on my breathing while the orthopedic doctor fitted a padded splint to stabilize the fracture and placed my arm in a sling.
He explained I’d need a proper cast once the wound had closed enough and the risk of infection had passed.
The pain in my arm still throbs, but it’s nothing compared to the ache crushing my heart.
I can’t imagine a life without Tiero in it.
As this realization sinks in, the numbness inside me shatters. I finally break, sobbing hard enough that it steals my breath.
Rhia’s arms go around me, holding me, murmuring soft reassurances. But nothing helps. Only a doctor telling me Tiero pulled through will.
Even when I was on the run, when we weren’t together, just knowing he existed somewhere in this world, alive and breathing, made my heart feel less fractured.
My hand drifts to my stomach, clutching the only piece of him I have in this moment.
Peanut, what are we going to do if—
No.
I can’t think that way.
“He’s going to pull through, isn’t he?” I turn to Claudette, searching her face for any sign she knows what’s coming.
“I don’t have that answer, darling. But I’m praying that he will.”
She’s a psychic. Why doesn’t she know?
“Do prayers actually help?” I ask, needing to clutch onto something. Anything.
“Yes. I promise they do.” Her voice is sincere. I believe her.
So I close my eyes and try. Rhia does, too.
When I open them again, my gaze drifts to Tiero’s men gathered around us, waiting for news about their boss.
Their faces are closed off, unreadable. Masks of indifference.
Is that what you have to be in Tiero’s world? Unemotional. Unaffected.
Do any of them actually care?
Santino did.
He took a bullet for Tiero.
Now he’s gone. Lex confirmed it before we even reached the waiting room. Dr. Agosti too.
Two people I knew, here one moment, gone the next.
I still remember how much Santino scared me when I first met him. Burly, shaven head, tattoos crawling over his arms, a permanent scowl that warned people to keep their distance. But beneath all of that, his loyalty was absolute. His heart was in the right place.
I scan the men again until my eyes land on Antonio.
Like the others, his face reveals nothing. I study him anyway.
He’s in his fifties, his hair still thick, threaded with gray. His features are handsome in a hard, uninviting way. I can imagine he was attractive once. I’ve never met Mariella’s mother, but the resemblance is there. Thankfully, Mariella didn’t inherit his character.
I rarely dislike someone on sight, but Antonio is an exception.
It’s his eyes. Every time they land on me, they feel cold, assessing, like he’s calculating something I don’t want to understand.
He’s on his phone now, typing rapidly, attention split between the screen and the room. I wonder who he’s messaging. Mateo?
“Darling, please eat something. You need to keep your strength up.”
Claudette nudges a plate toward me. I shake my head. Just looking at the food makes my stomach churn.
I close my eyes, desperate to shut out this room, this waiting.
Tiero fills my thoughts. His proposal. The way his eyes sparkled. The joy that lit his face when I said yes.
Was that really only last night?
How did everything fall apart so fast?
Last night, the world felt wide open. Anything seemed possible. The future stretched ahead of us, bright and full.
One bullet was enough to shatter it all.
I twist the ring on my finger and open my eyes, staring down at it.
My throat tightens, the lump there impossible to swallow past. Tears are still spilling freely. I don’t bother stopping them.
Rhia presses a tissue into my hand, and I dab at my cheeks.
Tiero and I can’t stay in this world. Not in this life of violence and blood. The certainty settles deeper with every passing second.
After this, he has to see it too. He has to speed up whatever plans he was making.
There are so many things he promised to tell me once we were alone on the island. Will we even get there now?
“Ella.”
Claudette’s soft voice is suddenly right in front of me. I hadn’t even noticed her leaning closer. She keeps her voice low and careful.
Lex is back with us, too. He’d been outside on the phone, updating Freemont on what happened.
“Darling, we need to get you out of here.”
I stare at her, confused. “What do you mean?”
Lex leans in, his voice barely above a whisper.
“You and De Marco are being targeted. If your cast hadn’t stopped one shot and Gualtiero another, you’d be dead.”
The breath freezes in my lungs.
In all the chaos, I hadn’t put that together. Icy shivers race through me as I stare at him, stunned.
“You’re not safe here,” he continues. “And I don’t trust these men.”
He makes a subtle motion toward Tiero’s soldiers.
“That ambulance sat at the entrance far too long. Then conveniently moved just as you and Gualtiero approached. Something’s off. I’m working on a plan to get you out.”
My head spins. None of it makes sense.
“I can’t leave him,” I whisper, the words sharp enough to draw a few curious glances.
“Shh, El.” Rhia squeezes my hand, her voice urgent but gentle. “They can’t know about this.”
“I’m not leaving him,” I insist. “He needs me.”
Even the notion!
“He might not make it.” Lex says the words I don’t want to hear. “If that happens, we need to be prepared to act. Immediately.”
I shake my head, hard enough to make the room blur.
No. No. No.
That’s not happening. It can’t. It won’t.
“El,” Rhia says softly. “Tiero would want you and the baby safe. That’s why he took the bullet. To protect you.”
“He’d want me by his side,” I cut in.
“He loves you,” she says, steady despite my outburst. “He’d want you and Peanut out of harm’s way. Somewhere safe, where no one can find you.”
I drop my head into my hands, my fingers digging into my scalp.
No. I’m not leaving.
“Ella, please think this through,” Lex says quietly. “There’s no margin for error here.”
I shake my head again.
“I’m not leaving him,” I whisper, the words sharp with anger.
How can he ask this of me?
I know he promised Tiero he’d keep me safe. But this?
“I’m going to the bathroom,” I say, forcing myself to my feet.
Lex and Claudette exchange a look, silent and loaded.
“I’ll come with you,” Claudette says, already moving to the sliding door.
Roberto and Franco, my newly assigned bodyguards, jump up immediately, falling into step on either side of me.
I hate having them follow me everywhere. All I want is some privacy.
The four of us walk to the bathroom in silence. I cradle my injured arm against my body, needing to hold on to something.
From my time with Oriana and Alonso, the routine is familiar. Memories of the last time they did this assault me, and I shake my head as if that might clear the images crowding in.
This is different.
But is it?
I watch with unease as Roberto enters the bathroom to check for threats, while Franco stays with us.
When he gives the all-clear, Claudette and I go in, while the men take up positions outside the door.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” Claudette says as soon as it closes behind us.
Her face stops me cold. There’s no trace of the warm, teasing woman I’ve come to love. This version of her is all seriousness.
My hand freezes on the stall handle, the metal cold against my palm.
“Do you remember me calling your name just before the first shot was fired?”
I nod. The moment is burned into my memory.
“Did you have a vision?” I ask.
The thought hits me all at once. If she did, she saved my life.
If she hadn’t called out, Tiero and I would have been a few steps farther from the hospital, and that bullet would have hit me.
My stomach drops. Dizziness washes over me, and I step toward the sink, gripping the edge to steady myself with my right hand.
“I had a vision,” Claudette says. “But it wasn’t about the shooting. That caught all of us off guard.”
She meets my gaze, unwavering.
“It was about the car you were about to drive away in.”
“What about it?”
“I saw it blow up.”