Chapter 19 Amber
AMBER
The hospital smells like disinfectant and coffee that’s been sitting on a hot plate too long.
I hate hospitals. Always have. Too many bad conversations happen in places like this. Too many people waiting for answers that don’t come.
Giovanni walks beside me, close but not crowding, one hand light at the small of my back when we stop at the nurses’ station. It’s grounding. I let him guide me down the hall, past doors half-open and curtains drawn, until we stop in front of a room with Rose’s name on it.
My heart kicks painfully against my ribs.
She’s sitting up in bed when I step inside. Pale, wrapped in white sheets, hair pulled back in a messy knot. There’s a faint bruise along her jaw, another blooming at her wrist.
She’s alive.
The relief hits me so hard my knees almost buckle.
“Hey,” she says, softly.
I cross the room in three steps and pull her into a careful hug, mindful of the IV and the bandages. She hugs me back anyway, arms tight, stubborn as always.
“I scared you,” she says.
“You think?” I choke out, and then I’m laughing and crying at the same time. “You’re an idiot.”
She smiles, tired but real. “I’m sorry. Matteo said it was dangerous to tell anyone anything. I didn’t want you to get hurt”
“As you can tell, I’m not hurt.” I can’t bring myself to be mad. I get it. After what happened in my own apartment, how could I not? “Now you’re going to tell me everything and put my poor heart at ease.”
For once, Rose agrees.
She tells me about her past. About being the girl named Brooklyn Lark, who went missing after her family announced her engagement to Anton Pavlov.
I remember reading about it in the papers and thinking it could be connected to Coral, but after the cops waved me off again, there wasn’t much I could do.
I felt for the girl, but I told myself that maybe this time, it wasn’t some man who took her.
Maybe this time, the girl had fled and was free.
Turns out, she was. Right by my side.
She tells me about Matteo. How kind he was to her, how love bloomed before either of them knew it. He lost his mind and tore half the city apart to get her back. And in the end, he did get her back.
But not before my best friend decided to poison herself to give Anton the goddamn kiss of death.
My jaw keeps dropping lower with every sentence.
“You’re kidding,” I say, for at least the fifth time.
“I wish,” Rose replies dryly.
“Jesus Christ. Romeo and Juliet who?”
She laughs. “I’m really sorry, Amber. For keeping you in the dark. I didn’t want you pulled into it.”
I shake my head. “I was ready to whoop Matteo’s ass.”
She laughs at that, a real laugh this time, and winces immediately after. “I don’t doubt it.”
We talk a little more. She’s still weakened from the poison, so I don’t want to bring her mood further down.
I’ll tell her about Coral another time. About the horrible message I found on her door.
I still have no idea who wrote it, but I know they’ve been watching me, and if Rose taught me anything, it’s that you do what you have to do to protect your friends.
Even if it means ghosting them for a few weeks.
Which I still plan to whoop her ass for, by the way.
When I leave the room, my chest still feels tight, but it’s a survivable kind of tight now. The kind that comes from shock instead of dread.
Outside, I turn to Giovanni.
“Thank you,” I say.
He nods casually, like it’s every day he plays the role of the knight in shining armor.
“Can you drop me off at work?” I add.
He stops short. “No.”
I sigh. “Giovanni.”
“You shouldn’t be alone tonight.”
“I won’t be,” I say. “Izzy’s there. And she has a kid at home. I can’t leave her hanging.”
He studies me for a long moment, jaw tight, weighing risks I can’t see.
Finally, he exhales. “I have somewhere else I need to be.”
I don’t ask where.
“I’ll pick you up at closing,” he continues. “You don’t leave before then.”
“Deal.”
He walks me to the front of the restaurant later that night, and waits while I unlock the door. Before I can overthink it, I turn back to him.
We kiss.
It’s brief. Public. Charged anyway.
“Be careful,” I tell him.
He smiles, slow and dangerous. “Always.”
I watch him walk away, then step inside and lock the door behind me. Inside, I breathe a sight of relief.