Chapter 44
I Loved You in Ruins
THE MAESTRO | Past
Ihave killed men for looking at my wife the wrong way. I have burned down Novak’s entire bloodline because he once mentioned using her as bait. Yet, as I stand over Selene’s limp, pale body under the harsh glare of the fluorescent lights, I have never felt more powerless.
The sedatives Marcus administered have finally taken hold.
Her violent thrashing has ceased, replaced by ragged breathing that cuts into my chest like a dull blade.
Her curls are damp, matted to her forehead from the sweat of her hysteria.
On her delicate wrists, the faint, rising red marks from where the staff had to hold her down make my blood boil.
If anyone else had touched her like that, they would be dead before they hit the floor. But I had to stand there and let them do it. Because the alternative was watching my wife rip herself apart from the inside out.
Her Mother.
I always knew the bitch was a manipulative, desperate snake, but to systematically poison her own daughter? To fracture her beautiful, innocent mind just to weave a web of paranoia between us? It is a level of depravity that demands a slow, agonizing death.
“The physical tremors will subside in a few hours, Don Vitale,” Marcus’s voice breaks through the dark of my thoughts.
He is standing by the counter, organizing the reports, though the slight stiffness in his shoulders tells me he knows exactly how close he is to a grave.
“But the psychological toll… that is going to be a much longer battle.”
I don’t look away from Selene’s face. I reach down, enveloping her cold, limp fingers, squeezing them gently. “How do we fix it?” I rasp. “How do we get that poison out of her head?”
“Medically, the detox protocol will flush her bloodstream within forty-eight hours,” Marcus sighs, adjusting his spectacles.
“But the brain doesn’t just forget the horrors it saw while under the influence.
The paranoia, the distrust… it has been reinforced for weeks or months.
When she wakes up, she is still going to be fragile.
She might still see things. She will almost certainly still fear you. ”
Fear me.
She looked at me with such hatred just minutes ago. She called me a monster. She thought I was trying to isolate her, trying to destroy her family.
“I’ll take her back to the penthouse,” I state flatly. “I’ll lock her up. Just me and my men guarding the perimeter. I’ll keep her away from everything until her mind is clear.”
“No. Absolutely not,” Marcus interrupts, before catching himself and lowering his tone under my stare. “Forgive me, Don Vitale, but locking her away is the worst thing you could do right now.”
My eyes narrow. “Explain.”
“The drug relies on isolation and darkness to feed the paranoia,” Marcus explains, stepping closer to the bed.
“If you lock her away from the world, her mind will fill the silence with the same ghosts she’s been running from.
She needs grounding. She needs to see reality shifting around her to remind her brain what is real and what is a fabrication. ”
I look down at Selene, my thumb tracing the back of her knuckles. “You want me to leave her exposed?”
“I am suggesting you keep her around people,” Marcus corrects gently.
“The more, the better. Put her in environments where she can see life moving normally. Keep her surrounded by familiar faces, by activity, by light. Let her witness the tangible world. It forces the lingering hallucinations to dissolve because her senses will have too much real data to process. If you cage her, the paranoia wins.”
I breathe roughly, my chest heaving as I absorb the advice.
It goes against every single instinct screaming in my gut.
My nature is to shield what is mine, to bury her deep within my territory where no one can look at her, where I can personally filter every breath she takes.
But if my protection will break her further…
I have to bend. I will do whatever it takes to bring my wife back to me.
“Fine,” I sigh. “We do it your way. But the moment she screams, Marcus, I am shutting the world out.”
“Understood.” Marcus hesitates, glancing down at the final lab sheet in his hand.
I snap my gaze up. “Is there something else?”
The doctor swallows, his knuckles turning white around the clipboard. He looks at Selene.
“There is… another factor we have to consider for the detox protocol, Don Vitale. We cannot use the standard heavy sedatives or aggressive flushing agents to clear her system.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because of the routine blood panel,” Marcus breathes. “Because your wife isn’t just fighting the withdrawal, she’s also pregnant.”