CHAPTER XLVI
T he high-pitched, insistent beeping sound was a drill bit boring directly into my skull.
“Turn it off,” I rasped. My tongue felt like sandpaper as it scraped over dry, cracked lips. Every inch of me throbbed in protest, as if a semi-truck had plowed over my body.
“Fuck,” I grunted, lifting my hand to my face. My fingertips grazed a plastic tube lodged in my nostrils. “What the hell is this shit?”
A warm hand touched my shoulder. “Nico, can you hear me?” Matteo asked.
“Yeah, I can fucking hear you.”
A sharp sting radiated from my stomach. I blinked slowly, trying to focus on my surroundings. The first thing I saw was Matteo looming over me, a bandage wrapped around his head. Luca stood beside him with a hint of worry flickering in his eyes.
I glanced to my left to see Lo lying in bed next to me, hooked up to an IV, a cup of Jell-O in his hand.
“Want some?” he asked, a mischievous grin on his bruised face.
“What the fuck?” I groaned. “You’re alive?” Tears welled in my eyes as I struggled to wrap my mind around the sight of my brother somehow still breathing.
His expression shifted, a frown creasing his forehead. “Yeah. The bullet grazed my shoulder blade. I hit my head on some debris, knocked my ass out cold.”
“Damn, Lo. I thought…” My relief surged, and I fought to steady my breath.
He smiled warmly. “I know. I’m glad you’re okay too.”
His guardian angel was watching over him, or maybe it was Mom. I smiled at the thought.
I turned to Matteo, my gaze sweeping over him. “How’s your head?”
He winced slightly, a hand instinctively going to the side of his temple. “It’s fine.”
“But his ego took a hit,” Lo said, a smirk playing on his lips.
“Shut the hell up,” Matteo shot back. “I was trying to save your ass back there.” He glared at Lo.
I let out a low grunt as I shifted, searching for a position that didn’t send jolts of pain through my body. “How bad is it?” I asked no one in particular.
“You were shot and stabbed,” Luca said, his expression serious. “They had to perform surgery and were able to remove the bullet. You lost a lot of blood, but they gave you a transfusion.”
I tried to sit up, but a wave of pain shot through me, forcing me back against the pillow. “Gigi,” I croaked. “Where’s my girl?"
The last thing I remembered was her passing out.
Luca shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans. “She’s here and is going to be fine.”
His words brought a sense of relief, the weight on my shoulders momentarily lifting. “Good. I want her. Take me to her.”
“Nico,” Luca interjected, his tone firm. “You need to rest. You just woke up from surgery. You can’t?—”
“Damn it, Luca!” I grimaced from the pain, but desperation surged through me. “I’m not asking. I’m telling you, I want to see my girl.”
GIGI
“You’re awake,” a familiar voice said, breaking through my confusion. I turned, my heart racing, only to freeze in shock.
Surely my eyes were deceiving me, or this was heaven. I attempted to sit up, but it felt as though a herd of elephants was thundering through my skull.
She rushed to my side, gently pressing me back against the pillows. Her eyes shimmered with tears. “Gigi.”
“Mom?” The name barely escaped my lips. Tears streamed down my face. “Are you real?” I choked out between sobs.
“Yes, baby, I am.” She pulled me into her embrace.
Her familiar scent of lavender and that unmistakable clean fragrance I had always grown up with filled my nose.
When she pulled away, I blinked through my tears, examining her face closely.
She appeared just as I remembered, though her hair was now shorter and styled in a bob, and the right side of her face bore scars from the fire that extended down to her neck.
I looked at her hand and saw the same markings.
“How... how are you here? I saw you… die,” I whispered, the weight of that horrible memory crashing down.
Mom gently wiped tears from my cheeks, cupping my face. “I’m so sorry you had to witness that. But please believe me when I say that everything I did was to protect you.”
The pressure in my chest intensified with each sob as we clung to each other. Her warmth was the only reminder that she was here. She was real. Alive.
But even as I buried my face in her shoulder, Chris remained in my thoughts. He should have been here, too, but he wasn’t. He died protecting me. The tears wouldn’t stop, a relentless flow that couldn’t blur the images of that night.
But the memories of that night returned like a fist clenching around my heart. The night that left me with many unanswered questions I could now have answered.
“Mom?” I ventured cautiously.
“Yes, sweetheart?” she responded, her voice soft yet resolute.
“I have questions.”
She nodded. “I know.”
“The house was on fire. How did you escape?”
She pulled back enough for me to see her face, her eyes shimmering with tears. Mom ran her hands down my arms. “The ambulance arrived just in time and took me away,” she explained. “I’ve been in a coma for several months.”
I shook my head, trying desperately to make sense of it all. “Then what happened?” I asked.
“When I finally came to, I was listed as a Jane Doe.”
A shadow passed over her face, and she took a slow, fortifying breath. “Before I go any further, there is something you need to know. Chris and I were never married. He was an undercover agent assigned to protect us.”
I felt the air leave my lungs. “Wh-what?”
“My heart has always belonged to your father.”
A wave of warmth flooded through me at her words.
Mom continued. “When the police arrived at the crime scene, they assumed that whoever killed Chris—” She swallowed hard, her eyes squeezing shut for a moment before opening again. “And whoever set the house on fire… they were still out there.”
My jaw dropped. “How… how did they find us?” I asked.
“Do you remember that terrible accident? The one where a ten-car pileup claimed several lives?”
I nodded, recalling the event. “You were on that highway coming home from work, labeled a hero for saving that baby and mother before the wreckage caught fire.”
She nodded solemnly.
Then it hit me like a lightning bolt. “He saw you on the news.”
“Yes. It went national.”
Everything started to click into place.
“When I woke up from the coma, the agents working on my case filled me in,” she began, her gaze locking onto mine. “They told me that Madison was killed.”
A cold dread seeped into my veins. My breath hitched. “How?”
Mom’s face blazed with outrage, her lips pressing into a thin line. “She was tortured, and her body was found in the trunk of her burning car.”
“Oh, my god. Poor Madison,” I rasped, my hands flew to my chest, clutching at the fabric of my gown, desperate to soothe the sharp ache that pierced through me.
“She would still be alive if it wasn’t for me,” she choked out as tears brimmed in her eyes.
Reaching for her hand, I gave it a reassuring squeeze. “You couldn’t have known, Mom. It’s not your fault.”
We sat in silence, the weight of the revelations swirling between us. However, one question lingered, demanding an answer.
“Mom, how did Massimo find me ?”
“When you were at the club, the mayor took your picture and posted it on the dark web. That’s how Massimo knew exactly who you were and started plotting to kidnap you.”
A wave of anger sweeps through me as I recall that it was Ana, Tabi’s ex-friend, who guided us to the club in the first place. I hope that she’s lying in some ditch, rotting away.
“How did you find me?” I asked.
“After I woke up, I begged the agents,” she continued, her voice gaining a desperate edge, “I begged them to find you, to bring you back to me. But they refused. They told me it wasn’t safe yet.” Mom’s gaze drifted, her eyes fixed on the window.
“That’s when they told me you had been kidnapped.” She turned back to me then, her eyes swimming with tears.
“I fought like hell, baby,” she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. “I tried to convince them to change their minds, to let me go, to help me find you. But they assured me they had one of their best agents on the case, and he was working tirelessly to find you.”
“Which agent?” I asked.
“I think his name was... Enzo.”
A smile spread across my face. He genuinely cared for me and had been my protector all along.
“Once Enzo and his team were closing in on Massimo,” she continued, a faint tremor in her voice at the mention of him, “they assured me they would contact me. Without wasting time, they arranged for a private jet to bring me here.”
“I can’t believe this.” I stared at her, astonished. “Mom. Did you know that your father had a brother?”
She shook her head. “I had no idea.”
“He...he,” I broke off, recalling the suffocating darkness, the feeling of being buried alive all over again.
“I know what that monster did to you,” Mom croaked. “And I am glad that he’s dead. Otherwise, I would’ve killed him myself.”
I shook my head, trying to wrap my mind around the enormity of it all, the betrayal and violence. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.
The apology felt hollow and utterly meaningless in the face of so much loss.
My throat tightened, and tears streamed down my cheeks.
“I’m so sorry, my sweet girl. I should have done more to protect you from this,” Mom whispered, taking my hands in hers. “You’re safe now.”
Her gentle touch calmed my racing heart as I took a deep breath. I saw the truth in her golden-brown eyes, and I knew that together, we would overcome this. “There’s something else, Mom,” I began.
“What is it, sweetheart?” she asked, rubbing her thumb over the top of my hand.
“Aunt Valarie is alive. Your uncle kept her prisoner all those years.”
Her eyes widened, and she gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.
“And your mom… I’m so, so sorry but she passed away.” The moment the words left my lips, I saw her shoulders sag.
“Oh, my god,” she choked out. “It’s all my fault.”
I could see the crushing guilt settle on her, the heavy knowledge of what had happened to her family.
“Mom.” My voice shook as I longed to reach out to her, to hold her close just as she used to comfort me as a child whenever I had a bad dream.
Just then, the door swung open, and in strode my father, with Valarie right behind him. My father’s complexion drained of color as he gazed at Mom.
Valarie gasped, her breath catching as tears streamed down her cheeks. She clutched the doorframe, her body shaking as she tried to steady herself.
“Bellissima.”