Chapter 47
CHAPTER CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN: DREA
From the moment I opened my eyes, a flurry of activity began around me. Medical staff came running. Since I still felt half-in and half-out of consciousness it was overwhelming.
And when the breathing tube was removed, I finally felt human again. Of course, when I tried to speak, nothing but a whisper came out. At what must’ve been my panicked expression, a nurse patted my arm. “Don’t worry. It’ll come back in a few minutes.
“Okay,” I croaked a little louder before.
Once the medical staff moved away from me, my gaze pinged around the room. Vittoria and Audrianna stood with their arms around each other smiling through their tears.
Although I was happy to see them, there was someone else I began searching the room for.
But he wasn’t there.
Had I just been dreaming when he told me loved me and wanted me back? It seemed too cruel of a trick for my mind to play on me. But then I swallowed down my sadness to focus on the other man in my life.
“Luca?”
Vittoria beamed. “He’s fine. Healthy with a head full of jet black hair like you had when you were a baby.”
“Thank God.” Although I was happy to hear how well he was doing, it wasn’t enough. I wanted to see him for myself. To hold him in my arms.
“I want him.”
“The nurses are preparing to bring him down.”
As I closed my eyes, a relieved breath escaped my lips. “Good.”
“Drea,” a voice called from the doorway.
My eyelids snapped open. It was Leo. “You’re here,” I remarked.
“I am.”
Without a word to us, Vittoria pulled Audrianna out of the room to give Leo and I privacy. “When I woke up, I expected you to be here.”
“I was with Luca.”
“You were?”
Tears shone in Leo’s eyes. “I held him.”
I hiccuped a cry. “You did?”
Nodding, Leo crossed the room to my bedside. “He’s so fucking perfect. But more than that, he’s all you.”
“I can’t wait to see him.”
“You’ll fall instantly in love…just like I did.”
“Oh Leo,” I said, as the tears streaked down my cheeks.
As he knelt down beside me, Leo said, “There’s so much I need to say to you.”
I shook my head. “You don’t have to. I heard everything you said.”
His eyes bulged in surprise. “You did?”
“I tried so hard to talk to you, but I couldn’t.”
“Does that mean you forgive me?”
“Yes. If you can forgive me.”
“I do.”
I cupped his cheek with my hand. “Thank you for giving me another chance.”
He winked. “Right back at you.”
When he started to lean over to kiss me, a nurse appeared in the doorway with Luca. She tsked at Leo. “She’s barely out of a coma, and you’re trying to get frisky.”
I gasped at her audacity, especially to a man like Leo. To my surprise, he only chuckled. “Bea, I was not getting frisky. I was just trying to give her a kiss.”
“Mm, hmm.”
“Would you quit being judgy and bring my son to his mother?”
“Just hold your horses.” She jerked her chin at the bed. “You need to raise her up a bit if this is going to work.”
Leo quickly followed her command. At the jerk of the bed, I winced. “Do you need something for the pain?” Bea asked.
“Maybe.”
“Don’t wait and let it get out of control.”
“I just want a minute with my baby before I’m all loopy again.”
Bea smiled. “He’s not going anywhere.”
Sniffling, I replied, “But he won’t bond with me.”
“He’ll know your heartbeat anywhere.”
When I tried to reach for Luca, the wound at my shoulder reared its head. “Just try for one arm.”
After Bea eased Luca into my right arm, I stared down at him in complete wonder. Vittoria was right. He did have my hair. And as I took in his nose and chin, I realized Leo was right as well.
“Hi, sweetheart, it’s your mommy. I’m so sorry I haven’t been there for you.”
“You have the rest of your life to make it up to him,” Bea teased before ducking out to give us some privacy.
I laughed. “I just hope this isn’t what he blames me for in therapy one day.”
Leo grunted. “If he ever tries to hold this against you, I’ll set him straight and rearrange his face.”
“Leo!” I admonished.
“I’m serious, Drea. He does not disrespect you. Ever.”
“Okay, okay. You don’t have to threaten him with violence.”
“I have to toughen up my heir.”
I gasped. “He is?”
“He’s a firstborn.”
“But what if we have more sons? Ones that are your blood?”
Leo shook his head. “He might not be my son by blood, but he will be by his raising.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever loved you more than I do at this moment.”
“There is one thing I want to request.”
My chest tightened a little at his serious expression. “Okay.”
“I won’t keep it a secret that he is not mine.”
I gasped. “But Leo–”
“He shouldn’t grow up shrouded in secrets and whispers. People will know that despite not being my blood son, he is mine.”
“Won’t that set him up for a tough future?”
“Maybe. But he’ll have my name and the support of the entire Neretti family. And as you and I both know, adversity only makes us stronger.”
“You can say that again.”
As I gazed down at Luca’s sleeping face, I wanted to do everything within my power to shield him from the venomous arrows people would inevitably sling at him when they knew the truth.
But I also knew how detrimental it would be for him to one day discover our lies. So, I nodded. “I agree. It shouldn’t be a lie. There’s been too many of those between us.”
“I agree. From now on, it’s only the truth.”
“I love you, Leo.”
He smiled. “And I love you.”