Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Her unvoiced remorse does little to cool my fury when she mouths, I’m sorry, two seconds before she races back through the double doors faster than a bullet leaving a gun.
My head screams at me to take off after her and rip her to shreds, but a question too fragile not to fracture my psyche concretes my feet to the floor. “There’s little chance we can do anything for Valentina’s baby, but if you could choose, who should we save?”
Not even confirmation that my child is also Valentina’s sees me hesitating. “Valentina,” I say, my voice rough with emotions. “Save Valentina. Always.”
The doctor nods before he reenters the cubicle, where the male nurse is frozen in shocked silence. He didn’t anticipate my reply, and the instant Valentina is safe and conscious, I’ll find out why. “We’ll do everything we can, Signor Caruso.”
He waits for me to nod before he wheels Valentina behind the flapping plastic doors of the operating room.
35
GIOVANNI
Every time a nurse passes the waiting room, my heart rate spikes as fast as my chin jerks up, and I brace for news that never comes. Time stretches cruelly and endlessly as I bob my leg like a crack addict overdue for a fix.
I don’t even know how I got to the waiting room. One minute, I was in the ER. The next, I was seated on a hard plastic chair with my elbows on my knees, and my head in my hands.
Anger burns in my chest, but underneath the rage is a fear so potent it’s the equivalent of acid in my veins. I’m fucking terrified. What if the doors open and good news doesn’t walk through them? I won’t survive the agony my father has endured over the past thirteen months.
Not hearing Valentina’s laugh again or feeling the movements of her curves under my hand when she quivers in ecstasy will kill me.
If she’s no longer in this world, I won’t be either. There are no rewrites for my story. No part two. I’m the fucking penguin with his perfect fucking pebble.
It’s only given out once.
Finally, the doctor who wheeled Valentina away hours ago appears. His expression is calm, but his eyes are stormy. I reach him in less than a heartbeat, and my brothers rise with me like a force ready to fight the injustices of the world.
“She’s stable.” His confession releases the pressure valve in my chest. “We controlled the bleeding by removing one of her fallopian tubes and are managing the complications of OHSS with medication.”
“Where is she?” Concetta asks, reminding me that she’s here.
I’m not avoiding her on purpose. I’m just too caught up in my worst nightmare to drag anyone else into the mess. I thought I handled pressure well. Tonight has proved me a liar.
The doctor glances at Concetta and smiles. “She’s in recovery.”
My throat burns when Dante reminds me it wasn’t solely Valentina’s life on the line tonight. “And the pregnancy?”
Remorse blisters through the doctor’s eyes. It discloses everything.
While not all is lost, things don’t look good.
Grief claws at my chest, but the sheer relief that Valentina is alive soothes its wounds. “Can I see her?”
“Soon,” the doctor answers, alerting me that I asked a question.
Silly me.
“I want to see her,” I correct.
“Soon,” he repeats. “She’s still under anesthesia…” His words trail off when I arch a brow. I wasn’t asking permission to see Valentina. I’m telling him I want to see her. Those are two very different things.
His throat works hard to swallow before he briefly nods. “Okay. But only one visitor at a time. She needs time to recover.”
My brothers nod in understanding. I stand my ground.
“Two.” I curl my hand around Concetta’s shuddering one before tugging her forward so she stands next to me. I was furious she didn’t immediately heel to Valentina’s request for her to stop. Then I remembered who she was dragging her away from. Tomasso is a worthless piece of shit. He’ll trade his own daughter for some coin, so there’s no way I’d let him anywhere near Valentina. Concetta must be of the same belief. Although I would have handled things differently, a parent doesn’t have the same crutches as a partner. “Two visitors this time.”
Again, the doctor surrenders. “Very well. Follow me.”
It takes only one glance at my brothers for them to move forward with correcting the injustices that occurred tonight. I’ll join them the instant Valentina is out of the woods. She comes first.
She will always come first.
It’s business as usual for the Caruso realm when Matteo leads the pack of wolfhounds out of the hospital while shouting, “It’s party time, boys!”
Excluding the steady beep of monitors, the room Valentina is recovering in is quiet. Tubes snake from her arms and under the sheet, and a heart monitor shows the safe rhythm of her pulse. I move to her side and take her hand in mine. It’s warm now. Thank fuck. For hours now, I’ve been suppressing the urge to go on a rampage. It was close to bubbling over, but one brush of her skin against mine and the viciousness of the tornado consuming me downgrades from catastrophic to an EF3.