Chapter 68: What we are on the inside!

Matteo takes me to the warehouse, which is busier than usual; he preferred to bring us here because of Dante and Antoni's injuries.

I see him run to the emergency room with my two cousins.

A team was already waiting for them.

Vittorio stays by my side, pressing a cloth against the cut on my head that won't stop bleeding.

Matteo tells us to wait in one of the private rooms. I sit on the stretcher and rest my head on my cousin's shoulder.

Only after the adrenaline and worry subsided did I remember the damn syringe.

"Vittorio, can you lend me your phone?" I ask quietly.

When the ceiling collapsed, my cousin protected me, but some debris still hit us.

Vittorio has a cut on his head that has stopped bleeding, and I feel pain where a rock hit me.

"Here," he says, handing me his cell phone.

I look for Luca's number and press to call. "Brother, can you do me a favor?" I ask as soon as he answers the phone.

"Sure, is everything alright?" he asks worriedly. "I'll put it on speakerphone."

"Yes, everything's fine," I reply sleepily. "I need you to find a briefcase belonging to the man Nicco killed in the kitchen."

He's silent for a moment.

"What do you need it for?" Luca asks, and I see Vittorio staring at me confused.

"Don't fight with me," I plead, overwhelmed with ideas.

"Elena," Lorenzo warns impatiently.

"He had a syringe, I want to make sure it's nothing." As soon as the words leave my mouth, I hear footsteps.

"Vittorio," Leonardo calls calmly. "Where's Matteo?"

"Taking care of Dante and Antoni in the emergency room," Vittorio replies, still staring at me. On the other end of the line, I hear some whispers, which makes me nervous.

“Call a doctor, brother,” Lorenzo orders coldly.

Victorio wastes no time and quickly leaves the room.

“What was in the syringe, Lorenzo?” I ask anxiously.

He takes a while to answer because he's talking quietly with the others.

“It seems to be some kind of chemical compound,” Vicente says calmly.

I try to remember from my chemistry classes what it could be exactly, but I'm so tired I can't think of anything else.

I close my eyes for a moment and lean my head against the wall.

“Elena, I'm going to switch the call to video,” Angelo says, and I open my eyes again.

I'm shocked by my appearance; my hair is disheveled and pale, my nose is crooked and looks like a tomato.

“I look awful,” I say with a pained smile. “Yes, you do,” Luca says, receiving a slap on the head from Sandro. “How are you feeling?” Lorenzo asks seriously.

“Sleepy. I think I just need to rest,” I reply, suppressing a yawn.

The phone weighs heavily in my hand, and I feel my muscles tense.

“What happened?” Vicente asks, noticing my uncomfortable expression.

I open my mouth to answer when a doctor, accompanied by Matteo and Vitório, enters the room.

Matteo takes the phone from my hand and removes it from speakerphone. I notice he agrees with some things and gives me a worried look a few times.

The doctor asks me some questions while I answer with the utmost honesty.

“Sister, I’m going to take you to the emergency room. We need to clean the wound and put you on a monitor,” Matteo says calmly so as not to scare me.

“Okay,” I reply and get off the stretcher. My legs give way as soon as I find support, but luckily, Matteo catches me before I hurt myself. He carries me to the emergency room.

I feel increasingly sleepy, as if the world is spinning too fast for me to keep up with.

As soon as I arrive, Matteo cuts my shirt and removes the makeshift bandages.

My skin is red, looking burned, which explains the unbearable burning sensation.

Vittorio has to hold me while Matteo washes the wound repeatedly.

I start seeing stars when he removes pieces of dead tissue from the cuts.

When he finally finishes, I'm covered in two huge bandages and supported by Vittorio, who doesn't leave my side even when they're stitching up her head.

"She'll be here for at least 24 hours," Matteo says, but his voice is distant.

I fall asleep seconds later, immersed in a world of peace.

“Elena, I need to talk to you,” Matteo says in a low voice.

“You know that tone of voice will never wake you up,” Antoni replies loudly.

I open my eyes with difficulty; I was having such a good dream.

I see Antoni in a wheelchair and Matteo sitting on the edge of the bed with a gentle smile.

“Hi,” I say with a soft smile.

I notice something on my nose and reach out to touch it; I feel some pieces of adhesive tape.

“Why does it hurt so much?” I ask, closing my eyes tightly.

“Let’s just say you had rhinoplasty,” Matteo says, and I stare at him in shock. “I promise we’ll leave it as it is.”

I sit up, observing the rest of my body attentively.

“Calm down,” Matteo asks seriously.

I notice he’s looking at some monitors and I see some wires connected to me.

"How are you feeling?" he asks. I notice Antoni is equally serious.

"Well, the effect of that has worn off, I feel renewed," I say sincerely.

"That's good, you slept for more than twelve hours straight, we were worried," says Lorenzo, entering the room.

"How are you feeling, Antoni? And how is Dante?" I ask, worried about the two of them.

"It takes more than that to kill us," says Antoni, and I glare at him disapprovingly.

"No, it doesn't," I reply seriously.

Everyone looks at me, and I take a deep breath, trying to control my temper.

"Elena, I'm sorry," Lorenzo begins to say, but I quickly grab my pillow and throw it at him.

"If you're going to apologize, get out of here now!" I yell at him. "You'd better send me away if you're going to live apologizing."

The machines beside me beep and I rip the wires.

"You're in the mafia, Lorenzo," I say angrily. "And I accepted that fact, I accepted that, because of it, many bad things happened in our lives."

They look at me surprised.

"We can't change that, the fact that we are who we are, so stop apologizing to me, because the danger comes with being part of the mafia," I say a little quieter. "And I don't regret being part of our family for a second."

They listen silently to everything I say.

"She's right, that's a consequence of being part of our family," says Nonno, stopping at the entrance.

"Enough with the apologies, you didn't choose any of this," my tone softens. "So there's no reason to keep repeating it."

Lorenzo just nods; it's the first time I've seen him speechless.

But it's also the first time I've seen through the barrier he builds around himself.

Deep down, we're just kids trying to do something right. Trying to survive.