Chapter 32—Dante

It felt like days had passed.

I went through various phases of being asleep and awake.

Sleep then awake seeing Claudius with Maria next to him.

Sleep then awake seeing Gio and Alex with Maria next to them.

The pattern continued, Flynn and Maria, Maria and other people; Luc, Amelia, Ava, Marcus, and even Gibbs.

Different faces, but she was always there; my Maria.

I tried, but couldn’t stay awake long enough.

Not long enough at any point to say anything. I would realize I was awake then sleep would take me again. It took me and it felt like the moment I hit the water I had hit my head on something sharp. I knew the impact of the two knocked me out.

It wasn’t surprising with how much I’d been through in that one day, a bomb at my house, the raid on the civic center killing Elliot and the creeper, and then jumping my bike the twenty foot distance to save my girl.

I rode hard and fast when Number Two told me Franco had Maria and Flynn.

When he told me Maria was verging closer and closer to the edge of the roof like she was going to jump, I knew what that sick bastard was forcing her to do. I did the only thing I could do at the time, because I was too far away to save her.

It wouldn’t have worked any other way.

I had seconds so I rode up the side of the building and jumped from the closest one to the next which was the roof adjacent to where she was. There I built up my speed and launched. I was a quick shot so I wasn’t worried about that part. I just focused on getting across from one roof to the next. The only thought I had on my mind was saving my girl and my child.

Claudius was right in the end. He’d said to remember I said that when I cooled off.

I did and I knew I had to save them by any means.

My life was …

It didn’t mean anything. I just wanted to use it to save them. It would be my way of saying ‘I love you too,’ and she’d know it. She’d know that I did and I always had.

Sleep then awake. A few days more like that until I did it. I managed to keep my eyes open and stay awake.

She was right next to me, her head resting next to my leg. She was sleeping. Her beautiful white blonde hair always looked like it was glowing.

20% angel, 80% devil, and she was all Maria Ferrara.

No … I think now it was the opposite. 80% angel because only an angel could have called me back from the other side, and the 20% devil was the part of her that made me always want her.

I couldn’t explain it. It felt like I’d had an out of body experience and I could hear the guys, but the life left in me just wasn’t enough. She had called me then and I knew how disappointed she’d be if I didn’t come back.

It was like those times when I was younger and I thought she was going to end up homeless or something, because Vira treated her so badly. It felt like all those times when I worried about her wanting to take her away and spend the rest of my life making her happy. All those times rolled into one and shoved the fact that she didn’t tell me about Elliot right out of my mind.

There was nothing to forgive, because she didn’t do anything wrong. She’d been right to wait until she knew something. She did exactly what she would do once she knew for certain, told me it was him, no matter what that meant. She had told me.

It was all over, and time to move on.

We had the memories and now it was time to make more.

I moved my hand over to touch her head. She stirred in an instant like she was waiting for me to wake.

“Dante,” she gasped. “You’re awake, you’re awake.”

“I’m awake baby. I’m sorry I scared you.”

“You can’t apologize for that.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry for everything.”

“Don’t be, you ... you did the right thing. I was an ass just hyped up on rage. Forgive me.”

“Dante please, it’s okay. I’m sorry about your vintage bike.”

“You mean my old bike?” I tried to laugh, but it hurt too much. My head hurt.

“It’s vintage.”

“Told you, that you’d be surprised by what it could do. My other bikes couldn’t have done that.” My head was aching like a bitch.

“Baby, let me get the doctor.”

I grabbed her hand. “No, wait. I don’t want sleep to come for me again.” I didn’t feel like it was, but just in case there was something I wanted to do. Something that came to me just before I jumped my bike. It was a vision of her that I had realized I wanted. I knew that leap would take me to my death and it was the last thing on my mind. “I don’t want to fall asleep again and not do this.”

“What, Dante?”

“It’s funny when I imagined doing this I never thought I’d be in a hospital bed looking like shit.”

“You could never look like that.” She smiled.

“I think I do. Please just imagine we’re somewhere you’ve always wanted to be, and I look a hell of a lot better than I do now.”

“You couldn’t look better than you do, Dante. Right now you look like the man who saved me from death and the horrible life I had. You look like Dante, the man I knew I always should have been with, but was too stupid to realize I always loved you. That night you first asked me out I wanted to say yes, I was going to say yes, because I always felt the same way you did. I considered myself this person who was never a coward, but I was with you back then. I really was when it came to you. It wasn’t that anyone was better. I was just scared. I was scared. Maybe life and all of my bad choices had to happen to me. So, I could open my eyes to see what was in front of me the whole time. Please don’t ask me to imagine anything other than what I see in front of me. I don’t want to.”

She caught and held my attention in such a way that it wiped my brain clean of everything.

I squeezed her hand.

“My girl and my child. My girl. Maria you were always the one for me. Marry me?”

She gasped and her hands flew up to her mouth.

“What?” Now she started crying.

“Marry me doll, just say yes.”

“Yes.” She nodded. “Yes a million times, for everything.”

That was the very best thing I could have heard.