Chapter 28 Chapter 29
Valerie POV
I stared at the medication in my hand, my fingers trembling so hard I could barely hold it. My heart pounded in my chest, fear crawling up my spine, but I forced myself not to stop. I had already made the decision. There was no turning back now.
I opened it quickly and swallowed everything in one desperate motion. I didn’t let myself think. Thinking would ruin it. This was my plan if it worked, I would be rushed to the hospital. That was the only thing I focused on.
I lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. The clock beside me read a few minutes past five thirty. Every second felt louder than the last. At first, nothing happened. Everything felt normal. Too normal.
Panic began to creep in. Had I done something wrong? My chest tightened as I waited, counting my breaths. Time passed slowly, dragging on, until my body finally began to feel heavy. My eyelids drooped, and my thoughts blurred together.
I tried to sit up, but dizziness washed over me. The room tilted, spinning slightly. I pushed myself off the bed, my legs shaking as I struggled to stand. I needed to reach the door. I needed someone to see me.
Each step felt wrong. My feet barely obeyed me, slipping as I tried to stay upright. I grabbed onto the wall, then the dresser, anything to keep myself from falling. My vision darkened at the edges, and a sharp wave of nausea hit me.
I forced myself forward, dragging my body toward the door. My legs gave out more than once, but somehow I stayed on my feet. When I finally reached the door, my hand shook as I pulled it open.
That was when I saw the housekeeper.
She rushed toward me, her face filled with shock and fear. I tried to speak, tried to tell her what was happening, but my mouth wouldn’t cooperate. The words stayed trapped inside my head.
The world began to spin violently.
My knees buckled, and I felt myself falling. Everything blurred together the lights, the sounds, the panic until the floor rushed up to meet me. Darkness swallowed me whole.
I didn’t know how long I had been asleep when I became aware of the sound. A steady, rhythmic beeping filled the air. It pulled me out of the darkness slowly, painfully.
I opened my eyes, bright lights burned my vision, and the smell around me was unfamiliar. My head throbbed as I tried to understand where I was. Machines surrounded me, wires attached to my body.
I was in the hospital.Reality crashed over me all at once. I tried to move, panic surging through my chest. I attempted to sit up, but strong hands pressed me gently back down onto the bed.
“Stay still. Don’t move.”The voice stopped me instantly.
Luciano.
I turned my head toward him, my movements slow and weak. He was sitting beside my bed, close enough that I could see the exhaustion written all over his face. His eyes were red, his jaw tense, as if he hadn’t rested at all.
It looked like he had stayed here all night.
Seeing him like that made my chest ache in a way I hadn’t expected. Guilt pressed down on me, heavier than the machines or the pain in my body. I looked away, unable to hold his gaze.
I paused for a moment, trying to remember what had happened before everything went dark. I searched my mind, digging through the fog, but nothing came back. My head felt heavy, like my thoughts were trapped behind a wall I couldn’t break through.
Slowly, I turned to look at him.
“How long have I slept?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
“Two days,” he replied.The words hit me like a slap.
Two days,My body went stiff as panic rushed through me. My heart started pounding, loud and fast, drowning out every other sound in the room. Two days was enough to ruin everything. Two days was enough to destroy the plans I had been holding onto so tightly.
I couldn’t breathe properly,I turned quickly toward the small table beside the bed, my eyes scanning it desperately. My hands trembled as I searched, moving too fast, my chest tight with fear. I knew what I was looking for, even if I didn’t say it out loud.
“What are you looking for?” he asked.
I stopped instantly and forced myself to look calm. “Nothing,” I said too quickly, shaking my head. “It’s nothing.”
But it wasn’t nothing,I was looking for it on my phone.
I needed to know if Lauren had called me. If she had left a message. If she had been looking for me. Every second that passed without knowing made the panic worse, curling deeper into my chest.
I shifted, about to push myself out of the bed, ignoring the weakness in my body. I had to find it. I had to know.
“Don’t,” he said firmly.Before I could react, he raised his hand and waved my phone in front of my face.
“Are you looking for this?” he asked.
Everything froze.
The room seemed to go silent, like time had stopped just for that moment. My breath caught in my throat as I stared at the phone in his hand. I nodded slowly, unable to form words.
He handed it to me, his expression unreadable.
My fingers closed around the phone as if it might disappear if I didn’t hold on tightly enough. My hands were shaking as I pressed the power button. The screen lit up, and I unlocked it quickly, my heart racing with every movement.
Please, I thought. Please, I opened my messages first. Nothing. No notifications. No missed calls. I checked again, convinced I had missed something. Then I opened my call log.
Empty,My stomach dropped, I went through everything, texts, calls, even old conversations but it was all gone. Everything had been wiped out. It was like my phone had been erased, stripped of every connection I had been desperate to hold on to.
My chest tightened painfully, and I felt cold all over.
Slowly, I lifted my gaze to Luciano.
He was watching me closely, his eyes filled with something I couldn’t fully understand. Concern. Guilt. Control. Maybe all of it at once.
“What did you do?” I asked quietly, my voice trembling despite my attempt to stay calm.
He didn’t answer right away, And in that silence, the weight of the past two days settled heavily on my chest. Whatever had happened while I was unconscious had changed things. I could feel it. My plans were slipping through my fingers, and I didn’t know how to stop it.
All I knew was that nothing felt the same anymore.