Fear
POV: Fernando Valentini
Fear can be a poison, and for a father or mother, when danger involves their children, it becomes torture.
Knowing that Lorenzo is fighting for his life is almost as terrifying as seeing Elena vomit blood at Luca's feet, who accuses her.
My son is scared; seeing his hero wounded has deeply shaken him.
We were all speechless when we saw him insult his sister. We didn't agree with him, but seeing the playful boy explode left us stunned.
Well, until our princess vomited blood and fainted in his arms.
"Did any of you see her when the bomb exploded?" Matteo asks, assessing his cousin who lets out a groan of pain.
"She was wet, I think she fell into the pool, but she said she was okay," Bruno says hurriedly.
Matteo lifts her from the ground and runs to the emergency room with worry on his face.
I hear Matteo's voice talking to Luca before he walks through the doors. "Maybe you'll get what you asked for," he says sadly to Luca, who stares at him in despair.
Dante stops Luca from following Matteo, placing his hand on his shoulder.
"You'll have plenty of time to grieve if something happens to her, don't worry," Leonardo growls at his brother.
Luca runs his hand through his hair and runs out of the building.
No one stops him; he needs time, just like all of us.
I leave the waiting room to get a glass of water for my mother, who is devastated, and now that Elena has been taken inside unconscious, she's even worse.
Salvatore finds me near the water fountain and... He looks worriedly at the twins.
"Everyone will be alright," I say, trying to comfort us.
"They are Valentini, they are stronger than anyone," he says firmly. I realize he's clinging to any thread of hope he can find.
"They touched our children, Salvatore!" I explode with anger and throw the glass of water against the wall.
“And they’ll regret it,” says my father, joining us.
POV: Vicente
A week has passed since the attempted murder.
Giovanni will be discharged tonight. I park the car in front of the warehouse and sigh.
“You should sleep,” says Angelo.
“I’ll sleep when the three of them wake up,” I reply irritably.
I know he’s right, but with Lorenzo gone, we’re all working double shifts. My older brother was responsible for many things.
I get out of the car and go inside. I go to the warehouse, along with Angelo and Bruno.
Matteo is already waiting for us at the entrance to the infirmary.
“I want to see them before I leave,” I say, and Matteo agrees. He looks as tired as I do; his eyes are sunken and his beard has started to grow.
I go into Giovanni’s room first. He has a respirator in his mouth, his chest exposed with wires connected.
No change in his condition since the last time I saw him.
I approach his bed and lean close to his ear.
"You know I don't believe anything that can't be explained, but if there's the slightest chance you're listening to me, I need you to wake up," I tell my cousin, hoping it will help somehow.
I stay a few more moments before going to Lorenzo's room.
He's in a more complicated state than the others.
His surgery went well, but he lost a lot of blood and has had three cardiac arrests since then.
Every second he breathes is a miracle, every beep from the monitor is a second we gain in terms of improvement.
Because his health is unstable, I can't go past the glass door of the ICU.
"Any change?" I ask Matteo, who stops beside me.
"His heart rate improved and his blood pressure stabilized," he says, but there is no emotion in his voice.
“At least tell me he’s going to get better, that one of the three of them is going to wake up,” I plead with the desperation I usually hide very well.
Matteo pushes me away and sighs.
“I’ll be honest with you,” he says firmly, “Giovanni is improving little by little; soon we’ll be able to take him off the ventilator.”
I feel relieved and continue to stare at him, waiting for him to finish.
“Lorenzo is in serious condition, but if he remains stable, we can plan an attempt to take him off the ventilator,” Matteo says sincerely.
“And Elena, she still hasn’t woken up,” I say worriedly.
Matteo stares at me with redoubled concern.
Elena has always been our weak point, our most precious possession.
“She suffered a skull fracture; we managed to control the bleeding and, thankfully, there was no damage to the brainstem,” he says, and my impatience grows.
“Matteo, she’s still in a coma,” I say, not understanding.
“That’s the problem, we don’t know why she hasn’t woken up,” he admits. “Everything is normal, we took the respirator off two days ago, but she’s not responding.”
“Could it be brain death?” I ask, not fully understanding the situation.
“No, she has brain activity,” Matteo says, reassuring me.
We go to her room and I see Dominic there.
He visits her more than we do; deep down, we’re afraid to come here, afraid of receiving bad news.
It scares me to see her lifeless in bed, sleeping soundly as if she were escaping reality.
But after what Luca said and our reaction, I don’t blame her for not wanting to come back to us.
“We’ll have to wait for her to wake up,” Matteo says, without much else to do.
“Take me to Giovanni,” I ask, wanting to make sure that at least one of them was better.
Matteo took me to one of the rooms at the end of the inpatient ward.
"He still needs to rest. He might get better, but if he gets worse, I want you back immediately," Matteo instructs before opening the door.
"Finally you came to rescue me," Giovanni says, already standing.
He was excited, but I realized it was just to hide the fear he felt for his twin brother.
The two were always together, never separated, unless necessary.
"It's good to see you like this. We have a lot to sort out at the office," he said with a wry smile.
He made a sad face and huffed in frustration.
"You know I hate paperwork. That's your job, not mine," he complains.
"Congratulations, you got promoted," I say, patting him on the shoulder to accept the news.
Matteo stifles a laugh and leaves the room to go to work.
"I need you," I tell Giovanni seriously. "I'm taking care of the men you and Giorgio were interrogating, but it didn't amount to anything." “He doesn’t know anything, he’s just taking up space,” Giovanni says thoughtfully. “The right thing to do is send search teams.”
“I already did that, but so far nothing,” I reply, tired.
I feel like we’re running in circles, and with each step the enemy gets closer.