Rescue
“Don’t be an idiot, Henri,” Angelo says, knowing he’ll do whatever it takes to get out of there.
“Kill that bitch, son!” Jorge shouts, and Uncle Salvatore steps on his back.
He starts counting, and I close my eyes. When he gets to number three, the gun disappears from my head, and I hear Henri’s body fall to the ground.
I look around and, in the distance, I see Sandro waving at me with a rifle in his hand. I can’t help but smile with joy and relief.
I hear Jorge and Chris lamenting Henri’s death.
“You damn whore!” Chris shouts at me, and I smile at him.
“I’ll cut your penis off for what you did to me,” I say angrily, and I see the gun in Angelo’s hand, a little hesitant. “Although I don’t think I’ll get there first.”
Chris curses furiously, and Angelo hits him in the back of the neck with the butt of the gun.
I try to get up from the ground, but my body is exhausted from everything that happened today.
I hear Angelo telling the others that I'm on the lawn in the south part of the house and that the Sinclairs have surrendered.
I lie down on the grass, exhausted, and when I think I can finally have peace, Eloisa's voice reaches me.
Doesn't that girl ever get tired?
"Elena, you wretch!" I hear her shout from afar, and then I hear the sound of a gunshot.
I'm lucky Eloisa doesn't have good aim, otherwise I'd be dead.
I see her shoot several times in my direction, but the closest shot she hits is a tree two meters from me.
I laugh at her because I know it irritates her deeply.
"Go to hell!" I yell at her and lie down on the grass again.
The next thing I see is her jumping on top of me, and then I see Jorge knock down Uncle Salvatore.
Eloisa punches me in the face and presses her knee against my stomach, causing my bruised back to press against the hard floor.
As I try to get away from her, I see my uncle and Jorge fighting over the gun while Angelo yells at Chris not to move.
Jorge manages to grab the gun, but before he can point it at my uncle, I see my uncle Salvatore pull out a knife and stab himself in the neck.
Blood gushes from the wound and Jorge slowly collapses.
"This is for my children," he says angrily to Jorge.
I turn to Eloisa, who has also stopped to watch the scene.
"And so you lose everything again," I taunt.
I groan in pain as she pushes me harder, grabs her hair, and moves away from me. Eloisa screams in anger, and as much as I want to kill her with my own hands, I'm too weak.
Eloisa tries to break free by twisting my wrist.
I know my brothers can't shoot her because she's not a fixed target, and hitting me point-blank is almost inevitable.
"You destroyed everything I had!" she screams angrily and manages to break free. "I'll kill you for this!"
Eloisa closes her hands around my neck and starts to squeeze. I try to free her hands, but my body is too weak.
My vision begins to darken and my arms fall.
When I'm almost suffocating, she's pulled from me and I gasp for air.
My father holds Eloisa, who struggles uselessly in his arms.
"You still have a long debt to pay, darling," my father whispers in her ear, and she fights harder. I sit on the floor coughing, my throat and body aching.
I look around and the only Sinclair alive is Christopher, who stares at his father's lifeless body right in front of him.
I collapse to the floor, too exhausted to support my own body. I close my eyes, darkness enveloping me.
I can't die after all this.
"Elena," I hear Matteo's voice and open my eyes with difficulty.
I see him kneeling beside me and smile at him.
"Hi, brother," I say weakly.
"You're very pale," he says, looking at my leg, which isn't bleeding enough to justify the paleness.
"I'm sleepy and my stomach hurts," I complain with a groan.
Matteo assesses my general state until I bend over and vomit blood.
"Damn, this isn't good," Matteo says, and then I remember something important.
"I swallowed the collar with the tracker," I admit, with the excruciating pain in my stomach.
Matteo looks at me like I'm crazy and then picks me up, wearing a kind of bodysuit so as not to hurt my back.
"Tell me you at least wrapped the necklace in something?" he asks as he walks quickly with me.
"In plastic, but I think the kicks I took tore the packaging," I reply, and he nods.
I'm put in a car where Giovanni, Luca, and Bruno are, and we leave immediately.
Matteo turns me around so my back is to him and examines my back during the drive. I can hear Bruno cursing beside me when he sees my skin cut in several places.
"Elena, where does it hurt the most?" Matteo asks, and I turn to show him my collarbone.
I let the sheet covering me fall to my back, showing only part of my collarbone and shoulders.
Matteo examines the cuts and then tears a piece of the sheet to tie around my leg.
I look at him sadly, my eyes filling with tears.
"My stomach hurts, brother," I say softly, and he stares at me with a silent question. I just nod, confirming the sexual abuse.
"It's going to be okay, little sister," he says sadly, and I see his eyes darken.
I rest my head on Bruno's shoulder and close my eyes.
"How much longer until we get there?" Matteo asks Giorgio, who is driving.
"More than we have," Giovanni says, worried.
"Don't worry about the red lights," Matteo growls, and the car accelerates.
My cousin injects me with morphine while still in the car. The pain lessens, but I feel weaker and weaker.
"Elena, stay awake," Bruno pleads when I rest my head on his shoulder.
"I want to sleep, I'm tired," I say, my voice almost inaudible. "You didn't care at all."
“That’s not true, our family would be destroyed if you left,” Luca says firmly.
He knows I think this way because of him.
“Maybe it’s better this way,” I say, coughing and feeling blood in my mouth.
“Never say that again,” Bruno reprimands me.
I give him a sad smile, showing that if this is my fate, I’ll be happy for it all to end at once.
As soon as we arrive at the hospital, I’m rushed to the operating room. Matteo explains that they’re going to remove the tracker from my stomach and treat the wounds on my back.
Five minutes later, I’m sedated and asleep.