Chapter 219 Between Life and Lies
Chapter 219 Between Life and Lies
ALESSANDRO
I watched her disappear through the hospital doors, and for a moment my body refused to move. I just stood there, staring at the empty space where Elara had been seconds ago. The woman who once ran toward me was now walking away from me, and I couldn’t even bring myself to blame her.
My chest tightened as the weight of it settled in. Every step she took away from me felt like something I had earned.
“Boss,” my assistant’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts.
I turned slowly to find him standing a few feet away, his expression cautious as he studied me.
“Any news yet?” I asked.
He hesitated, and that hesitation told me everything before he even spoke.
“No, boss,” he said quietly. “Mia still hasn’t woken up.”
I exhaled slowly and looked back at the hospital doors the same doors Elara had just walked through, the same doors hiding the person who had become the center of all this.
“Good,” I said, the word leaving my mouth before I could stop it.
My assistant looked at me immediately, and I didn’t need him to speak to know what was going through his mind. How could I say something like that when someone was lying unconscious in a hospital bed?
But he didn’t understand. Not fully.
Mia waking up meant everything would change. She would tell Elara everything, and remind her of who I used to be the man who hurt her, the man she was trying so hard to escape.
I lowered my gaze, my jaw tightening.
I wasn’t afraid of the truth.
I was afraid of losing her.
I had already lost too many years with Elara. I wasn’t going to lose her completely now.
I just needed time.
Time to make her see I wasn’t that same man anymore. Time to make her forgive me.
I wasn’t going to take the children away from her. I wouldn’t become someone who stole from her again.
I would earn my place. I would make them know me, understand me, and understand that I loved them.
And somehow… I would make my cupcake look at me the way she used to, before everything fell apart.
I just needed time, but Mia couldn’t wake up yet at least not now.
Because once she opened her eyes, whatever fragile hope I still had left would start slipping through my fingers.
MIA
“Good morning, my angel,” the voice reached me first, soft and familiar, the kind of voice I had spent my whole life wishing I could hear.
My eyes slowly opened, and at first everything was blurry just a ceiling, then light, then two faces slowly forming in front of me. My breath caught in my throat.
Dad. Mom.
I stared at them, really stared, because my mind couldn’t understand what my eyes were seeing.
My mother smiled gently, the same smile from the pictures I used to look at when I was younger, the same face I used to wonder about, the same woman I never got the chance to know.
“You’re awake,” my father said, his voice warm and real.
I swallowed hard, confusion still clouding my thoughts, then let out a faint, sleepy breath as a small smile formed on my lips. “Can I sleep a little longer?”
For a second, I forgot that none of it made sense until my father shook his head and said, “No.” Something in his voice made my smile vanish immediately. It wasn’t playful, and it wasn’t gentle either it was urgent.
“Why?” I asked.
They exchanged a look, a silent conversation passing between them, and suddenly fear settled deep in my chest. My mother reached for my hand, and I looked down at it, feeling how real her touch was… too real.
“We have somewhere to take you,” she said.
“Where?” I asked, but she didn’t answer. Instead, she helped me to my feet.
I expected pain, weakness, the memory of the gunshot, the blood but there was nothing. My body felt completely normal, as though I had never been hurt at all. And somehow, that scared me more.
I followed them outside. The mansion stood exactly as I remembered it beautiful, silent, frozen in time. The place my uncle had locked away after my father’s death, the place that should only have existed in my memories.
We walked until they finally stopped, and I almost ran into my father when he turned suddenly.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, looking between them.
He held my gaze for a long moment, and then his expression shifted, something breaking inside it.
“You don’t belong here, Mia,” he said.
The words hit harder than anything else. I blinked at him, stunned. “What?”
My mother stepped closer, her fingers brushing my cheek, a touch I had dreamed of but never thought I would feel.
“I wish you could stay,” she whispered.
My eyes burned. “Then let me,” I said quickly, my voice cracking. “Mom…”
Her sadness deepened. “But your friends need you… your uncle needs you.”
My chest tightened. “No.” I shook my head. “I don’t want to leave.”
The desperation in my voice frightened even me. “Mom, please… don’t send me back.” I held onto her hand tighter, as if I could stop everything from changing.
My father stepped forward again and said, “Mia,” and I looked at him to see something in his eyes I wasn’t ready for pride. “I am proud of you,” he said quietly. “I am proud that you didn’t become like me.”
A tear slipped down my cheek as I shook my head. “Don’t say that.”
He gave a sad smile. “Your mother and I will always be watching over you.”
The world around me began to shake, the mansion fading as the walls, the floor, and even their faces dissolved into blur. “No…” I reached for them. “Mom!”
My voice broke completely as I turned toward him. “Dad!”
My mother’s fingers slipped away as her voice grew faint. “Wake up, Mia… wake up.”
“No!”
But it was too late. They were gone, the mansion vanished, and darkness swallowed everything before I jolted awake.
Pain tore through my body as I gasped sharply, something covering my mouth. A mask. Cold air rushed into my lungs, and the sound of machines filled my ears steady, relentless beeping.
My vision slowly cleared, revealing a white ceiling and white walls, and I realized I was in a hospital. My heart pounded violently as I lifted trembling fingers to the oxygen mask on my face, struggling to process what was happening. I was alive… I was really alive.