Chapter 279: 279- A New Beginning

POV Nicholas:

“Any questions, gentlemen?” He steps forward. “Can I allow the visit?”

“Doctor,” I stop him before he crosses the threshold, “please, I want the privacy of a room.” Dominic exhales heavily.

The doctor furrows his brow, not understanding the request. My mouth is dry.

“But…” He tries to question, but my brother interrupts him.

“It’s okay. It’s what he wants.”

I fill my chest with air.

I don’t need time.

“The first person I authorize to come through that door is named Raica Vásquez. Please write down her name.” He writes it down. “After she leaves, my parents can come in—if they’re not too busy in my brother’s room.”

I glance at Dominic, who presses his lips together. There’s no doubt they’ll visit him first.

“Okay.” The doctor says goodbye with a gesture and leaves the room.

A minute or two is all it takes for a team to transfer Dominic to another room. During every moment of his departure, he waits for a single word, a simple gesture to stop the distance from growing. I almost died. He saved my life. The world spins and I’m dizzy. I take a deep breath and focus on the sunlight streaming into the room—it’s my anchor—until the door closes and opens again.

“Hi.” Her voice is choked, her body small under the doorway, her teary eyes shining with a smile.

My sun.

“Come here…” I ask, my tone affected by her presence. Raica looks healthy—that’s enough to calm my heart. Never have I felt despair crush me the way it did when I learned what could happen to this woman in the hands of those bastards. After years, I finally heard what my heart had to say and… I was terrified. Damn, it’s too intense for such a short time. Something that seizes, consumes, paralyzes. I found out I’d do anything for her—and I did, without hesitation. “You look beautiful!”

One step and then another, slow, stretching the anguish of inhaling her perfume, until she’s standing beside my hospital bed.

“Liar, look at the bags under my eyes, I haven’t slept for exactly three days.” She pouts adorably, her lips glossy.

“What have you been doing during that time, Miss Vásquez? Can you tell me?”

The beautiful girl curls her lips into a half-smile—delicious, enough to steal my breath.

“I camped out at the hospital until a certain someone decided to wake up. Damn it, Nicholas, you’re so lazy, you slept forever!”

I laugh softly and hold her hand.

“I’m sorry, I failed you.”

“No…”

“Yes. I promised to protect you and almost lost you because of a damn contract. Can you come closer and give me a kiss? I missed you, Bella.”

“Oh, Nick…” Tears on the edge of her green eyes slip down her flushed cheeks. Crying, her wet lips share with mine the taste of her longing. The kiss is gentle, but she squeezes her eyelids shut to intensify it. I keep my eyes open, watching the drops break and trace her face until they touch my mouth. I press our foreheads together, our mouths breathing the same air.

“How do you feel?” she whispers against my mouth, giving space for eye contact.

I cup one side of her face with my palm, caressing, feeling her soft skin.

“I’m fine. The doctor explained everything to me. And you?” She leans back slightly.

“Fine…” Her eyes flicker. “I didn’t like the harsh path everything took, Nick. I mean, the…” She avoids saying the name.

“I don’t regret it, Raica. And if I have to pay for it, so be it… I just can’t hear the bastard’s barbarities and do nothing.”

“Rebecca will probably come talk to you. The forensics claimed self-defense and… a lot of shit about him and the Trolls surfaced in the media. The bastard was disgusting.”

“I don’t know how I didn’t suspect. I knew the kind of relationships he had with his women, just as I knew about the consent of those crazy ones. Now… this… I…”

“It’s over!” She dries her eyes with her fingertips and lays down a verdict too hard to ignore. “It’s over?”

I know what she’s asking, but I have no answer.

“No… I can’t…”

Raica strokes the side of my face, tracing the rigid lines that sketch my features over and over.

“You don’t intend to forgive your brother, even after everything?”

“I don’t intend to go into that. Not at this moment when I wanted nothing more than to have you with me.”

She doesn’t push. She smiles and rests her head carefully on the center of my chest. My heart knows how to communicate with her; its frantic beats don’t hide what I feel or how I feel when this girl touches me.

“Aline is your lawyer?” I feel the smile grow on her beautiful face. “Did you sleep with your lawyer?”

“I think the only one I didn’t sleep with was Day, my last assistant.”

She rises and shoots me a furious look.

“You say that with a straight face just because I can’t punch you, don’t you?”

“Obviously! I’m smart.”

“How did you find out?”

“Aline visited me in the hospital and explained everything.”

“Sorry, there wasn’t time.”

“You’re lucky I love you”—She what?—“otherwise you’d be back in the ICU with a few well-aimed punches. Like I said, I’ve trained in boxing.”

I can’t look anywhere but her eyes.

“What did you say?” I ask, barely above a whisper.

“I fell in love, Nick.” She closes her eyes, and when she opens them again, a tear escapes the corner. Her eyes confess everything.

“Don’t ask me how or when. I couldn’t name a date or a moment. It just happened.”

I trace her face gently, my focus locked on her parted lips, her breath spilling out fast between them. Raica is nervous, and I confess—I am too.

I brush my nose against hers, sliding from side to side, grazing her lips. I sigh like a teenager at her confession, yet I don’t feel enough to declare my own feelings.

Raica carefully resumes her earlier position, mindful of the bandage—the mark that will forever remind me there’s a living part of my brother inside me.

“Your mother almost hit me.” She breaks the silence.

“Are you sure? Mrs. Sara is a sweetheart.”

“Ahaaaa! When the doctor announced your request, she got really mad. Poor thing, your parents were hoping to see you before the fake fiancée.”

“Wasn’t Dominic their first option?”

“No, she was very sad when she was barred from entering.” Then the soft, warm contact turns into something demanding, definitive. “Why me before your parents?”

“You’re the one I wanted to see before anyone else.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

She closes her eyes for a few minutes and takes a deep breath. When she opens them again, she transmits to my soul everything hers feels.

“I want you, but free from your past. I want you whole, complete, without a single missing piece. I see you, and I know there’s a lot of bitterness chewing at your heart. With all that bitterness, you won’t be happy with me, nor will you have your own peace.”

“Raica…”

“Look”—she lifts her hand to head level, the ring shining like her eyes—“this is part of something unreal.” She removes it and places it on the nightstand. “If we’re going to start something, it will be new, ours. You need time, and I’ll give it to you.”

I don’t accept the distance she imposes.

“Where do you think you’re going? Is it only you who gets to speak, who sets the rules?”

“Yes, get used to it.”

Daughter of a bitch.

She smiles.

“Your parents want to see you. It’s not fair for me to use up all the visiting time.” She blows me a kiss before disappearing through the door.