CHAPTER HUNDRED SIXTYFIVE-T
+25 Points
CHAPTER HUNDRED-SIXTYFIVE-1
VALERIE
The next morning, I awoke to the nostalgic scent of antiseptic and the hum of the hospital room. I had fallen asleep in the chair next to Giovanni’s bed my hand still clasped in his. He was still on the
ventilator, but he was breathing on his own more often, the machines sighing in relief rather than fighting for each breath.
His eyes were open, watching me. There was a new clarity in them, a sharpness that hadn’t been
there yesterday. He was present. He was here.
“Morning,” I whispered, my voice still thick with sleep. “Did you sleep well?”
He blinked once.
I smiled, a genuine, heartfelt smile that reached my eyes. “Good. I’m glad. Phoenix is doing well, by
the way. He misses you. We all miss you.”
His gaze softened, and I saw a flicker of something in his eyes, a longing that mirrored my own. He
wanted to hold me, to hold our son, to go back to the way things were. And I wanted that too.
More than anything.
A nurse came in to check on him, a perky, efficient woman who seemed to have a smile
permanently affixed to her face. “Well, look who’s awake!” she chirped, her voice a little too bright
for the early hour. “We’re making progress, aren’t we?”
Giovanni blinked once, his eyes fixed on mine.
“I’ll just be a minute,” the nurse said, bustling around the room, checking the monitors, adjusting the IV. “Then we can try to get you up for a little while. A little bit of movement will do you good.”
I watched her, a knot of anxiety tightening in my stomach. I wanted to be alone with him. I wanted
to talk to him, to really talk to him, without the constant interruptions, the clinical chatter, the
sterile, impersonal atmosphere of the hospital.
As if sensing my thoughts, the nurse finished her tasks with a final, cheerful smile. “All done!” she
said, her hands on her hips. “I’ll be back in a bit to help you with your exercises. Just press the call
button if you need anything.”
She left, and the room fell silent once more, the only sounds the rhythmic beep of the heart
monitor and the soft whisper of the ventilator.
I leaned in closer, my lips near his ear. “I know you can’t talk,” I whispered, my voice low and
conspiratorial. “But you can hear me. I just want to talk to you. I’ve missed hearing your voice, miss feeling your arms around my body. I misseverything about you. It’s been depressing doing life
without you, it’s feeling like I’m losing my mind.”
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CHAPTER HUNDRED-SIXTYFIVE-T
+25 Points
I took a deep breath, steeling myself for what I was about to say next. “Yasmine came to see me a
couple days back. She came to see you, actually. And she was acting all concerned and sympathetic, but I saw right through her, Giovanni. I saw the truth in her eyes. She was the one who
did this. I know it was her.”
I paused, watching his face, searching for any sign of a reaction. His expression was confused, not
the angry I wanted. He was blinking, but it was slow and erratic, a flicker of incomprehension in his eyes. He didn’t understand. The memories were still fragmented, buried beneath the trauma and
the medication.
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