Undressed By The Mafia God novel Chapter 521

Chapter 521: I Brought You Some Tea

The doctor insisted on running tests to determine whether any of the drugs remained in her system. Until the results came back and her body was strong enough for the procedure on her thumb, Veronica was sedated to keep her calm and spare her further pain.

She slept beneath the white sheets, one hand resting inside Luca’s. Luca refused to move. He had not slept in five days. What were a few more hours? Sleep was an absurd luxury when he could have lost her. Every time his eyes began to close, he saw that warehouse again. Saw David’s hands on her. Heard her scream. Felt the knife entering his arm while he watched his wife injure herself because he had told her to.

So he sat beside the bed, freshly stitched and bandaged, watching her breathe.

Carol entered sometime later carrying a tray of tea. She moved quietly, though stealth was unnecessary. A marching band could have paraded through the room and Luca would still have noticed only Veronica. "Hey, Luca." she placed the tray on the bedside table. "I brought you some tea."

"Thank you."

She poured him a cup. Her gaze shifted towards Veronica. She had spent hours imagining the worst, and now that Veronica was home, relief had not entirely convinced her fear to leave. "How is she?" she asked warily.

Luca’s thumb brushed lightly over the back of Veronica’s hand. "She’s fine. The doctor still has to fix the broken bone," he continued. "But he can’t yet, not until she is well enough." His eyes remained on his sleeping wife. "She’ll be fine."

"And you?" Carol asked.

Luca finally looked up at her, the question had caught him off guard. "Me?" He glanced down at the bandage wrapped around his arm, then back at Veronica. "I’m... fine. She’s here. She’s..." His voice faltered. He swallowed hard and tried again. "She’s here, so I’m fine." His eyes betrayed him.

They glistened with tears he was fighting desperately to contain, refusing to cry could somehow prove the nightmare had not broken him. His jaw tightened. His shoulders remained rigid. Even now, he was trying to be the husband, the man who survived everything without bending.

"My baby..." Carol cried. She reached for him, and Luca went into her arms without resistance.

They both needed the hug. The moment Carol wrapped herself around him, a sob tore from his chest. He buried his face against his mother’s middle and held her so tightly that the stitches in his wounded arm threatened to rip apart.

Carol clung to him, one hand cradling the back of his head. "It’s over now," she whispered. "It’s over, baby. You can breathe easy."

Luca tried. He truly did but each breath dragged image after image through his mind. That was only what he had witnessed. He had no idea what David had put her through during the days before he arrived.

How long would it take them to heal from this too? How much more of themselves would they have to sacrifice for the famiglia?

The Genovese family kept surviving, but survival was beginning to look suspiciously like losing everything one piece at a time.

Carol swept her hands gently up and down his back, easing the worst of his anguish as she continued to soothe him. Her Luca had always been strong, tortured since he was a child, but the only time she had seen his tears was when he was fighting for a loved one’s life.

If Luca had taken nothing else from her, at least he had inherited her heart rather than Massimo’s.

That alone was enough to be grateful for. Massimo loved deeply, but he had always chosen suffering over surrender. Fighting for love had never come naturally to him. Enduring the loss of it had.

Luca was different. He loved like war.

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