Matteo’s POV
My eyes almost burned with tears when I got into the room he was kept in and I saw his face scrunched in pain as they tried to relocate his arm to its position.
I did that!! And I’d have done more if Aurora didn’t stop me.
“You’ll be fine, I promise.” I said to Angelo who ignored me and shut his eyes.
“You were going overboard, brother. That wasn’t supposed to be a death match, you just wanted us to spar like the old times and everyone goes home. I can never trust you again,” He lashed out and panted.
“I promise I’ll tell you what happened, but focus on recovering for now.”
I called Doctor Luca aside who is in charge of the medical team. “There’s no other real damage apart from the dislocation, right?”
He shook his head, “There isn’t. I only sent one of my team members to call you because your brother was tense and he said that we shouldn’t commence treatment if you aren’t around.”
My lips stretched into a tired smile. Even with his outburst, he still wanted me with him.
“I’ll be around to do whatever he takes so that he can heal.” I promised.
“You can start by helping to keep him steady. We’ll have to relocate his arm so things wouldn’t get complicated,” He said and I stared at him and the nurses who were trying to make sure that he was fine.
“Alright.”
I approached him and stood by the side where he had the injury and placed my hand on the side of his ribcage. Then the doctor slowly began to pull against his groaning, exerting traction and pushing his arm upward while rotating it until it went back into place with a pop sound.
Relief washed over me when I realized that he was fine, then the doctor lowered the bed so that his injured hand could relax properly.
“For now, your arm will be placed in a sling.” He said to Angelo who I wasn’t sure listened to anything he said. “And it will get swollen in days but don’t stop using it, or your shoulder tissue will be weakened.” He advised.
Now I had two people to take care of, Aurora and my brother. I was still pissed that we didn’t get to kiss but we had plenty of time to do that later.
The door creaked open and Aurora stood by the door with uncertainty ringing her eyes. “Can I come in?” She asked softly.
“You have opened the door already, come in.” I replied, watching the doctor place his arm in a sling. He winced a bit then masked his face into an expressionless one.
“How are you, Angelo?” She asked, drawing closer to him as my body became taut with caution. He was on edge and I didn’t want him to hurt her just because he wasn’t thinking straight.
“I’m fine, thanks.” He replied nicely with a small smile which caused my heart to relax.
**********
It was in the wee hours of the morning but I laid on my bed restlessly. The air conditioner which was supposed to help lull me to sleep only made me uncomfortable.
So I tossed the sheets aside and headed to Angelo’s room which was in a separate wing of the house. He didn’t want to be the brother-next-door and since it was my house, I let him pick wherever he wanted.
I’d made up my mind to reveal some things to him but I wouldn’t go further than my strength would let me. My secret of the past was just too hard to tell so I bore it alone.
I knocked and heard a low grumble so I took it as permission to enter his room. It was dimly lit except for the lamps on his bed stand.
“I’m sorry for hurting you, Angelo. You are my only family and I went overboard.”
He chuckled drily and raised his head and placed a pillow under his bad arm. My eyes darted to his arm which was in a sling, it was swollen just like doctor Luca warned and that implied that he wouldn’t be going to work for some days.
“You know I kept replaying the events of last night in my head and I discovered something.” He began.
“What did you discover, Matteo?”
“Your anger wasn’t directed at me and you just wanted to spar to let off some steam and not even for the fun of it. That was when everything went bad, because you were doing something right for the wrong reason. That’s the worst thing to do,” He slanted me a look while I thought of what to say because he was right.
I reached for his good arm, “If there’s anything I’m happy about, it’s the fact that you never went through anything Aldo put me through. He tried to break me and made my life a living hell, but each time I showed him my strength it angered him and motivated him to even find worse ways of torturing me. Unfortunately, there was no one who could console me apart from Ginevra.”
“Ginevra? What about our mother?” He sat up.
“Our mother hated our father and maybe passed on the hatred to me because I looked like him. So she never cared about what happened to me as long as I was alive.” I explained in a rash voice.
Recalling the past was hard, but putting it into words was more difficult. Angelo didn’t go through the tiniest bit of what I went through because father loved him, my mother as well. Sometimes, I hated myself for coming out first.
“That was really bad. But what triggered you? Why did you fight with me if you were in such an awry mood?”
I couldn’t explain it myself, “Like you said, I just wanted to let off some steam and I used the wrong person for that.”
“I’ll let you do that, though. Once I’m well, I have to work on myself and you should do that too. But isn’t there anybody that can help you out and calm the demons in you? You don’t deserve this,” He asked me a penitent question which I’d asked myself severally, while tilting his head to the side so that he could see through my eyes clearly.
I shook my head, “No one can help me heal, not even the woman you’re thinking about right now.” I replied, waltzing out of his room in readiness for my morning workout when a shadow passed the hallway.