Cara’s POV
After leaving Doctor Bruno’s office, I spent the rest of the day stuffing myself in the hospital cafeteria while I waited for Adonis to be done with his examinations.
At the end of it all, we left in separate cars, a stark contrast to our arrival. The emotions, the atmosphere, everything down to the littlest details was different.
The heavy tension, born of fear for the news we might receive at the hospital, gave way to an awkwardness neither of us wanted to acknowledge.
Talking about it meant compromising, which we weren’t ready to do. Not he, nor I. It was better that way.
“I’d be back,” Adonis said in a low voice as he drove off with an extra car packed with about five guards behind him.
The dark circles underneath his eyes spoke volumes about the stressful poking and prodding he’d endured all day. His usually proud posture had a slight slouch yet I acted oblivious as I was escorted to the other car, surrounded by my guards,
“I’ll be waiting back at the house.” Was my only reply.
As the door to the car slammed shut, it activated the countdown in my head.
Seven days to go.
He had seven days before he involuntarily found himself back at the hospital, and I eagerly anticipated it. Left to me, I’d be glad if it happened sooner, but Dr. Bruno was the doctor, not me.
The pills and medications given to him were to suppress the symptoms he had said. It was meant to help only a little.
Ending up back there was a given.
To some, it may be unseemly. My husband was ill, and I was praying for it to worsen. A terrible wife who didn’t care for her man, I might even be called, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t a bad wife, I was a desperate one. A wife who would do anything to save her husband from himself… from his stupidity.
All I wanted was for him to lose consciousness. That was the fastest way we could save him.
So when day one passed and nothing much happened, not even a wince, I became anxious.
I didn’t tell my father or anyone else about his refusing surgery. It wasn’t any of their business. All they knew was he had begun treatment and would be fine. They didn’t completely understand the nature of his illness and it was fine that way.
We all had breakfast, lunch, and dinner together. It was the first time in a long while that no one had somewhere urgent to be or something to do.
Adonis gave us a lowdown on his meeting with Death Eater. From his story, it was basically useless. The man was unconscious most of the time, so his words couldn’t be taken seriously.
Not that he even said anything sensible at all.
Although my husband didn’t do much damage to him, he had accumulated a lot of injuries from the previous fighters and had to undergo surgery for internal bleeding. According to Adonis, he had his ribs, arm, neck, and foot in a cast.
My guess is he’ll be living in the hospital for a longer time than planned. Still, Adonis was able to get a strand of hair from him before he left, and Luca was tasked with getting Tina and Sarah’s sample.
That much was done and taken care of so we could focus on the second stage.
My heart remained in my throat as my eyes kept following every one of Adonis’s movements, yet it caught nothing. The dark circles and sunken eye bags seemed to have cleared with a good night’s sleep.
Did I mention he slept longer and better than he had in days that night?
It felt like the universe was mocking me, laughing in my face as it sang, ‘Ha ha ha! What you want wouldn’t happen.’ I almost doubted Doctor Bruno’s report.
But I remembered that illnesses could be very tricky. The mother I grew up with was perfectly fine until one day when she collapsed, and the hospital diagnosed her with stage three lung cancer.
What if the symptoms were not showing like before? Or he could be hiding them…
With that as a comfort, we enjoyed a funny romcom, sharing a nice bottle of 60-year-old wine with Cecelia and Jacob-I, a glass of orange juice-before heading to bed.
It felt like the former days once again when we had no pending troubles and worries. Just that Luca wasn’t there, and there was never a prickling, discomforting feeling at the back of my mind.
Day two came with even more tension. Adonis had his first fight as one of Diavolo’s.
I almost, the keyword being almost, lost my resolve on that day. Thankfully, all went well, but as I had gotten used to, there was no sign or symptom.
I finally had the time for shopping runs for the babies and he, shockingly, offered to tag along.
We got a lot of things, the giddiness and proud smiles of being a soon-to-be mum and dad overshadowing the gloom we were avoiding. When we were done, we stopped by one of his apartments in the city to see what renovations were needed.
Adonis and I had agreed that we would move out of my father’s home and into one of his apartments as soon as the boys were born-that is if we hadn’t reclaimed the throne and mansion by then.
We lived like normal newlyweds, and I would’ve been stuck in that fantasy if reality had not crashed on me when he had to leave for the gym to prepare for his fight.
Knowing it was going to be a single opponent made it a tad bit relieving though.
I returned home, tired, wanting a very good scrub and a hot meal, but as soon as the door to our room was shut, my legs gave out, and I had to muffle my sobs to avoid worrying anyone.
I never thought I’d ever have such a thought, but
Could Adonis just collapse already?
Day Three, Day Four, and Day Five Came.
It was a lot. Many things happened. As we thought, Death Eater was Matthew, which means he’s Adonis’s substitute, Tina’s brother. It felt relieving, but we couldn’t just go to the mansion and chase them out; it would set off Adrian, and things could get bloody.
So we decided to wait until we had proof that Adonis was also a real Bernardi and evidence to take down Diavolo’s empire.
Cecelia and Luca finally got to have ‘the talk.’. It was on the third day when he brought the result of the DNA test, and Adonis and Jacob had gone to see Matthew at the hospital-the perfect opportunity.
It was… sad. For lack of better words. I didn’t mean to, but I heard bits of their conversation, and let’s just say Jacob was a lucky man.
The air in the house felt heavy after their conversation, thick with unspoken words and lingering sadness.
Even a blind man could tell that Cece loved Luca a lot; she just didn’t see her future with him anymore. That was one thing that took Jacob’s score from sixty to a hundred straight up.
Whatever he did to make my friend so sure he was the one must be one hell of a move.
We haven’t heard from Luca ever since-it’s just two days, but for someone who would always call twenty-four hours a day, it was a lot.
He was hurting and wanted to do so alone, so we thought it was better to leave him be.
Adonis, on the other hand, was as healthy as a horse. He fought on the last two days, which he aced per usual. I might’ve seen him clenching his fists as he gritted his teeth on the fifth day at breakfast, his eyes, usually sharp and focused, seemed to glaze over for fleeting moments, as if he were fighting to stay present but he acted like all was well the moment my gaze caught it, and there was no slip-up for the rest of the day.
I wasn’t bothered. There was a fire somewhere, and whether he wanted it or not, the smoke could not be contained. It will spread soon enough.
Then, my father, he was… silent as always, working on his plans. He’d come down for breakfast each day and dinner if he was around but never for lunch.
He was up to something; that much I could tell, but he could take care of himself. I was sure of that.
When the last day came, I woke up feeling nervous, with my heart hammering against my ribs.
My palms were slick with sweat, and I kept clenching and unclenching my fingers, trying to ground myself. The air felt thick and heavy as if it were pressing down on me, making it hard to breathe.
A week, the doctor had said, yet it was day seven, and Adonis was standing fine, not even a stagger in his step.
He didn’t know why, but he knew I was watching him and counting the days left till he was to have surgery.
One week was gone out of two, so it was a win-win for me either way. However, my mind was torn.
Was I seriously going to wait for two whole weeks?
Hell no!
More intently than before, I watched him. As we moved to the table for breakfast, my gaze was fixed on Adonis, every muscle in my body, tense. I barely registered the taste of her oats in my mouth
He had a slight tic in his jaw, that would pulse every few moments, and my gaze narrowed in on it.
I didn’t want to… no. I wasn’t going to miss even the most subtle change.
The more time passed, the more my heart raced. My breath hitched every time he moved, every time he spoke, every time he simply… existed.
I couldn’t place my finger on it but he was… not fine.
If anything was to happen, it was now. Today, so I waited. And I was right to have thought so because three minutes before breakfast was over, a commotion came knocking on our door.
Luca burst into the dining room with wide eyes, heaving heavily. The shocker wasn’t his outgrown stubble or rough appearance, nor was it the stench of strong stale alcohol coming from him or his bloodshot eyes.
He looked awful. His clothes were dishevelled and rumpled like he hadn’t had a shower in days.
That was when we all knew instantly-
Something terrible had happened.
This was so not what I hoped for…