by Serena Light
"I-I-I promised..." His mother choked between her broken sobs. "I promised I'd protect them all. I promised I'd protect him. What sort of mother would I be if I don't protect him?"
"My baby, my baby, my baby," Rosalie cried, rocking herself back and forth before Arcangelo scrubbed at his face and stumbled to feet, unable to feel his legs or hands for that matter. Making his way to his wife, he tried to pull her off the floor, unable to move her, Arcangelo collapsed to his knees himself, letting out a ragged breath before the tears started again.
"Grandpa?" A small voice called out, all of them turning in the direction to see Angelica standing uncertainly with her girls before her. "Is everything okay, grandpa?" Aurora asked innocently.
"Why is grandma crying?" Irene inquired, none of them able to say anything as their mouth opened and closed wordlessly.
Wiping away the tears, Arsenio got up from his place, before hugging his daughters close taking them with him and his wife as he quietly murmured into her ear, Angelica talking back just as quietly.
"Uncle Marco?" One of the girls called out to him, wanting to know what was going on before he abruptly stood from his place, hurriedly rushing to the washroom before locking the door behind him and sunk to his knees, heavy through his tears as an anguished scream escaped him.
Both Rosalie and Arcangelo crying before their son's room, unable to move while Arsenio cried into his sobbing wife's shoulder in the parking lot, the girls sitting in the back of the car in confusion. Major leaning against a wall inside and allowed the tears to fall. All of them knowing that neither Serafina, nor Nicole knew about any of this, and neither did they have it in them to tell them.
On more than one occasion the Regnantes' thought about telling Nicole, they thought they'd just get it out and tell her that Major would pull the plug on Thursday, but every time any of them tried, they just managed to get out broken sobs instead.
Nicole assumed it to be from the anxiety and pressure of everything, but then Thursday rolled around and Major made his way down the hall with the doctor, and Marco rushed to him, intercepting his way.
"Major, you can't do this," The youngest spoke softly, feeling the tears prickling his eyes once more. "Major, please, it will break mom and dad, Nicole will die. Major, please,"
"I'm sorry, Marco," The guard shook his head, swallowing the lump in his throat. "I can't go against orders,"
"Goddammit, man!" He yelled out in anger. "You can't kill my brother like this!"
"What?" A voice spoke from behind them, Major looking up to see Nicole standing in sweatpants and a tank top beneath a cardigan, one of the toddler in her arm as she looked between the two. "You...you're not pulling the plug are you?"
Putting down the child, Nicole made her way over to them, standing before Major as the man didn't say anything.
"You're not pulling the plug, are you, Major?" She asked him again, letting out a humorless chuckle when he didn't respond. "Answer me!" Her voice grew shrill as she clutched at his suit lapels.
Nodding towards the two guards standing by the wall, they came and pulled her away, Nicole struggling and fighting against them.
"I have my order, ma'am," The guard spoke solemnly and began making his way towards the hospital room.
"No! I order you to stop!' Nicole screamed, tears streaming down as she yelled at him to stop, struggling against the guards as they restrained her, the twins getting frightened by the sudden yelling and stepping away, clutching their ears and crying in fear. "Stop! Stop!"
She watched Arcangelo and Rosalie step inside followed by Major and the doctor, Nicole growing more desperate and begging for them not to do this. She watched as the door closed shut behind them, one of the nurses locking the door before the guards released her and instantly she ran to the door, banging on it for them to stop, watching the doctor say something as Major signed a form.
"No," She gasped, desperation overwhelming her as she looked around her, finding the guards soothing the toddler. Instantly rushing to them, she took the gun before he realized what she was doing and clicked off the safety, aiming at the glass door as the doctor instantly backed away.
Looking at Major, she found his hand on the switch and a frustrated scream escaped her, knowing that if she pulled the trigger on the glass he'd pull out the switch. Closing her eyes, Nicole inhaled deeply, rocking on her feet before putting the barrel to her head, staring at Major as she heard Rosalie scream in panic and Arcangelo shoved the guard away from the switch.
Unlocking the door, Rosalie pulled it open, one of the guards taking the children away as the other slowly approached her.
"Nicole, sweetheart, give me the gun," Rosalie took a step towards her, Nicole backing away with tears streaming down her face, shaking her head. "Nicole, give me the gun,"
"No, you're killing him," Nicole sobbed, cocking her head towards the guard Arcangelo had pushed away. "I can't live without him, mama, you kill him and I'll pull the trigger,"
"Baby, I don't want him to go like this," Her mother-in-law spoke slowly. "But Salvatore wished it like this,"
"No! He can't be this cruel, no! You're lying,"
"It's funny how you think you know someone, but in reality, you don't,"
"He can't, he can't do this to me,"
"He's doing this to everyone, sweetheart," Rosalie stood before her now, watching how Nicole lowered her head in resignation. "He's doing this to me, and you, and Arcangelo. To Arsenio, Serafina, Marco, Angelica, Alessio. To the twins and to the girls. He's doing this to Stephen, to everyone."
"Stop!" Alessio's voice spoke up, Nicole jumping in surprise and getting distracted enough for Rosalie to knock out the gun from her hand and kick it away, the guard instantly picking it off the floor as she let out a shriek before collapsing in her mother-in-law's arms when she pulled her in for a hug.
"Serafina is awake!" Alessio spoke with wide eyes, everyone halting what they were doing before looking at him in shock. "She's waking up! She's waking up!"
Instantly, Arsenio, Marco, Nicole, and Rosalie rushed towards the room. Arcangelo pushing Major into the wall.
"You pull the plug and I will kill your entire family, Alfeo," Arcangelo growled in anger. "I don't care how loyal you may be, you are not taking our son from us,"
"Yes, sir," The man squeaked out in fright, sagging when he was released and watched him rush to the other room.
Everyone stood around Serafina's bed, watching her blink her eyes and looking at them in confusion for a moment before the doctor asked them to back up. They went through a few procedures before she pushed them away, looking at the people before her, lingering on every face for a few seconds before moving to the next.
"What the hell happened to you?" She spoke in a croaky voice, pointing to Marco. "What the hell happened to all of you?" Serafina questioned, looking at everyone's tear-stained cheeks, paling complexions, and greying hair.
"How long was I out?" She asked in bewilderment, looked around her and waiting for a response before Rosalie burst with a laugh, her and Arcangelo rushing over to her and hugging her tight, breaking with relief to know that their daughter was awake and that there was hope.
Chapter L: Searching
Nicole had gotten discharged a few days ago with a prescription for medicine and instructions stating that she should rest and come for a check-up every month for the next four months. When she signed the forms, she had turned towards her guards, handing one of them the prescription and sending him to get the medicine, while the other was instructed to get her a fresh change of clothes, while she went and settled in Salvatore's room.
She slept and woke there, didn't move from the place and always asked the doctor the same question.
"Have they found a heart yet?"
But given that the Mafia Boss was an O-positive, it was difficult to find someone with that blood type and was a donor.
His wife decided to speak to him in case she went insane from things left unsaid.
"You had no ri
ght to order Major to pull the plug," Nicole had sat beside him, her arms crossed over her chest and her gaze on his face. "It was not only cruel to him, but it was cruel to everyone else and plain selfish from you,"
"You see, death doesn't happen to you, Salvatore, it happens to everyone around you okay? To all the people left standing at your funeral trying to figure out how they're supposed to live the rest of their life without you in it. If you didn't want to think about me, you should have thought about your parents at least. Dad hasn't said a word since then and mom has stopped eating. You were killing them when you thought you were giving yourself over to death, Salvatore."
Everyone tried to get her to go home, it was a challenge, but she decided to go home; only to shower and come back again. This time, even the kids couldn't keep her to stay, the paranoia of Major following through with his orders far too much for her to stay away longer than needed.
Currently, Nicole had her head on the mattress, looking towards her husband and sitting in leggings with one of his sweatshirts, reveling in the way it smelt of him. The sound of the glass doors sliding open had her look up, momentarily taken aback to see Serafina being wheeled inside, a woolen cardigan over her gown with a blanket over her legs, she had gotten thinner, but not sickly thin.
"Hey," She smiled at Nicole before she told the nurse to leave her beside her.
"Hi,"
"How's the asshole?" She nodded towards Salvatore. "Still playing games,"
"Yeah, you could say that," Nicole nodded.
For the past couple of days, Serafina had been brought up to date as to all that had happened over the last twenty months. It all had her reeling and it took her time to absorb it all, but she had taken the news about Salvatore quite calmly, having asked to see him before she had poked him in the ribs, and called out to him, telling him to stop acting. Apparently, she didn't want to believe that her brother was dying and therefore behaved like he would get better in a few days' time and was just playing games with everyone.
"It's all a lot to take in," The twin sighed. "But one thing I know for certain is that you two took up the role of parents for my kids when my husband was so distraught with grief he couldn't handle himself. And for that, I wanted to thank you,"
"Hey, what are godparents for?"
Serafina let out a soft chuckle at the words, shaking her head before looking up at her brother's unconscious body.
"I remember that I had gone to get a nebulizer for Michele when I got hit, and my babies had been eight-months-old." She swallowed the lump in her throat, tears welling in her eyes. "And when I wake up, they're two-year-old toddlers, talking, walking, and eating solid food." Serafina put a trembling finger to her lips, the tears blurring her vision.
"I missed the first time they started walking, their first word, their first solid food, their first birthday and their second birthday, I missed so much of my kid's life that they don't even know that I am mommy and not you,"
"I'm so sorry," Nicole began to apologize, feeling guilty for the fact that when the twins were brought, they had refused to go to either Serafina or Alessio, having clung onto Nicole in desperation and cried.
"No, no, don't you dare apologize," She hastily wiped away the tears. "Don't you dare do that. You gave my kids the love of a mother when I went into a coma, and Salvatore gave them the love of a father when Alessio couldn't bring himself to hold them since they reminded him too much of me and he was hurting so damn much. You'd know," She gestured towards her twin brother, as Nicole looked at her with her lips pursed into a thin line, all too well acquainted with the pain.
"Tell me something happy," Serafina spoke with a breathless laugh. "I've been bawling like a baby since I woke up, I need something funny and happy,"
"Happy?" Her sister-in-law looked at her in confusion.
"Yes, yes, happy." She nodded. "The past twenty months couldn't have been all that bad, there must have been good days, too,"
"Well...One of the good days was Michele and Marina's first birthday," Nicole informed, fishing out her phone from the hoodie's pocket and scrolling through it. "We didn't do something huge, but we brought them here so that you could be a part of it."
She showed her the pictures of the event as Serafina smiled and chuckled at some of the scenes depicted in them.
"Salvatore had taken the day off and especially came here to set your room up with decorations and he talked to you about all that he had planned for your kids. There were balloons and banners and gifts. Your parents were here, so were Aurora and Irene and Angelica, Alessio stayed for a bit too, and Marco and Arsenio. There was this pink and blue rosette cake, but being one-year-old, they were more fascinated in the balloons than anything else," Nicole found herself chuckling at the memory.
"Mom and dad had cut the cakes with the twins and the nurses took pictures when everyone sang happy birthday, Marina babbled along while Michele clapped throughout." She shook her head. "Aurora and Irene were a great help, they occupied the twins while we handed out the cake to the hospital staff on our floor and the guards on duty. It was cream cake and Michele wanted the pink part and tried fighting Marina for it, but she had easily pushed him away. We tried calming him down and you know how he stopped crying?" Nicole looked back at Serafina with a chuckle.
"How?"
"He walked over to the cake and took a bite straight out of it, smearing blue and pink frosting all over his face. And Marina got jealous at the attention her brother was getting so she took the cake in her plate and smeared it all over herself," She opened a picture, showing Salvatore and Nicole standing on either side of Serafina's unconscious body, both of them having a frosting covered baby in their hand, Michele grinning while Marina looked at the camera with wide blue eyes. "And you know, since they were teething a lot of the time, and they slept between me and Salvatore, Michele would always wake him by nibbling on his ear,"
A laugh burst through Serafina at the words, a smile playing on Nicole's lips.
"That's my boy!"
Nicole told her numerous other stories, of the twins, of Aurora and Irene, of Salvatore and the parents and the brothers. She didn't have a shortage of stories to share and it occurred to her later, when they had been laughing at a story of Arsenio's, that Serafina was playing her. She had insisted that Nicole tell her happy stories to get her mood up as well as her own.
"Thank you," Nicole found herself saying to Serafina, her husband's twin sister looking at her in confusion as she had to prevent herself from crying at the reality that they had the same eyes.
"What for?"
"For making me laugh,"
"Oh! You're the one making me laugh,"
"You don't have to act oblivious Serafina," Nicole shook her head. "Salvatore plays this trick on me all the time. So, thank you, I needed something happy,"
"We learned it from Arsenio," Serafina admitted once she realized she couldn't fool her. "When we were little and were down, he would ask us to tell him something happy or funny that happened, and the next thing we knew, we would be laughing hysterically and couldn't even remember what had us down in the first place. I've been doing this everyone because I want to see them smile, I know Salvatore would want to, too,"
Nicole found herself nodding before looking towards her husband's lying figure.
Both of them talked for a while, never having realized that it had grown dark until Arcangelo came in, asking what the two would want for dinner.
"Pasta," Nicole had stated instantly, all the laughter having her feel famished.
"Steak," Serafina had said at the same time, both of them looking at one another before looking back at him.
"Steak for you," Arcangelo smiled softly, placing a kiss on his daughter's forehead. "And pasta for you," He placed a kiss on top of Nicole's head before walking out.
When their food had arrived, the girls had been gossiping with one another, Angelica having joined them with Rosalie there as well, but rather than taking part, she just smiled and listened to
the three go on about one thing or the other.
When the nurse came to take Serafina back to her room, a team of nurses had rushed inside the room, having everyone move back before they started taking Salvatore out of the room.
"Hey! Where are you taking him?" Arcangelo had asked, everyone looking at them in concern. "Hey!"
"We found a heart, we're prepping him for surgery," The nurse informed as the father stepped back, momentarily frozen in place before a laugh escaped him, a hand clasped over his mouth as he looked at his wife who had tears welling in her eyes, both of them hugging each other, relieved to know that there was a heart for their son.
Nicole had begun crying with her joy, so much so that Angelica had to hug her tight and calm her down, both Arsenio and Marco too overjoyed to contain it, laughing and jumping with tears staining their cheeks while Alessio hugged a hysterical Serafina.
It had taken about five hours for the surgery to take place and when the doctor had stepped out, he was instantly bombarded with questions.
"One at a time," He calmed them down, everyone taking a step back. "One a time, please,"
"Is he alright?" Rosalie asked.
"The surgery was a success, but we don't know if he is alright until he wakes up," The doctor explained. "And we don't even know if the body will reject the heart,"
"There is a chance of that?" Marco asked in concern.
"Yes, so we will monitor him closely in the ICU,"
"Can I see him?" Nicole asked beside her in-laws.
"No, I'm sorry, he is taken to recovery where only authorized personnel is allowed after which he will be shifted to the ICU, and given his fragile state, we can't allow anyone inside." The doctor informed, looking around at the congregation before nodding, "Now if you'll excuse me,"
Given that it was almost 3 a.m. Arsenio, Marco, Angelica, and Rosalie upon Arcangelo's insistence had gone home. They tried to convince Nicole to go home as well, but she had refused.
She stayed up the whole night beside her father-in-law, both of them talking a little bit about nothing meaningful.