Chapter Twenty-Seven
ARIA
Everything is a blur as I am wheeled into a back entrance of a hospital. The memories come to me in flashes as the pain I am in makes my breath come in jags and makes me forget who I am for a moment it is so intense.
Marcel had taken me to a safe place, had us guarded and locked down like Fort Knox because my husband was putting himself in the line of fire to kill my father to get my other brother back safely. But I don’t know if he is alive right now. I don’t know if he will come back to me or if he will ever know what is happening to me right now. It hurts a lot that he could leave this Earth not knowing I am screaming as I go into labor to give birth to his child.
I had no idea I was pregnant. I thought the few pounds I had gained were that few pounds they say you always gain after you get married. I haven’t felt much else, and for all I know it could have something to do with damage done to me by Cheng’s men. I know I have seen TV shows where women go into labor without knowing they are pregnant, but I can’t seem to remember the logical reason right now as I am rushed into a private room, my clothes taken off and a gown draped over me. I am drenched in sweat and broken with the idea of having this child without Sal present. And who knows how this child will turn out? I haven’t been taking vitamins and acting like a woman with child. I know fetuses are so resilient, but it doesn’t get rid of my worry that something will be wrong with the baby. I don’t know if I could lose them both in one day.
Marcel has clearly paid a lot of money to keep this private the security here, and I briefly look down at my wrist to see the name on my band is totally fake. I suppose that’s best for my safety and the baby’s. This is not a good time to be out in the open where I can be found, especially if things go poor with my uncle.
I scream and push as the nurse tells me to, channeling the rage for the way I am being betrayed by the men in my life; my family. My uncle was having me followed, put a hit out on Mariana and now my father, his own brother-in-law. How more fucked up can this story get? My life should be a damn book!
I can't believe I am doing this with no meds, but they told me I was too close when I came in to get an epidural. Once again I have to be strong, but Marcel nods to me as I do this, and I take his hand and squeeze for dear life.
All the voices fade out as I just breathe and push, waiting to hear the cries of my child. Will it be a boy or girl? What will we name it?
I hear a cry finally, and I fall back exhausted, but I look on with worry as my baby is taken away. What’s going on?" I ask.
"She needs to be checked out in the NICU before we can let you hold her. She is small, and since you didn't know you were pregnant, we don’t know how well developed she will be. Don’t worry, we will take good care of her," the doctor assures me, but I burst into tears. It is the worst thing that can be happening right now with my husband in danger somewhere. I just want him here to hold me and tell me it is going to be okay.
***
I don’t know when I fell asleep, but I wake up having to pry my eyes apart as they are stuck together form me crying. I finally get them open and see someone I wasn’t expecting by my side, his hand on mine in my sleep.
"Sal!" I gasp, and he smiles weakly at me, instantly leaning over to kiss me on my lips, my forehead, everywhere. "What’s happened? What about our daughter?"
"Woah, slow down," he tells me. "You have just had my child, mio dolce, you need your rest. I waited until you were rested to see her, but I have been talking with the doctors. She is small, but she is just fine. She needs to grow and learn some things, but that’s all.” I heave a relived sigh, not knowing until now how easily a heart can grow to fit more people inside of it.
"Aria?" The weak voice is one I recognize, and for the first time I look around the room and see that BOTH of my brothers are present. I survey Andrei with my eyes and can see he has been through some things. He is pretty banged up, his arm in a sling, but he looks nothing like I did after Cheng. And he is alive.
"Father?" I ask, thinking I know the answer. No way was he let go if my father did not die. Things don’t work out quite that smoothly, ever, especially for me.
Sal shakes his head, and I know what it means. "And Gabriele?"
"Ion and Mariana came to take care of him. I can’t imagine him surviving that." I nod, though it is not a clear conformation. He is a slippery man.
“Now we just need to worry about our cousins," Marcel pipes up darkly, and Sal gives him a look.
"I want to focus on my family as much as I can for right now. But I realize that they might be an issue, especially considering Gabriele wanted to take over the Clan. Hell, I bet he wanted all of them. His sons will likely continue with the plan. We won’t have a choice but to hunt them down and take them out at some point."
All three men seem agreed, but the subject is dropped. I appreciate it greatly. "Can we go see my daughter now?"
Sal smiles at me and nods, calling for the nurse to have her check me first. I am doing fine, other than being in some pain, but that is to be expected. So, using a wheelchair like a walker, I am taken down the hallway by her with all three men trailing me. I wouldn’t have them miss seeing her face for the first time either.
I can't hold back the tears as Sal and I are let inside as my brothers watch from the outside, and I see her. She has a head full of dark hair already, and it looks so soft. She is small and dark pink, her hands reaching out for something and nothing all at once. I sit down so that she can be handed to me, and I can barely see her sweet face through the tears of happiness; the tears of a new mother. This moment feels like there is nothing and no one but the three of us, and I will remember it forever. Even as she is hooked to feeding tubes and needles monitoring her blood sugar, she still has to be the most precious and beautiful thing I have ever seen.
"Sorina," Sal says suddenly, and I know it’s the perfect name.
We must leave all too soon. She is a delicate thing, and they need to be able to care for her and keep her still, though I am told to come back every three hours for skin on skin time and feedings if it's possible. We will always be trying with a bottle until she takes it. Until she can learn what she is to do. She has a journey ahead of her, but I know she carries our strength.
I am on cloud nine as we wall back to the room, and I almost don’t notice the man approaching us as he pulls out a gun.
Everything happens so fast, there is no time for me to scream as Sal pulls out his glock but not in time to save my brother, Andrei who has just jumped in front of us all to save us. Now, two dead bodies lie on the hospital floor, and that’s when I lose it.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
ARIA
Life is nothing but a constant show filled with surprises and shock. That is what I have learned over the last year. There was a time where I thought that nothing else would ever phase me, that I’d simply become cold, or rather the coldest version of myself. Part of me thinks that I am this callous woman, that the tragedies of life have turned me into this carless woman. Yet here I am, sitting in a padded chair, staring at my brother’s casket.
I look down to my hands, watching them shake with the rose in my hand. The florist must have forgotten to cut the thorns off of this one, but I don’t mind. The feeling of it digging into my skin is the only thing keeping me together right now, my eyes watching as blood coats my palm. Salvatore sits next to me, eyes trained in front of him. We’ve hardly been speaking as of late. So much has happened. I don’t even think we know each other anymore.
My heart beats heavy in my chest, and I try my hardest to breathe, to not allow pain to take over my life once again. I’m strong. I’m Aria Moretti, and I will not let this break me.
I feel a hand on my shoulder and jump in my seat, looking to my right, I see my husband staring at me. “We need to get going.” It comes out cold, and before I can even ask him where we’re off to, he rises from his chair and disappears out of my sight.
“Are you alrigh
t?” Marcel asks as I get up from my chair and place the rose on Andrei’s casket.
“I’m as good as I’m going to be,” I comment back, looking around at the tons of people who showed up to his funeral. I wonder who even knew my brother and who is just here for show.
“This isn’t easy for any of us, Aria.”
I know that it isn’t. I understand that this is a hard thing, that my brother sacrificed his life in order to save my daughter’s. I go to bed every night with nothing but guilt flooding my conscience, thinking that if he just wasn’t there...he’d still be alive.
“Must you take that tone with me?” I ask, not needing to hear the authoritativeness in his voice, or the speech that will follow if I don’t speak up.
“I actually have to. I’m no longer the son of Baptiste Funar, the one who will take over when he’s gone. He’s dead - Aria. I am the face of our Clan, and because of it you lose the loving brother chats. Now you get the stern ones with it.”
I roll my eyes. “You don’t have to remind me of who’s dead in our family.”
He looks around to the few people who turned at my comment. “Don’t get salty with me, sister. I was just checking in on how you’re doing. I’m sure you’ll be much happier once you get back to Seattle.”
“Yep. You have no fucking idea,” I mumble, walking away from him. I get in the town car that took us to the gravesite and instruct the driver to take me to the hospital. This day has only made me want to do one thing - visit my daughter.
When I arrive at the children’s hospital I am greeted by the same lovely physicians and nurses that have been helping my Sorina become stronger. Every day she improves, and every day she will grow closer to coming home.
I get off of the elevator and walk towards the NICU, passing security and approach the waiting area. After a nurse helps me put on my lovely gown I head to where my daughter is and find my husband sitting in the chair with her in his arms. The way he stares at her is the pure definition of love. “I wonder if you’ll ever forgive me for everything that I’ve done,” he says, looking up at me like he knows I’ve been here for a few moments.
I take in a deep breath and repeat to him what he had said to me so long ago, “I may be a monster, but I’m your beast. Let me slay your demons. I can promise you that no others will offer you something such as this. No one will ever fight for you as much as I vow to.” It is in this moment that I realize we haven’t grown distant, that we’re still the same people who love and care for each other so deeply that others would never be able to fathom. “I am your wife, and I will forgive you for almost anything you do to me. But what I will never forgive you for is hurting our daughter. Promise me you will never hurt her, Sal. She is the light of our life.”
He takes ahold of my hand and squeezes, “I may have hurt you, but I will make it my life’s mission to make up for it. I promise.”
I nod, bringing my lips down to his and kiss him like I understand. Because I do. Everything that Salvatore Moretti has said to me has always come true.
He may be a monster, but that doesn’t mean he’s inhuman.
He makes mistakes too, just like the rest of us.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
ARIA
Sorina’s cries fill the house, and I mean the entire house. She has colic, and it is the worst possible thing on this planet. My heart breaks every time I hear her cry, knowing that there’s most likely nothing I can do to soothe her. Most of the time she ends up falling asleep from exhaustion, only to wake up a few hours later repeating the process.
At first I thought I was doing something wrong, winning the ‘worst mother of the year’ award, but her pediatrician told me that this is normal and something that happens with infants sometimes. Over the cries spilling from her mouth I hear my phone ring and bring it to my ear, not even bothering to see who it is. “Hello,?”
“Hey. Jesus, what’re you doing to my niece?” Marcel asks, “Oh, wait. Is it that colic thing? Why hasn’t it cleared up yet?”
“It doesn’t work like that,” I grumble’ the baboon of a man doesn’t understand anything related to children. I don’t think he ever will, not even when he has a child of his own. “Anyway, why are you calling? You never do unless something’s up.”
It’s true. Marcel is always busy these days, as a clan leader should be. Once every two weeks he calls to check in on how the three of us are doing, and every once in a while I’ll open the front door to find some sort of box from an online boutique with a stuffed sun. I know, a sun. Sorina means light in Romanian, and she is the light of mine and Salvatore’s life. I think my brother associates her name with the sun, and that is why I keep getting them. I just pop them in her closet, and when she’s in her crib she loves to turn her head and stare at them on the shelves.
“Want to hear a bit of gossip that I think you might appreciate?” I hear the taunt in his voice. Whatever it is. This has to be good.
“Alright, shoot.”
“Guess who’s being sent to the Ukraine to get back our territory? Well, he’s not being sent. He volunteered this morning at the meeting.”
“Who?” I ask, not sure who’d dare to go to the Ukraine. Rumor has it that there is a thug who runs the streets. The Clans haven’t had territory there in ages because of her. When we moved out, she moved in and took advantage.
“Rhys.”
“....Rhys Albu?” I question, shocked that he of all people would volunteer. He betrayed Mariana years ago. How, I have no idea. I wasn’t privy to that information, but everyone knew that he crossed her and that she’s been disappointed in him ever since. She punished him in a way that is worse than death. She humiliated him and showed the other clans that he brought shame to her.
“Yes, the one and only. He’s volunteered to take back Mariana’s territory,” Marcel chuckles at the last bit, telling me that he knows something.
“Well, spit it out,” I urge him.
“He knows nothing of Vera, and when he finds out I will be laughing my ass off, shoving popcorn in my mouth. Rhys won’t know what hit him.”
Well, just as things start to settle down for a few of us, they’re just starting to get crazy for another.
Look out for The Clans #5 in February 2019!
Where to Follow Elizabeth
https://www.amazon.com/Elizabeth-Knox/e/B071KDT21Y
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/elizabeth-knox
Where to Follow Iris
https://www.amazon.com/Iris-Sweetwater/e/B071HJ851V
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/iris-sweetwater
Deceit (The Clans Book 4) Page 9