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“Mama…” My hoarse voice escaped my mouth.
“I’m here, Vina.” She grabbed onto my hand and kissed each knuckle. She then pressed it against what I presumed was her chest. “Open your eyes, Vina.”
Slowly, this time, I blinked my eyes open. It only took me one swoop of the rook to realize where I was. I had only been here a few short days prior.
“I’m in the hospital,” I stated. My mind was all over the place. I couldn’t keep a straight thought.
“Oh, cara.” My mother smoothed my hair down and kissed the top of my head. Unshed tears sparkled in her eyes. “We were so worried about you.”
“What… what are you doing here?”
“You were hurt, cara. You fell and hit your head while trying to get away from Felipe. There was a shootout between Andres and his father.”
I blinked, and the memories of what happened came flooding back into my mind. Felipe, my knife, and…
“Where’s Andres?” I grabbed my mother’s arm. “Where is he?”
The panic took hold of every inch of my soul. I stared at her, waiting for an answer, but all she offered me were solemn looks.
I shook my head, my mind taking me to the worst places imaginable. He had been there in front of me, with his body next to mine on the concrete floor. I had heard the gun go off, and then it had all gone dark. I could only remember small snippets here and there.
Why couldn’t I remember everything? Why couldn’t I…
“Mama, please. Where is he?” I refused to cry. He wasn’t dead, this was Andres Valdez we were talking about. The man who had cheated death more times than he could count. He’d survived… he had to.
“There was a lot of blood, Vina,” she started. “The doctors rushed him to surgery to try and stop the bleeding, and to get the bullet out of his chest.”
The world seemed to come to a standstill, and the only thing that moved were my mother and I.
“He was in surgery for 7 hours, but they managed to stop the bleeding and get the bullet out. He’s alive.”
He’s alive.
The words rang loudly in my head, echoing into the deep crevasses of my mind. He’s alive. He was still breathing.
“Where is he? I need to see him.” I pulled the blanket off my body and tried to step on the ground, but my mother blocked my path. “Mama, please. I need to see him. I need to…”
“You can see him, but only after the doctor takes a good look at you. You’ve been out of it for three days, Savina.”
“Three days?” I was shocked. It felt like I had just taken a little nap. “Mama, please. I feel fine, and I just need to see him to make sure that he’s okay. I didn’t tell him that…”
I needed to tell him that I loved him. I had been so caught up in my revenge that I didn’t tell the man I loved that I loved him.
“Andres is stable for now, but working yourself up like this will only worsen your condition. Please, sit down.” She pressed me back down into the bed. My body felt too weak to fight her off, so I just allowed her to do as she pleased. “I will go and check on his progress. But Valerio and Dimitri have not felt his side. He is being looked after, Vina.”
I knew she meant to ease my worries, but it did nothing for me. I needed to see him with my own eyes. I needed to hold his hand and touch his face with my fingertips. I need to see those blue eyes of his, and tell him that I…
“Get the doctor,” I said, leaning into the pillow. “After he’s done, I’m going to see my husband, mama.”
“Of course, Vina.” Her eyes softened ever so slightly, her smile mimicking her eyes. “He’s made you gentler. Less jagged.”
“What are you talking about?” I looked away from her, suddenly feeling a bit shy. Why was she looking at me like that?
“It’s okay, cara. Your father was the same.”
Before I could respond to her, she left the room to go and get the doctor.
I lay in bed, lost in my thoughts. Flashes of what had transpired filtered into my mind. I had known that Felipe was a sadistic man, but to turn the weapon on his child… I could only imagine what had been going on in Andres’ head at that moment.
