Page 64 of Secret Baby for the Mafia Don

The doctor. So, I am in the hospital. I try and remember what happened to me.

I suddenly remember hanging from Luca’s back, stabbing down at him with the letter opener. How did I get a letter opener? Then I remember seeing it on the desk, lying there like the key to my freedom.

I remember curling my hands around it and looking at the men fighting on the other side of the room. I remember the thought that my life was the bargaining chip that could save Elio and Mateo right before I lifted the knife to my own throat.

My eyes fill with tears as I remember lying on the floor looking at the Baldini’s ugly chandelier, hearing Elio’s voice ringing in my ears as he pleaded with me to stay with him.

I remember being so sure that I would die. But clearly, I didn’t die.

“What happened?” I ask, even though I am remembering everything now.

Elio’s expression grows haunted for a moment and he blinks. I can see that he is feeling emotional as well. “You tried to save Mateo and I by bargaining with the Baldinis, do you remember that?”

I nod slowly. “I mean what happened after…” my voice trails off.

“You had a brain bleed,” Elio chokes out. “And a stroke. They weren’t sure if you would wake up again.”

I glance down at the small child nestled against my side. My heart pinches in my chest. Poor Mateo. How scared he must have been to see me lying in the hospital in a coma, not sure if I would ever wake up again.

“Well, I managed that much, I guess,” I say a little weakly. I covertly try wiggling my toes and nearly faint with relief when I find that I can do so.

“Well, hello!”

The voice is female, and I look away from Mateo’s dark head nestled against my shoulder to see a tall, spare, blonde woman looking down at me.

“I’m Doctor Gregory,” she says to me with a big, sunny smile. “I’ve been handling your case for the past week.”

A week? I look at Elio, my eyes wide.

“It’s only been a couple of weeks since your fall,” he says to me.

Only a couple of weeks. My God, two weeks is an eternity to be trapped in bed when your son and the man you love are in danger.

“Where was I the first week?” I ask.

Doctor Gregory takes over the conversation again. “You were moved here last week because your condition was not improving at the hospital where your surgery was done after the fall.”

Surgery? My head is spinning. I don’t remember anything about being at the other hospital or about a surgery.

I must have been in a coma for that entire time. I don’t remember anything about being moved to this new hospital either.

I look at the tall, skinny woman holding my patient chart. I would have remembered her if I had been conscious at any point during my time here. She’s not someone that you would easily forget.

“How did you manage to get me moved here?” I ask, still terribly confused about the timeline of the past two weeks. “And how did Mateo get here?”

“That was my doing.”

I hear yet another woman’s voice, but this one is somewhat familiar to me. I try to identify who the woman might be, but I’m not sure until her face shows up in my line of sight.

I realize with a start that I’m looking at Grazia Baldini.

“I thought that you were in Mexico?” I say with some confusion.

I know in my heart that I should be angry at her for allowing her brothers to kidnap me, but I can’t find the gumption to be mad. I’m too confused and too fundamentally grateful to be alive, to be angry at anyone right now.

She nods. “I was until my brothers asked me to come back home to take care of Mateo due to your accident. I didn’t realize everything that had happened since they kidnapped you,” she says regretfully. “My brothers are foolish and impetuous. I decided that I needed to come and take this situation in hand.”

I would laugh out loud if I had the energy to do so. Grazia has turned out to be far pluckier and more assertive than I would have expected.

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