Page 51 of Merciless Attraction

“I’m here!” I screech louder than I expect. “Please, I don’t know what to do.”

“We’re right here at the crash site. We’re working on getting you out. My name is Adam and I’m going to be on the phone with you the entire time, okay? Are you hurt, Miss Marzano?”

“I um, I don’t know. The side of my face hurts from the airbag, but I can’t really feel anything else right now. I can’t stop shaking,” I tell him between tears and hyperventilating.

“Where are the divers?” Antonio shouts from the background.

“ANTONIO!” I scream, but instantly regret it as a cough shakes me and ignites the pain shooting from my back toward my chest.

“SIR, get back!” Adam shouts away from the phone.

I hear a splash nearby and see Antonio swimming toward me when I turn to look out the driver’s side window.

WHAT THE FUCK?!

I don’t know what he’s doing, but with the rear of my car still outside of the water, I can hear him fiddling around back there. I also hear Emergency Services Adam giving him reluctant instructions since the phone call is still active.

“If you can get the trunk open wider without water getting in, the air inside the car should keep her buoyant long enough for us to secure the crane hook to it,” Adam says. “Miss Marzano, your fiancé is actively assisting in your rescue. Please remain calm.”

I hear several other splashes and before long the back seat folds down. The metal clanking from around me has me petrified, trying to turn like a goldfish in a bowl, but every movement hurts. My entire body aches and pulses with pain as a pair of legs plant themselves on the angled back of the passenger seat.

“If you wanted to go for a swim, I could have taken you to the gym with me,” Antonio says as he forces a smile.

“I must look like shit.”

“You’re gorgeous, baby. Can you move your legs?” he asks and crouches beside me. I watch as he goes into doctor mode, surveying my body for injuries.

“Yes, but everything feels weird.” I tell him.

“It’s alright. Everything is going to be alright.”

I reach out for him with my right hand but as soon as I do, a sharp pain pierces me through the side. I let out a shriek of pain as the car jerks and we begin to move.

“STOP!” Antonio shouts out the car. He angles his body and face in a way to look down my right side and that’s when I feel it. The warm trickle of liquid moving slowly down my ribs.

“I’m so sorry, Gem. I shouldn’t have come in here like this. I wasn’t thinking,” Antonio says. “Stay calm, okay? Adam?”

“Yes, Dr. Calisi?” Adam replies with annoyance radiating through his tone.

“She’s pierced with what’s possibly a spring from the lumbar supports built into the driver’s seat. We can’t move her without taking the seat with her. She’s impaled.” Antonio’s voice is almost mechanical as if he’s not talking about me.

“Okay, Dr. Calisi, I’m sorry but you’re going to have to come out of there and let us pull the car out. We have FIRE on site with the tools necessary to free your fiancé. Please get out of the car and let us work.”

Panic surges through me. “Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me, Antonio.”

He leans down with tears welling in his eyes and kisses me gently. He tries to laugh to ease my anxiety, but it’s not working. The world around me seems to fade away. Water, darkness, it all consumes me and the last words I hear before it all goes black are, “I should never have let you leave my sight.”

Chapter 24: Antonio

Forty bouquets of Rose Gemma and Baby’s Breath.

Forty bouquets of flowers called Rose Gemma where each stem has more than forty petals of coral, peach, and pink.

Forty bouquets symbolize the forty days since Gemma was put under for her wounds to heal.

My heart aches every day that I come in and sit beside her. Thankfully, being a doctor who used to work here, the staff doesn’t care if I come and go. They all offer me looks of pity and words of encouragement because there’s nothing else to say.

The worst part is I can’t make a single fucking choice for her. I want to be that for her, but the truth hits me as hard as I hit the water to save her. I’m not her next of kin. With her parents out of the country, and not coming back, it falls to Bash.

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