Page 94 of Lie to Me

“Thank you for taking care of my sister,” he says with a rare vulnerability that I’ve never seen from him before.

“Always,” I respond before motioning to Luca to keep going, needing to set my eyes on my girl. My brother wheels me into the room and the sight that greets me turns my stomach.

Sloane is lying in the bed, looking peacefully asleep as the machines around her beep quietly. Luca moves me closer before silently leaving the room and closing the door behind him.

“Baby,” I whisper, my voice breaking. I reach for her hand, taking it in mine.

“I’m so fucking sorry this happened, little warrior. Come back to me, even if it’s just to lie to me one more time.”

Chapter Forty-Nine

Sloane

Present

“So, you really like causing us all stress, huh? Girl, I’ve known you for, what? Fifteen years? And I have never known you to be this dramatic,” an echoing voice says from the darkness that I’m pretty sure belongs to Izzy.

“You know, Marco is going out of his damn mind. He’s okay by the way… he woke up yesterday to find out that you were in a damn coma. But you’ve been weaned off the meds, so hopefully you’ll wake the fuck up soon so he can relax a little.”

Marco’s okay.

That’s all that matters to me.

“Wake up soon, Sloane. I’ve really gotten into this girls’ nights and friendships thing, yet you already missed one while you were kidnapped, I’ll be pissed if you miss any more.”

I swear, that girl isn’t normal.

The voice drifts away and I’m left with nothing but silence once more.

“Hey, sis,” a new voice says, though it doesn’t sound like my brother. I’m struggling to place it with the heaviness that is my mind and the darkness that surrounds me.

“So the doctors say we should talk to you, which I find really fucking weird. Like, can you even hear us? Then again, I feel like I hear Robyn’s voice in the wind sometimes, so I guess it is possible.”

Ah, Enzo.

“My big brother needs you, Sloane. He misses you. He keeps sneaking in here to be with you when he should be in his damn hospital bed healing, but no one ever said he was a man of patience, so I guess we’re just gonna have to deal with it.”

He’s been here?

I haven’t heard him speak to me. But then again, this whole thing could just be a really fucked up part of my imagination.

Either that or I’m dead.

“Wake up soon, yeah? I need you to marry my brother so it actually makes sense when I call you sis. Plus, I can’t wait to annoy the fuck out of Finn about you being a Romano.”

I hear an echoing chuckle and then the voice is gone.

“Hey, Sloane,” Luca’s voice rattles around inside my head. “I’m just gonna cut to the chase. We’ve been waiting for you to wake up for two weeks now. My wife is worried, and my brother is beside himself. So if you could just like… wake up? That’d be great.”

Oh really,I think dryly.It’s not like I’m not trying, Luca.

“You know…” He pauses. “I was hurt when I found out about you. It hurt that my brother had this big love in his life that I had no idea about, but I don’t blame him, you know? Izzy has my entire heart, and I’d do the same as whatever it is he had to do to you to keep her safe. I’m just glad you’re back in his life… and I hope you’ll stay.”

“Uhm, hey,” an almost innocent voice says, and I instantly know that it belongs to Robyn.

But where the hell is Marco? Why can’t I hear him?

“So, Marco had to go for some tests and the rest of the family went with him. Your brother was here, but he had to rush off for some reason, so I volunteered to sit and talk to you.

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