Page 101 of Third Degree

I swear I must have seen red. I was going to fucking annihilate him. If I wasn’t so concerned with where they were going with Gianna, I probably would have.

“I am her fucking husband,” I growled at him before pushing him slightly out of the way. “Get the fuck out of my way.”

I ran over to where they were pushing her through the doors of an operating room.

The doctor, who had already started to prepare for surgery, pulled me aside. “You’ll have to wait here.”

I nodded silently and slumped down into one of the chairs by the operating room. A nurse came over with some paperwork to fill out, but I couldn’t even see the words on the page. She silently understood.

“We will update you when she gets out of surgery.”

“Immediately?” I practically begged.

“Immediately.” She offered with an empathetic smile.

I sat there fervently running my hands through my hair, waiting and crying. I fucking hated hospitals. They smelled—no, more like reeked of death. The memories of when I was here with Bea wouldn’t stop flooding in.

A female doctor eventually came over with a somber look, and I wiped my face.

“Are you Mr. Marchetti?” the doctor asked. I nodded quickly. “Your wife was shot in the shoulder. The bullet was still lodged into her shoulder muscles, and we think may have splintered off.”

That was not good news. No.

Fuck.

She offered a thin, empathetic smile. “The good news is that from what we can see, it did not hit her heart.”

Thank God.

“So, what do you need to do?” I asked the doctor.

“We are working on taking the bullet out, but depending on how much it splintered, she may be out for a few days.”

I nodded and then very quietly asked the question I was scared to know.

“Is she going to—” I couldn’t get it out.

The doctor seemed to understand what I was trying to get at. “Yes, she will be okay.”

Immediately, I dropped to my knees and threw my hands in the air, the breath finally coming back into my lungs.

“Are you okay, Mr. Marchetti?” the doctor asked, brows furrowed in concern.

“Yes, sorry,” I gasped. “Thank you.”

“You can see her after surgery. It will be a few hours, so get comfortable.” She pointed to the waiting room, where I nodded to her and let her get back to Gianna.

Why was this happening to me? Who did this?

At this point, my thoughts started to settle once I heard that she was going to survive. I needed to figure out what was happening.

I walked into the waiting room, where Julian and Tatum were sitting.

“How are you?” Tatum ran over to give me a hug.

“Is she going to be okay?” Julian stood up beside her.

“She got shot in the shoulder. They’re doing surgery on it because they think the bullet lodged into a muscle and possibly splintered.”