Chapter 36
Tony
It’s been five days Ariana has been asleep for. Luca, Luciano and I take shifts sitting with her in case she wakes up. Her brothers came to see her two days ago. They had to take some time to organise their family after their fathers death. We’ve come to an agreement between our families now for peace, but said when their sister wakes up, if she wants to go home we must allow her to go. Luciano wasn’t happy with that but there’s really not much he could do. Luca has joined me today to sit with her. He’s drawing sketches for tattoo’s he wants to show to her. I’m brushing out her hair, so it doesn’t tangle. I see her hand twitch slightly.
“Luca did you see that?”
He puts down his notepad and looks at her. She does it again and we both quickly come to her sides and hold her hands.
“Hey princess, can you hear me?” he says softly,
“Violence? Come on honey, open your eyes for us.” She moves her hand in mine. “That’s it honey, fight for it! Open your eyes.”
“We’re here Princess, show us those pretty blue eyes!”
Luca says.
“Ughhh” she croaks out a moan and every so slowly her eyes flutter open.
Ariana
My body feels like its been hit by a dam truck on fire. I can hear Tony and Luca so I must be alive. With the pain I’m feeling right now. I’d rather be dead.
“Ughhh” I moan out and open my eyes. The light is blinding, and it takes me a moment to adjust to it, but it’s giving me a throbbing headache and the stupid beeping isn’t helping either. “Water, lights, stupid beeping,” is all I manage to get out. The lights are turned off, the beeping stops and Tony says, “I’m going to try to help you sit up so Luca can feed you some water okay honey?”
“Mhhmmın” I humm. It hurts like a fucking bitch but he’s super gentle with me and Luca helps me tilt my head back and raises a cup to my lips. I get a couple mouthfuls of water and it helps the sandpaper feeling in my throat. Luca lifts his hand to my mouth and uses his thumb to dry my lips.
“Thank you“, I croak out and give him a small smile as Tony lowers me back on the bed.
“Im going to get Luciano and Camilla, Ill be back“. Luca says and I lift my hand to stop him and see the damage on my arm and fingers. I raise the other one front the bed and do the same. Tears welling up in my eyes at the sight.
“Hey, hey, none of that Princess.” Luca says as he comes back and sits by my side.
“You’re still absolutely beautiful, honey.” Tony says as he sits on my other side.
“Show me the rest…” I whisper looking at my hands.
“I’m not sure we should move you just yet princess…”
“Please, show me the rest of what he did.”
Luca and Tony look at each other and nod. Luca comes to Tony’s side and they slowly help move me to the side of the bed and put my arms under their shoulders.
“Both of your legs are broken honey, so we will lift you like this okay? Tony says in a soft voice.
nod my head and allow them to stand with my, holding the weight off my legs. They move me to the other side of the room to the mirror and I she the two casts on my legs going up into the hospital gown.
“Take it off, please
Tony’s other hand comes up the back of my neck and pulls the tie to the gown. Luca does the same with the one on the middle of my back and
Chapter 35
then they work in tandem to support my weight and shuffle the gown off my shoulders. It falls to the floor and I stand there looking at what my father has done. It’s horrible. I’m fucking disgusting. The tears I was holding back come in full force and they both move slightly more to my front and wrap their arms around me gently while 1 sob.
“Hey now, you’re perfect, absolutely perfect. These scars, they just show how bloody strong you are. Tony says. The help me back over to the bed and sit me on the side of it. Luen gets the hospital gown from the floor and helps me back into it whilst Tony goes around to my back and does up the ties. Luca kneels in front of me and takes my hands from my face, awkwardly holding them around the splints. “You are, beautiful, Ariana. Look at me. Beautiful. But in case you don’t think so any more, I’ve been working on some tattoos you might like“. He pulls a book from one of the chairs and shows it to me, slowly flicking through pages and pages of artwork.
“You drew these for me?” I manage out through my sobs.
“Your scars are part of your story and they don’t make you any less perfect than you were, but I thought maybe, you might like to determine what those scars look like.”
“They’re beautiful, Luca, thank you. I think I like the looks of these a lot more than these scars.” I smile softly at him.
“Hey, I thought I did quite a good job at sewing up those scars!” Tony says in mock offence.
“You stitched me up?”
“Helped. Camilla did a lot too…speaking of, 1 should probably get her.”
“Tony?
“Yeah, honey?”
“Please don’t bring Luciano…I don’t want to see him.”
He nods, kisses me forehead and leaves.
Luca helps me settle back into the bed, adjusting the pillows and blanket for me.
“How soon can we cover these things up?” I say to him quietly.
He looks at me with that big cheesy smile of his. As soon as they heal, I’ll turn your body into a walking art piece fit for a queen“. He kisses my forehead and sits down beside me taking my hand.
