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Life had given me a second shot with Dario’s family.
I intended on taking it.
Then, without warning, tragedy struck.
It was around 10 o’clock at night. I’d been having a beer with Massimo, and now I was heading up to my room when I heard Adriano’s voice scream, “HELP! HELP US, PLEASE!”
It was coming from his father’s room.
I raced down the hallway as fast as I could. Adriano continued to scream, “PLEASE, SOMEONE HELP!”
I burst into the old man’s bedroom and found Adriano kneeling on the floor. Leonardo was cradled in his arms. A few feet away was a chair, an overturned tray, and a liquor glass and plate of food scattered across the rug.
The old man’s face was red, his eyes bulged, and veins stood out on his face.
Adriano looked up at me in panic, his eyes wide and helpless as a frightened child’s.
“I just – I just found him like this…”
“Give him to me,” I commanded as I got down on my knees.
I had emergency medical battlefield training, although it mostly revolved around wounds and bleeding, not what was happening here.
Adriano shifted his father over to my arms, and I lowered the old man gently to the floor and checked his pulse. It was elevated but not weak.
Leonardo looked up at me with imploring eyes, like he wanted to tell me something but couldn’t speak. Only a choking gasp escaped his throat.
Adriano was standing and tearing at his hair in anguish.
“Get Niccolo to call an ambulance,” I ordered. “I think he’s having a heart attack.”
Adriano nodded, slightly stunned – then bolted from the room, screaming, “NICCOLO! CALL AN AMBULANCE – PAPA’S HURT!”
“It’s going to be alright,” I said calmly to Leonardo.
He looked up at me with wide eyes. His hands clutched at my shirt – in pain or fear, I couldn’t say.
Massimo, Roberto, and Valentino rushed in, a look of horror on their faces as they crowded around their father.
“Papa?!”
“Oh my God – ”
Niccolo and Adriano rushed in. Adriano was still frantic, but Niccolo had a calm, almost cold expression as he talked into his cell phone. “Yes, there’s a gate – it will be open by the time the ambulance gets here. I’ll be waiting for them at the front door to the house, but just in case, tell them it’s up the stairs and on the third floor to the left.”
“…Papa?” Adriano said, his voice no louder than a whisper.
Leonardo’s head tilted back and his eyes stared up at the ceiling, unseeing and unfocused.
“PAPA!” Adriano screamed.
Massimo had to hold his brother back. It took all his strength to do so.
120
The brothers and I piled into cars and followed the ambulance to a small local hospital about 10 minutes away.
We sat in the waiting room as the doctors tried to save Leonardo. Adriano was bent over, his head in his hands, as Massimo rubbed his back consolingly.
