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Chapter Fifteen
Nicole
Oh, Shit!
After I demanded Vito come home in time for dinner, he left for work. I was on his laptop that morning, scrolling through social media when my mother called me through FacePage messenger. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw her face on an incoming call.
After all the years of exile, she saw the little blue online button by my name and took a chance by calling me. She told me she had an important doctor’s appointment at the hospital and asked me to meet her there. And I had shown up, bodyguard and assistant in tow, only to find out I was losing her. The doctor informed us she had one month to live.
Given that we barely had a relationship, how could I process losing her?
“You usually sit in here alone at night?” Vito asked from the living room’s walkway.
“Only when I’m stood up for a dinner date,” I lied. The room’s light brown and black décor had a calming effect on me, so I sat in there most nights before heading to bed. “But you would know that if you weren’t coming in so late.”
Vito stared at me with his thick eyebrows crumpled into a bunch. “I’m sorry. I had a rough day.” Wrinkle lines on his forehead disturbed his handsome facial features. The bulging muscles on his chest and neck screamed to be massaged until all of the tension left his body. His six-pack underneath his dress shirt dueled for attention. No detail about him went unnoticed when he was near.
“What happened?” I asked with concern.
“Nothing worth discussing,” he minimized.
I wanted to hear about his day, so I could forget mine. I pressed, “So, it was worth you doing it all day but not talking about it?”
Vito shook his head. His already dark eyes darkened more as they penetrated mine. Releasing a sigh through tight lips, he offered, “Just another day in the construction business. Dealing with contractors and clients. The usual. Is everything alright with you?” A hint of concern clouded his thick voice.
“Well…” My gaze dropped to my fingernails.
“How was your day? Are you feeling better?” he prodded.
With downcast eyes, I shook my head. “Today wasn’t good.”
He sat beside me on the sofa. “Russell told me you went to the hospital to see your mother. Want to talk about it?”
I laid back on the sofa and blew out a deep breath. The first thought that popped into my head was my mother's look when she asked the doctor, “Am I really going to die?”
“I’m going to lose her,” I finally managed to verbalize my thoughts before jumping off the sofa and hurrying down the hall to my bedroom.
Thankfully, Vito didn’t follow me, giving me a chance to quickly discard my clothes and get into the shower. I so desperately wanted to hide my tears. Blending them in with the shower spray would make it so that I wouldn’t know where the tears began or the water ended.
“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked from the bathroom doorway.
“No, I want to take the cancer out of my mother’s body. I want a cure for her, so we can have years to make up the time we were apart,” I screamed before hollering turned into wails.
I balled into a puddle on the shower floor, wondering who I would be once my mother left Earth. I spent so much time waiting for the right moment to reconnect and rebuild our relationship. Now, it was too late.
“Vito, it hurts! It fucking hurts! I can’t lose her right after getting my life back from that monster. I can’t lose my mother.” I had somehow managed to be strong at the doctor’s office, but that was for my mother. This moment of complete brokenness was for me.
Vito helped me out of the shower, dried me off, and held me in his arms until I drifted off to sleep. He kept repeating that he would be there for me and never leave me alone.
I woke up in the middle of the night with a heavy heart. Vito was right there, watching over me as I slept, staring at me as if he had just discovered the last person on earth. “I got you, Nicole. I promise.”
An eruption of tears flowed from my eyes. Indescribable pain filled my heart. My mother was really dying. I was going to lose her.
“I wish there was something I could do to take your pain away,” Vito stated with a strained tone.
I didn’t recognize my own voice when I blatantly stated, “Make love to me.”
He sat straight up and looked me in the eye. “Is that what you want, for me to make love to you?”
