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Oh God, please don’t let this be it. Please, I’m not ready to go.
There’s commotion outside the room. The next second, Aiden, Doctor Simmons, Becky, and Mateo burst through the door.
Aiden scoops me up and carries me next door, my head rolling against his shoulder. In the background, I hear Tiero call my name. He sounds tormented.
I don’t want this. I don’t want this sadness anymore, the anguish… hurting the people I love.
Then nothing.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Gualtiero
Mateorushestomyside as Burg carries Ella out of the room, while a doctor is checking her vitals, firing off instructions to a nurse.
“Ella!” I yell, not recognizing my own voice. My hands clench into fists. I need to get off this bed. I need to be with her. My muscles jump under my skin as adrenaline pumps through my body, suddenly making me feel alive. Still, my body doesn’t cooperate. Pain shooting through me as I try to move.
“Fuck. Mateo. Let go of me,” I growl as he attempts to gently push me down on the bed.
“Calm down, Tiero. You need to calm down.”
Is he fucking kidding me? Where are they taking Ella? Is she dying? How can I just lie here?
“No!” I yell, trying to sit up. Screw this pain. Ella needs me.
Doctor Romolo rushes into the room, injecting something into my IV drip. Fuck, I don’t want or need a sedative. I need to be with Ella.
“Go and find out what’s happening,” I bark at Mateo, who’s clearly undecided whether he should leave my side. “Go!” I say with all the sternness I can muster, and he finally turns and leaves.
It seems like lifetimes pass before he returns; I feel like I’ve aged a hundred years. The sedatives have done their job, my body calmer, but the same can’t be said for my mind.
Ella is all I can think about, the worry for her nauseating.
“She’s okay,” Mateo says even before he has walked through the door. “She’s stable and sleeping.”
I close my eyes and let out a long breath, my body finally relaxing into the mattress. I didn’t realize how rigid I’ve been holding it. Bowing my head, I send a silent thank you prayer to the heavens, something I haven’t done in a long time.
The last time I prayed was when my mother died. In my childish folly, I prayed for her to come back to us again, to stop Papa from hurting, and for all of us to laugh again. God, or whoever is in charge, didn’t answer my prayer, and I decided then it was a waste of time. But today, here… it seems the most natural and, above all, the only thing I can do.
“What’s wrong with her?” I ask my brother as he sits down beside my bed. “She told me she had a heart problem, but we didn’t get further than that.”
He nods, looking miserable to be the bearer of bad news. “Burg filled me in. Ella’s heart is enlarged. She needs a transplant as soon as possible; her heart could give up at any point.”
It’s like my own heart stops beating. My vision blurs, and I’m dizzy despite lying down.
Ella can’t die! I won’t let her.
“It can’t be that hard to find her a heart. There’s seven billion people on this earth. We have—”
“She has one of the rarest blood types,” he interrupts.
I swallow hard. “Which one?”
His eyes hold mine before he lets out a groan. “B negative. Her chances are all but zero. Unless we—”
“Do it.” I say, knowing exactly what he’s alluding to. “Get Uberto to find someone.” I will not have her die… not if I can help it.
Mateo gets up. “But you told me not to.”
