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Arrow tsks. “For someone so intelligent, you can be a real—”
“You better not finish that thought, Arrow,” I growl.
“Please. Like you’d ever do anything to me. I’m indispensable. Plus, you love me.” They finish, gloating. It’s frustrating as fuck, but they’re not wrong. Over the years, Arrow became like a third sibling to me—annoying, lovable, and someone I trust implicitly. “Anywhooo, have you ever thought Alessa might have been adopted?”
“I saw her mother pregnant,” I snap.
“Okay. Then maybe, Carusso isn’t her father?”
I want to snort at the absurdity of that statement because Rosa Carusso wouldn’t dare…but then—they had tried for children for so many years with no luck until Alessa. “I don’t know,” I hesitate, but the more I think of it, the more I see Arrow’s point.
“I mean, he killed her because she had an affair. Couldthere have been another man before Nicolosi? One who—you know—got her pregnant.”
“Or it could have been Nicolosi.” A plan is forming in my head. “Can you—”
“On it. Let me run some checks and get back to you. It’ll be difficult to prove anything without his DNA.”
“I’ve got to go,” I snap, letting my phone drop with a quiet thud onto Alessa’s bed. Clutching her chart to my chest, I pace around the hospital room, my head filled with a million thoughts.
“Mr Santoro.” The nurse pops her head through the door. “It’s time to head back to the waiting area.”
“I’m not leaving my fiancée’s side,” I snap, probably harsher than I meant to, but I need to get my point across.
“Mr. Santor—”
“What’s your name?”
“Bri,” she answers, her eyebrows scrunched in confusion.
“Have you ever been in love, Bri?”
She opens her mouth as if to answer but I stop her, raising my hand in the air.
“What I mean is—have you ever loved someone so much, your heart beat just for them? Have you ever loved someone so much every second spent away from them manifested as pain in your chest? Have you ever loved someone so much,” I swallow, “that living without them was no living at all?”
Bri’s mouth closes as she shakes her head from side to side.
“This here is my future wife, Bri. The woman I can’t be apart from. I need to be here when she wakes up. She’s my forever, do you understand?”
Bri opens her mouth again.
“Forever is a long time,” Alessa croaks out and my headsnaps back to her beautiful face, my heart lodged in my throat.
“Alessa.” In an instant, I’m by her bed, brushing a lock of brown hair off her forehead.
Bri rushes to her other side, performing checks, but my focus is solely on Alessa and the small smile spreading across her lips.
47
ALESSA
“Hi,” I rasp as Dante threads his fingers through mine, squeezing my hand.
“Hi, baby.” His eyes are shining as his forehead touches mine, his thumb grazing my cheek.
“Future wife, eh?” I wince at how dry my throat is. Every word hurts.
“Was it me? Did I hurt you?” He lets go of my hand, jerking back, his eyes scanning my body for fresh injuries.
