“No!” Antonio starts shooting but Luca’s already running.
“Shooter still at large! Pursuing on foot! Everyone, don’t let that fucker escape!” Hannah radio’s, but's too late.
Elba clutch’s her stomach, her thick black shirt covering the blood but I know it’s there. The bullets bury into her back, blood spilling out of her mouth.
This can’t be happening... This can’t be happening!
“Elba!” No, we were safe! We were fucking safe! We won!
Lorenzo catches her before any of us can get there, Hope shaking at Elba’s blood all over her. They both crash to the ground, Lorenzo throwing himself on top of her and checking her over.
“Is she okay?!”
“Esmeralda...”
“I need an ambulance here! Now!” Hannah screams, sirens start again, but there’s so much blood pooling under her already.
“They won't make it in time...”
“What? No! Of course they’ll make it! She’s not dying!” She’s a survivor! She won’t die!
“Elba...” Jordano crawls to her side, I do the same, Antonio too frozen in place to move.
“Hey, babe. Babe? It’s going to be okay. We’ll get the ambulance. You’re going to be fine, you’re going to be absolutely fine.” It’s too much blood. It’s too much!
Give her mine! Take it out and give it to her!
“Lorenzo.” Jordano pleads without words, Lorenzo forcing his hands against Elba’s back. The bullets are ripping apart her insides. “How much time does she have?”
Will you all stop talking like she’s going to die?! She’s not dying!
“I...” He lifts his hands, shaking his head at how much blood just keeps pouring out of her. “We won’t get her to the hospital in time... S-She has minutes.” The tears fall from them both.
No. This isn’t happening.
“Well then move her! Milo, Milo! Come pick her up! Kage! Someone! Pick her up!” Tears stream down my cheeks, my family gathering around me sobbing. “Why are you all standing there?! St George’s is ten minutes away! We have to take her now!”
“P-Pumpkin...” Brie sobs. “S-She won’t make it there... let her say goodbye.”
No. No it’s not goodbye! I won’t say goodbye to her!
“It is o-okay, bellissima... it does not hurt.” Please don’t say that. It’s supposed to hurt! It’s never good when it doesn’t hurt!
“Don’t listen to them, okay? Of course the ambulance will make it. You’re going to be fine!” I can’t lose her.
Not her, please. I’m begging you.
She hasn’t done it yet... She's supposed to have babies, and get married, and we’re supposed to have funny barbecues in her backyard where we talk about all the stupid things we used to do when we were just two bad girls jumping off a boat! She hasn’t done it yet! Don’t take her!
“Elba, please don't go... p-please don't go...” I can’t see her through my tears, holding her head in my arms like I did Teal when he was born. “D-Don’t leave me...”
My heart hurts... I can’t breathe...
“You m-must tell her I do not regret a moment of our time together... She has been the best part of my life...” A tear runs down her cheek. “I am so s-sorry I had to leave her without saying goodbye.”
“W-Who?” She's looking at me but she's not seeing me, her beautiful olive skin turning a deathly grey. “Who, babe? I’ll tell her, just tell me who.”
Hope sobs as she holds Elba’s hand, kissing her fingers over and over when they start to shake.
She’s... Please don’t... Just stay with me...
“Do not let her cry... She is too b-beautiful when she smiles to shed her tears for me.” She fell in love, after she left, I can see it in her eyes.
She finally fell in love again...
I grip her head in my lap when her body starts to convulse. Screaming out trying to pull her pain into me.
I’ve got you, it’s okay, I’ve got you.
Jordano rocks clutching his knees like he’s watching his mother die all over again. Not a powerful man, a broken child. Gabriele holds him, neither of them saying a word, just tears drenching them.
She’s in pain, she’s shaking, fighting with everything she has to stay alive. The sirens get closer, but not close enough.
This is it.
“A-Antonio...” I weep. “It’s hurting her...”
He knows who she is, how strong she is, that even when there’s no hope she’ll keep trying. He kneels next to me, smiling gently through his tears and stroking her blood-soaked hair from her face.
“Esmerelda.” He tilts her head, tears running off his jaw. “It is okay, we are okay...” I scream as she starts to struggle for breath. She’s trying to stop them, but they’re coming to take her away from me. “Do not fight, do not suffer for us... You may let go, Principessa. Be the angel you were born to be.”
She’s no angel... She’s a God.
Kage tries to wrap me in his love, Brie dropping to her knees at Elba’s feet. Everyone does the same, on their knees around her as she whispers her final breath.
A last bow to a queen.
“Ti a-amo... topolina.”
(I love you, little mouse.)
Then she stops shaking.
Her hand falls from Hope’s.
Her chest stops pumping.
Goodbye, bellissima.
.
.
.
Authors Note: I really think it would be best if everyone took an emotional break here before the end of the book.
I’m sorry.
YOU ARE READING
My Future Husband
RomanceMY FUTURE HUSBAND - BOOK FOUR: PART TWO, IN THE FORBIDDEN LUST SERIES DO NOT READ THIS BOOK FIRST!!!! "It was you... it was you all along..." May Parker, once the girl you'd run from, but a funny thing happens when you get dragged through hell - yo...
