Asteria Morales | ✓

𝟤𝟪 | 𝖧𝗈𝗌𝗉𝗂𝗍𝖺𝗅

"Alright," the man answers. "Asteria, you're going to be just fine. Your family will be meeting you at the hospital. Everything is–"

"We need some help over here!" a different man shouts. "We have a male here who seems to be in his mid to late twenties. We can't get him out of the car because of how severe his injuries appear to be."

"That's the last thing I hear before I go unconscious once again.

❛ ━━━━━━･❪ ❁ ❫ ･━━━━━━ ❜

There are a couple of things I notice when I start to stir awake is the scent. It smells so . . . clean, fresh, and weird. Am I in a hospital?

The second thing is a monitor beeping continuously which proves that I am in fact in a hospital. The third is someone holding my hand. I use the little energy I have to turn my head and open my eyes just a bit to see who it is.

It's my mamá. She has my hand in between hers and holds it to her mouth where she's praying for me to wake up. She's telling me how much she loves me and how her life wouldn't be complete without me and my sister. That she'll probably break and lose herself if I don't wake up because she can't ever imagine her life without me in it.

In the distance, I hear my papá yelling and he sounds mad. Which isn't good for anyone who works for him. "I don't fucking care if everyone is still asleep! I am ordering each of you to drop everything and find whoever is responsible for hurting my daughter! And when you do find them, bring them to me alive. I want them to pay for what they did!" He clears his throat, letting his voice return to normal. "Marcus, I want you to send some of my best guards to NYU's campus. Have them guard the classroom Venus is in. Along with that, I want you to send multiple cars as decoys when she leaves her campus and is on her way to the hospital."

A groan leaves me, feeling how dry my mouth and throat are.

Mamá notices and lets out a small gasp. "Oh my god, Asteria, you're awake." She squeezes my hand and gently kisses my cheek. "You don't know how worried I've been. Valentino!"

"Mamá," I whisper. "Not so loud please."

"I'm sorry, baby." She kisses my hand. "I'll be right back." Mamá then leaves the room, walking up to my papá. When Papá sees her, he ends his call right away and listens to what she has to say. I'm assuming it has to do about me.

It didn't take long for the two of them to rush back into my room. The first thing Papá did was bring his forehead to my temple and tell me the same thing that my mamá said to me. "Is there anything I can do for you?" he asks after kissing my forehead.

"Water would be great," I mumble. Papá nods and turns to the counter, grabbing a cup and pouring water inside. He sticks a straw inside before bringing it toward me, guiding the straw into my mouth. I thank him after motioning him to pull it away and look around the room. "Where's Venus?"

"She's still on campus taking her first midterm of the day," Mamá answers. "Your papá called your sister's professors and asked to let her take her exams at a later day."

Of course, he would do something like that.

The professors wouldn't even be able to say no because of who my papá is.

And of course, he would send more men and decoy cars to bring my sister to the hospital safely after what happened.

Wait, a minute. What did happen to me?

The last thing I remember was Christian slapping his arm in front of me, trapping me against the seat.

"Where's Christian?" I ask. Mamá and Papá exchange glances but continue to stay quiet. "Papá, where's Christian? What the hell happened to us?"