Love and Lust (The Hamartia Trilogy Book 2)

Capitolo VI

The room is different when we got to the hospital to see my father. The walls were mahogany, the room dim and the curtains blue. The bed was larger, comfier and the beeping was more subtle and thin and quiet.

There are fresh flowers on top of the desk  on the foot of the hospital bed—an arrangement of sunflowers and blood red roses. Although the room has been upgraded, it seems that the person lying on it has worsened.

He's gotten thinner, the wrinkles that were ones barely there are now refined and gotten deeper. His cheekbones are higher and hollow. The timely glow he used to have was replaced with paleness. I almost didn't recognize my own father.

From what the doctor told me, he has yet to improve over the month he's been medically comatose. Doctor Cody, the doctor, told me that he still hasn't woken up despite their withdrawal from the drugs that forced him to sleep.

"He's on his own," she had said. "He's not into some drugs anymore except for the ones that are healing his liver and lungs."

That made me so dizzy that I needed to take a seat. Lucas was quiet in the corner of the room, perhaps slightly guilty that maybe the vial his father gave him to poison my father was the one who worsted it. But Doctor Cody made sure that it was all from his vices.

"Is he going to make it?" I asked her, frowning.

"I can't say, Miss Santelli," she shrugs. "But know that if he does wake up, there's a higher chance that he will make it."

"And if he won't wake up?"

"Then we'll do our best for him to make it." I was about to ask a few more questions but the pager that's been clipped on the waistband of her bottom scrubs started beeping. She excused herself and left the room, leaving me and Lucas alone with my father. I stare at him from a distance, knowing that if I was too close, I'd lose it. And losing it is the last thing I wanted to do.

"I'll be outside, Mari," I heard Lucas called and his footsteps started growing. A hand landed on my shoulder, squeezing it tightly. I nodded and he left the room, leaving me to have personal time with my father.

—————
Lucas
~*~

I leave Mari so she can talk to her father alone. Knowing how it feels waiting for someone you care about to wake up is agonizing. And I didn't want to see Mari in agony. Not again. Instead, I busy myself with work. I was naturally a workaholic but the past month made it difficult to focus. Now, although I hate to admit it, I need to keep my empire running.

"Late transactions, son," I read the text from my father for the tenth time today. Since I took over my father, I've never had a transaction gone wrong before. Until now. I settle this, my ears steaming with frustration and rage.

"I'll fix it," I reply to him and immediately went to the cause. If only Mari hasn't decided to stop by to see her father, I would've gone back to Boston to settle this personally. But no, I was here in New York because there's something about her right now that I just can't leave.

Ten minutes later, Mari was talking to the doctor again. Her eyes pink but not puffy. Despite in tears, she still looked beautiful. I imagine what would've happened if I continued to give Gian the vial my father gave me. He won't be in a coma, he'll be lying on his casket waiting to be buried. But the doctor made it clear that whatever was happening to him was his own doing. Not mine. Not my father's.

"We should get going," I hear Mari sniff beside me. I jolt a little, startled by her quietness. I shut my phone and stood, not bother to call Jack since I know he's already waiting outside with the rest of security. Mari was quiet on our way down and I let her be, knowing that I have nothing good to say anyway.

"When we get home," she started. "I want us to talk about a press conference."

My eyebrows cocked at the words. This again? "There will be no press conference, Mari."

"There will be, Lucas," she pressed on. "It won't be about whatever happened to your sister or Mexico. We need to talk about us. Whatever this is going on between us, the public needs to take a refresh."

"The public doesn't need to know shit, Mari. You know it. We don't owe them anything. Much less an explanation of what we are."

"What are we?" she finally asked.

"We're the richest people in the country and we're going to get married before this month ends."

"Can't we postpone the wedding or something?"

"We've been postponing it since the day we started planning it, Mari."

"Yeah, because shit happened."

"And shit will continue to happen," I snapped and for a moment I got worried at how desperate I might sound for pushing Mari to do the wedding. But a deal's a deal and besides, with all the things that has been happening, the De Marchis would need the money. "We can do tango with the shit to try and avoid it or we can just face it like grown ups."

Mari was quiet as she shakes her head in disapproval and it was what I wanted. Because god knows what I'll do if she continues to push this conference.

"I'll call Theresa and both of you can continue where you left off." Theresa Wills, the world's best event planner, who happens to be an old friend, was more than happy enough to help Mari plan the wedding. And if it wasn't for the suicide mission in Mexico, she and I would've been catching up with each other over coffee and Mari would be kissing her feet for having the best wedding of the century.

When we finally got to Mari's mansion, security was little to none. Or so you'd think but Mari and I know that there are eyes on every corner of the house. Chase met us at the Great Hall when we arrived, ordering around a dozen or so maids to clean the kitchen and the living room. Mari went straight to her room. If she was sulking, fine. At least she gets to rest.

As for me, my phone still hasn't stopped ringing since we landed and it's starting to get to me. My father, although being an ex-Boss, still likes to breath on my neck and tell me what to do. Why can't he just get his head on with Harriet. He is retired after all.

"I'll be leaving for Boston tomorrow," I tell Chase despite the fact that we were both busy with our phones.

"Is that a good idea?" Chase asked, looking up at me. "I mean with everything that's going—"

"No one is under any threat, Chase," I said. "And Mari can take care of herself for as long as she doesn't do anything stupid."

"What about the wedding? A lot of people has been bugging me about the wedding and whether or not it'll happen."

"It'll happen, Chase. Before the month is over, Mari will be a De Marchi."