Massimo's P.O.V
After calling Enzo I had told him to come over and meet me. He said he was coming but there was something in his voice that told me that he wanted to say something. Well, whatever it was I'd ask him once he came.
I was currently sitting inside the room that I had taken over ever since I had completely moved in to the hospital, even though I mostly spent time in her room.
I looked towards the entrance of the room when I heard the door being opened, and surely it was Enzo. I was about to tell him to come sit as I wanted to talk about something, but when he didn't close the door behind him I stopped the words from coming out of my mouth.
I could see he had brought someone with him as he looked behind and gestured whoever it was to follow him. With furrowed eyebrows I saw that it was not one but 2 people more like two girls. When my eyes landed on their faces I stood up from where I was sitting. I blinked my eyes to make sure what I was seeing was even real.
Bianca and Amanda, Maya's two best friends from America were standing in front of me. They had that confused and worried expressions on their faces. I could tell that they didn't recognise me. Well, how could they? While I knew about them, they had no idea about who I was.
"Dallo sguardo sul tuo Viso capisco che già li conosci." Said Enzo as he looked in between me and them.
(From the look on your face I get you already know them)
"Cosa ci fanno qui?" I asked as I looked at them. I saw the girl with tanned skin Bianca now looking irritated.
(What are they doing here?)
"Excuse me? Can you guys talk in English please?" She said, irritation clear in her voice. "And you said you were taking us to Maya. Where is she?" She asked Enzo, gesturing towards the room with no Maya in sight.
"Cosa suggerisci ora?" He continued speaking in Italian to which I saw Bianca rolling her eyes at him.
(What do you suggest now?)
I sighed as I said "Take them to see her." Enzo gave me a look but nodded his nonetheless. He gestured them to follow him. They left but not before looking at me with curiosity.
Enzo's P.O.V
I knew Massimo had called me to speak about something important. But that had to wait for a while as I took Maya's friends towards her room.
"Who was he?" Asked Bianca. "Why was his permission important for us to see our friend?" Her tone had a hint of sass.
We reached outside Maya's room as I turned around to look at them both. "I will personally introduce you to him and all of us later, but for now you may go see your friend." And with that I gestured towards her room.
They both didn't waste a single second and pushed open the door. Hana was inside sitting on the couch, talking to Maya's unconscious form. She looked towards the door when she felt our presence. With furrowed eyebrows, she looked in between Maya's friends probably wondering who they were.
My attention then went towards the girls as I heard a loud gasp and then both Bianca and Amanda hurriedly reached Maya's side.
"Oh my god....w-what happened to her?" Amanda asked as both her and Bianca looked at Maya's unconscious form with worry filled eyes.
Bianca held her limp hand in hers. "Maya, look we are here babe." There was no response from her side obviously. "Is she under anesthesia? When will she wake up?" Asked Amanda to no one in particular.
"I um I'm sorry to interrupt but she's not under anesthesia." It was Hana. That made them both to look at her. "She is in coma actually."
"What? C-Coma? How? What happened? How did she end up being in coma?" Both Bianca and Amanda asked simultaneously.
Hana looked at me for help as she didn't know how and exactly what to tell them. It was obviously not easy since it was a long story and also we had no idea exactly what we were supposed to tell them
"It was an accident." That made them both to look at me. "As to how & why it happened, that's a very long story. But you'll soon find out." Gesturing towards Maya I then said, "But for now all what matters is for her to wake up from coma."
***
It wasn't easy to convince the girls about how and what exactly happened. They had so many questions, like a lot. I didn't blame them though. They were seeing their best friend after months after all and on top of that she was lying unconscious.
For now I had somehow managed to divert all their questions to the matter in hand.
"At least tell us about you guys?" Said Amanda as she looked in between Hana and me. "How did you meet Maya?" I saw Bianca looking at me from my peripheral vision, but as I looked at her she looked away.
"I'm actually not from here. I live in South Korea." Said Hana. "I just arrived here a few days ago with my dad who had something business related work with oppa- Massimo." She further informed. "And that's when I met Maya."
"Massimo is the one you two saw earlier." I said when I saw the look of confusion on their faces when Hana mentioned his name. "He is the one who saved Maya once, and long story short she has been living with us ever since." I explained in short, obviously excluding the part of us being in mafia, and also how Maya actually ended up in trouble because of him in the first place.
"I still don't get it." It was Bianca. "Why did she not contact us at all?" I knew they would ask this. "I mean ok she got in trouble but why did she not contact us?"
"It's a little complicated actually." I said and noticed Bianca's eye roll when I said complicated. "Just know that whatever trouble she got in, involving those who were close to her in any way, could've brought trouble to them as well." I continued, "which in Maya's case were you two, and obviously she didn't want that. Hence she didn't contact you."
I could see both the girls looking at each other with doubts in their eyes. I knew they were not completely buying what I just said. Finally, they didn't say anything and just nodded as if trying to accept my explanation.
"Alright, we won't ask anymore questions." Said Amanda. "For now Maya's state is more important."
"But..." This time it was Bianca. "...we are only leaving you for now." She continued while giving me the I know there's more to this look, "Once Maya is up & fine, we will eventually find out everything from her."
I kept my face blank, not giving out any emotions in case they wanted me to look doubtful. I just shrugged. "Of course. But let's first pray for her to finally get back to her conscious state." I tried to change the topic.
"How long has she been in coma? What are the doctors saying?" They both asked simultaneously. Before I could answer, the door of the room got opened and in entered Massimo.
He looked at me and motioned towards the entrance. I nodded as he then turned around to leave, but not before glancing at both the girls.
As we exited the room, Massimo walked a few steps away from the room, towards a corner. I followed after him. I knew he wanted to talk about something important to me.
"Si." I said as we stood close by.
"How did they find out about her?" He asked motioning towards Maya's room.
"The doctor from America, Dr. Campbell, he is the one who informed the two about Maya." I said. "I'm guessing he knew from the beginning about who Maya was and was just waiting for the right time to inform them."
"Dr. Campbell?" He asked with furrowed eyebrows. "What's his full name?" He then asked.
"Um I'm not sure but I heard one of the girls calling him Mason." As I said that his eyes got filled with realization. "What? Do you know him?" I asked to which he sternly nodded his head.
"Yes, I know about Mason. He's one of Maya's best friends aka Amanda's boyfriend." He informed. "It completely slipped my mind that Dr. Campbell and Mason were the same person."
With one raised eyebrow I said, "It's new and surprising how you forgot such an important piece of information."
"Anyway, what do we do now?" I asked instead. "About Maya's friends and Dr. Campbell aka Mason?"
"We'll worry about that later." He just dismissed that. "There's something important I needed to talk with you about first."
No one's P.O.V
Enzo knew that Massimo wanted to talk about something important that's why he had called him earlier. But what important thing could it possibly be that instead of talking about Maya's condition he was more willing to talk about this something important thing with him.
"I got a call from Roberto De Luca today." Said Massimo. Enzo looked at him for him to say anything further, to continue. But when Massimo didn't say anything Enzo asked, "And? What did he say?"
"He's coming here in two days." Was what Massimo said.
"Coming here? What for?" Asked Enzo with furrowed eyebrows. Enzo knew who Roberto De Luca was and that's why he found him calling and then coming there all of a sudden weird, because Roberto De Luca didn't like to come out of his bill that often. He only did that when it was something very very important.
Enzo heard Massimo sighing deeply before he said, "Do you remember the last time he came here?"
"Um if I'm not wrong it was when you just became capo." Enzo answered.
"And do you also remember what happened then?" Massimo asked.
Enzo looked at Massimo with confusion and thought why he was talking in riddles. Why couldn't he just come to the point and tell him what the matter was.
By the look of confusion on Enzo's face, Massimo figured that he probably didn't remember about what had happened. So, he explained, "When I just became capo he was invited along with few others to the small official gathering." Enzo nodded his head. "At that time he mentioned about helping padre in the past, and how he owed him." As he said that, Enzo finally figured where the conversation was probably going.
"Did he call to finally ask for that?" Enzo asked.
With clenched jaw, Massimo nodded, "Unfortunately yes."
"And what did you say to him?" Asked Enzo as he looked at Massimo who had a hard look on his face.
"He wanted to come here, said we shouldn't delay that anymore." Enzo could tell Massimo wasn't very happy. "I wanted to tell him to leave me alone, but I couldn't do that." Sighing heavily he continued, "Words are something you couldn't take back being a capo."
"But it was your father the old capo who owed him not you." Enzo reasoned. "Why did you have to entertain him?"
Massimo felt like punching the wall in front of him. He also wanted to curse his padre for putting him in such a situation. A situation that was making him feel helpless, and he didn't like that at all.
He thought back to when he had just become capo. It was a small official gathering that they had arranged to announce him as the new mafioso capo. Roberto De Luca was one of the guests his padre had invited. Though Massimo didn't very much like him, but since in the past he had once saved his father's aka Dante Romano's life, so he had invited him out of gesture. But what they didn't know was that he was coming there with something else in his mind.
Roberto De Luca who only had a daughter as a child, Aurora De Luca wanted his only child to marry the eldest son of Dante Romano. He knew no matter how much he tried he couldn't compete with Romanos and with Massimo already being the fearsome and strongest mafiosa capo in the world, Roberto wanted to be on the strong side. Thus, in return of saving Dante Romano's life he had asked for a marriage deal between his daughter and Massimo.
Massimo was 22 at that time when he took charge as mafiosa capo. In his mind, marriage or anything remotely related to that was anything but important. Dante had known how his son was, although he knew his beloved wife wouldn't have wanted their son to marry someone out of a deal, but given the fact how heartless and emotionless he'd always act, marrying someone out of love was something Dante had never thought would happen with his son.
Oh how wrong was he!
When Roberto had asked him to make this marriage deal, at first Dante wanted to refuse. But Roberto manipulated him by saying how he owed him since he had saved his life in the past, and marriage between them would be a good thing for their two mafia families bla bla. Dante had once met Aurora, she was nothing like his father instead she was like a breath of fresh air. He actually liked her, hence the deal was made.
Massimo had known about this deal. He didn't give a damn about it in the past thinking how marrying someone was not a big deal. Though he despised the mere thought but he still knew that in future he would need a heir, his blood who would become next mafiosa capo. Also, it wasn't like they were going to get married then & there. The Deal was about marriage only, there was no mentioning of the date.
In past Massimo had nothing to worry about the deal but now he had. For obvious reasons, he didn't want to fulfil the deal anymore. He didn't want to marry Roberto's daughter anymore deal or not.
Now, he could easily say so and call off the marriage deal but it wasn't that simple. He was a man of words and so was his father. In the world of mafia, not keeping your words or not fulfilling a deal could portray you as someone who has no control over their words, someone who doesn't keep their promises. It wasn't uncommon for such marriage deals to happen in the mafia world, because such deals would bring two families together, making a strong companionship and union between them.
Massimo told Enzo how Roberto invited himself to his mansion in two days saying that he had heard about the accident and was coming to see him. But Massimo knew that was just an excuse, the real reason behind him coming was related to the deal.
"So, what are you going to do now?" Enzo asked a frustrated looking Massimo.
"I fucking don't know." His response showed how frustrated he was getting.
"Can you not just break the deal? I mean it was 8 years ago and you're the damn mafioso capo..." Enzo said as a matter of fact. "No one would question you. At least not if they want to live."
"I know & I don't give a single damn about what others say, but this deal wasn't done by me." Massimo exclaimed. "You can't just break a deal that was not yours to begin with."
What Massimo meant was that since it was his padre Dante Romano who had done the deal with Roberto, only these two could terminate the deal.
"Then call him and tell him to terminate the deal. I'm damn sure he'd agree." Enzo was talking about calling Dante Romano ex-mafioso capo. Enzo was sure that he would agree with this and would definitely terminate the deal.
But Massimo didn't say anything. He just glared at the wall in front and continued putting imaginary holes in it.
"I've already done that." Was what he said with gritted teeths.
"And?" Enzo asked. "What did he say?" Enzo thought if Massimo had already talked with his padre then why was he so stressful.
Massimo had called his padre right after calling Enzo to come over. He had informed everything to him, from how Roberto called to him coming over to Massimo's mansion in 2 days. His father had carefully listened without interrupting, when he was finished all he had asked was how Massimo was doing. It wasn't surprising that his father knew about the accident so he just said that he was fine, excluding the part how someone else was not fine and in coma.
When Massimo had tried to mention about the deal, his father had beat him to that and said how he was very well informed about it, that he didn't forget about it. So, without wasting any more time Massimo had directly came to the point, telling his father that he needed to terminate the deal since he didn't want to marry Roberto's daughter.
Dante Romano was a very wise man, he might be an ex-mafiosa capo but he was still very sharp and clever. He knew why his eldest son, whom he once thought would never marry out of love, wanted to terminate the deal. He knew very well why the deal that once didn't affect him, the same deal was frustrating him out.
As a father what was expected from Dante would be for him to call off the marriage deal and terminate it, because just like his son he also didn't give a single damn about what people say or think. But...Dante thought that would be too easy on his son.
Now, Dante obviously had no bad intentions towards his son. He knew that his son had fallen very hard for someone. But what he also knew that his son was one hell of a cold-hearted bastard. He himself had witnessed what Massimo would become, how he would react around those he care for, and thus he just wanted his son to learn and to know the importance of the people especially a special someone in his life.
Massimo obviously had no idea what his padre was planning. He just thought that his padre wanted to make his life difficult and thus wasn't terminating the goddamn deal.
"This is um weird." Said Enzo as Massimo finished what his padre had told him.
Just like Enzo, Martha, Gabrielle, Marcos, Marcello, and now Hana, Massimo's father also knew very well that something was going on between Massimo and Maya. At this point, all of them were damn sure that they both had fallen for each other though they had yet to confess, but what confused Enzo was why even after knowing everything Massimo's father didn't terminate the deal. Why?
"Dio sa cosa gli passa per la mente." Massimo said in his mother tongue, still frustrated about everything.
(God knows what's going in his mind)
Maya's P.O.V
I could feel a hand clutching mine, not in a tight grip but it was in a way as if that person couldn't help but touch me. I didn't remember how long it had been since I was in that position, all I knew that I wanted to open my eyes to see who was that person but I just couldn't.
"I don't know if I should be happy that we finally found her," Said this familiar feminine voice. "...or worry about her being in coma." Coma? I was in coma?
Another person spoke, "I talked with Mason about her condition," This voice sounded familiar as well. "...he said she was fine but not fine. Her waking up from coma is now upto her only."
Upto me? Then why I couldn't open my eyes?! I so wanted to open my eyes and see. I wanted to see them, I wanted to see who they were. They sounded so familiar, as if I had heard them before so many times. Their voices brought a sense of warmth to my heart, I felt a bit of nostalgia. But I didn't know why?! And I wanted to know! I so wanted to open my eyes! Oh god why couldn't I?! I was getting frustrated now.
"Her eyes!" Came an excited voice. "oh my god she just moved them. See again!" With each word her excitement turned even more. I didn't know what she was talking about and why she was getting excited. I was just focusing on opening my eyes and nothing else.
White light pierced right through my eyes from where I had managed to open them a little. Because of the light I immediately shut them tight, it was so blinding. When the next time I tried again, I tried to open my eyes bit by bit so that I didn't get lights in my eyes again.
After what felt like forever, when my eyes finally got adjusted with the light, my vision started to become clear but I still felt as if a headache was about to come. Just a mere simple task of opening my eyes was tiring for me.
The first thing I saw was figures surrounding me. I still couldn't make out their faces and who they were. So, I just waited for my vision to completely get back to normal. As I slowly started to make out the things such as the ceiling fan above me, or the tube light on the right, my gaze finally settled on the people around me.
Dark brown eyes staring deep into my soul with so many emotions, subtle beard on face, hairs going everywhere but still managed to give a tempting look, there stood he looking at me with a longing look?
"Grazie a Dio" Was what came out of his mouth.
(Thank god)
I furrowed my eyebrows as I kept looking at him. Why does he look so relaxed? And this look on his face as if he's the happiest right now. Why was he openly showing that he cared? I wanted him to not look at me that way. His eyes, the way they were looking at me made me feel, and I didn't want to feel if he was just going to walk over them. I just woke up from coma, don't want to go back again.
*********
A/N: Hello! My dear readers ❤️ Hope you all are fine and doing great :) I love you all, you all are my inspiration and motivation for me to keep writing this book, which brings us to today's chapter. So, how's the chapter? Do you like it?
Also, the story is almost halfway done which means just few more chapters and then we'll bid farewell to this book🥺
OMG! Can't believe I'm so close to finally completing this book.
But I will keep in touch with you all as I've more books in my drafts😁 and will start working on them once this book is all done!
I've seen authors getting all emotional about completing their books, about ending the story, never thought I'd one day feel the same😭
Oh god I'm so dramatic, the book has yet to be finished, there are still few more chapters left!😄
DO VOTE⭐ & COMMENT! Really means a lot when you guys comment, always put a smile on my face :)
Apologies for errors or mistakes.
Thank you 💕
All the love
~G🤗