A few hours later, Antonio woke up. His panicked figure was spotted by a nurse who tried to calm him but failed. "Mr. Valentino relax. How are-"
"Shut the fuck up. Where is my sister?" Antonio's left hand gripped the nurse's throat tightly, cutting off oxygen.
"Sh-she is in-" the lack of oxygen made her face red. Matteo entered the room and quickly rushed to Antonio's side. "Antonio leave her."
Antonio's head snapped in his direction as his grip loosened. The nurse gasped for air as she knelt in the corner of the room. "Where is Alle?"
"She is in ICU." Matteo answered.
"How is she? Matteo? She-she was shot. On her back. There-there was-was a lot of blood. And she stopped breathing. Her body was lying in my a-arms-" Antonio rambled, and in his state of panic, the heart monitor started beeping loudly.
"Stop. She is fine, okay. Calm down. She is fine." Matteo reassured Antonio.
"She is fine?"
"For-for now atleast." Matteo rubbed his eyes roughly.
"What do you mean?" Antonio asked while lying back on the bed as his arm started to hurt.
"She didn't woke up yet. Too much blood loss. The bullet-" Matteo sighed as he licked his lips again.
Antonio stilled. "The bullet what?"
"The bullet didn't hit any vital organ." Antonio almost sighed in relief when Matteo spoke again. "But it did grazed her spine. Doctors aren't sure but she might not be able to walk again."
"What are you saying? No no no. That is not possible okay. She will be okay. She will walk. She will run too." Antonio shook his head in negative. "She will be fine. These doctors know nothing. We'll take her to a better hospital."
Antonio started taking out the IV from his hand roughly. Tearing away his skin too, he tried to jump out of bed when Matteo stopped him. "No no. Fuck no. You are not getting out of bed."
"Shut up Matteo. I need to see Allegra. We will take her to another hospital. This one is shit. She will be okay." Antonio started again and tried to get out of bed, but Matteo strained him.
"No Antonio-"
"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND MATTEO. SHE WAS WITH ME. I SAW HER GETTING SHOT OKAY. SHE WILL BE OKAY. THERE WAS BLOOD ON MY HAND. HER BLOOD." Antonio screamed as tears streamed down his face rapidly. "Mom's blood, Rosa's blood. I killed them all. She will be okay." Antonio's voice tuned down to whisper as Matteo hugged him tightly.
Both the brothers cried till no tears escaped their eyes. Antonio, after a few minutes, fell unconscious under the buzz of medicines. While Matteo kept staring outside the large window into the dark crying sky.
A knock on the door disturbed his thoughts and Antonio's sleep. Leonardo and the rest of the boys entered the room. "How are you Antonio?"
Antonio kept staring at all of them and then burst into tears. "We all are here, just not her."
Before any of them could say more they heard. "Allegra is now in the private ward. And awake." One ward boy burst inside the room and panted. "She is out of control. Please if any of you could-"
All of the boys bolted past the ward boy who stood by the door, panting and terrified. The boys entered the ward, where they heard Allegra's panicked cries and shouts. There, they saw Allegra's tear-stricken face. Her upper body thrashed against the nurses and the doctor.
"Stop." Alessandro quickly sped to her side and pushed one of the nurses aside. "Alle." He smoothed her sweat-clad hair tendrils out of her forehead. Allegra's pain-filled eyes met his. "Sandro, you-"
"Yes, yes it's me. It's us. You're okay." He wipes her tears away. The rest of the boys crowd around her. Alexander kisses her palm. "Alle, how are you feeling?" His fingers tightened around her hand.
"Okay. But how am I here?" She asked as she take deep breaths.
"You-you were shot," Rocco answered as he wipes his tear-filled eyes and kisses her forehead.
As if her brain just recalled, she felt pain in her back. Her face wrenches in pain, and she takes a deep breath to ease it. "Is it paining?" Marco asked as his hands trembled while holding hers.
Her nod confirms. Alessandro pined the doctor on the wall for the seventh time in a day. "Why is it paining?"
The doctor stuttered. "Mr. Valentino, it-its normal to feel pain after you get shot."
"How are you, Antonio?" Allegra asked. Antonio couldn't muster up any response to that, Allegra picked up on his lack of response. "What happened? Does your wound hurt? Excuse me doc-"
"I'm fine. Just guilty."
Allegra mustered up a grin at that. "Aww, the big bad Antonio is feeling guilty?"
"It's not anything to joke about, Alle. You-you almost died. Right infront of me. Right in my arms-" Antonio stepped closer.
Allegra waved him away. "Oh come on, Antonio. It's fine. We both got shot and now we are okay. Chill."
"I told you to run away. You wouldn't have been here if you had run away." He argued back as his angry tears fell.
"I was not leaving you there all alone with that stupid fucker. Speaking of which where is he?" She questioned.
"It was not about me okay. When I tell you to leave, you leave that damn second." Antonio almost shouted.
"Too bad. I don't listen to anyone but me."
"Alle-"
"Relax Antonio. We are fine. I'm fine. Okay?" She pulled him in for a hug as he kissed her forehead. "Now Matteo do you have anything to eat?"
Matteo smiles and kisses her forehead for a long second. "Not right now. Doctor will tell us what you can eat and what not?"
Allegra grumbled. "Anyways, what happened to that dip-shit?"
"Dead," Leonardo spoke for the very first time since he joined, Allegra grinned so big her cheeks hurt.
Alessandro hissed at the doctor, who quickly stepped beside Allegra and asked her a few questions, which Allegra answered truthfully.
The doctor excused himself for the time being and quickly rushed out in fear. Allegra swiped a hand over her face. "I wanna ask something."
Matteo give her a 'go ahead as she asked. "Why was I taken?"
Leonardo sighed and gazed at Antonio for a long time. "Your aunt Anna was Aurora's sister. After Sergio killed both of them, setting the blame on Antonio, he tried to kill you numerous times. We decided to give you to her."
"At first, she didn't knew the whole story, we just called her and told her that she needs to take care of you for as long as we say." Antonio took over. "She agreed but when she got to know that you were sergio and Rosa's daughter, she flipped."
Allegra frowned. "Why?"
"She loved Sergio secretly way back before he got involved with her sister." Antonio answered.
"Confirmed. All women back in 90's had a shit taste in men." Allegra rolled her eyes.
"Anyways, she backed off when her sister told her that she loved Sergio. Leaving everything and everyone behind she left for Germany." Antonio murmurs.
The rest of the gang stayed quiet and listened to the story they didn't know. "Sergio cheated on Ana with her sister?" Marco muttered.
"It was a one sided love. And Aurora never knew about Ana's love. Long story short, she refused to look after Sergio's offspring. Be it us or you. Somehow we convinced her and sent you off with her to America." Leonardo sighed. "It was very hard to keep you safe from Sergio after your birth. We had to keep you safe so we sent you off."
"So that stupid dream of the burning room at the back of the house was not a dream but a fucking memory?" When Antonio nodded, she groaned, "I don't remember what I ate 2 hours ago but somehow I remember what happened to me when I was 2? Fuck my life."
It was quiet for some time when she spoke again. "What about you Antonio? Why did you do what he said? You know poison and all?"
"Poison who?" Alexander asked as he propped his elbows on his knees.
"Mom-"
The boys' faces went from disbelieving to surprise to rage real quick. "Shut up, he didn't do it. It was Sergio who did it. He just blamed Antonio." Leonardo clears the air.
Allegra lifts her hands in surrender. "A mistake on my part. Let me rephrase the question. Why did you not do what he told you to do but did it anyway?" She blinked. "Does that make any sense?"
The boys shook their heads with a sigh. "Anyways, before I was rudely interrupted." Leonardo started pointedly at the boys.
"That was our initial plan. We would let him trust Antonio and take him down. But it backfired when he realized that you were 'taken away. He tried to find you in every country in this world except America."
"Why not America?"
"Sergio runs a mafia. And American Mafia had some beef with us back then. They threatened that if they see him or any person from his Mafia, they would rule him out of the Mafia world." Antonio states.
"A few months back the beef between the both Mafia's ended. Sergio started searching for you again and we had to bring you back. Or it would have been easier for him to kill you in America." Matteo spoke for the first time.
"Here, it was less easy. The security and the protection from our grandparents kept you safe. But the threats continued. That finger was of-" Matteo paused.
"Was whose?"
Matteo shared a glance with Antonio. "Was of your aunt Ana."
Allegra jerked. "Wait what?"
"The news you heard of Ana dying in an accident, was fake. She was abducted by the American Mafia who delivered her to Italians for hundreds of dollars. Sergio asked her about you." Matteo kept talking.
Allegra was sure that her aunt may have bitched about her to Sergio, but she was proven wrong. "She kept mum. She informed us a few weeks ago how she thinks strange things are happening. Creeps, stalkers all that. She asked us to bring you back."
"She was supposed to come back with you but unfortunately we were too late." Leonardo stared outside the window.
"Is she-" Allegra licks her lips. "Is she alive?"
Somewhere in her heart, she felt sad and guilty about her aunt. Sure she didn't treat her nicely, but now she understands her reason which isn't valid but understandable. She at least wanted her to be alive.
Everything that happened to her aunt was because of her, she thought. Had it not been for me, she would have happily lived in Germany as she wanted. She didn't have to raise her ex-lover's child.
"We don't know. She is not with the Italians anymore but we don't know if she is dead or not." Alessandro speaks.
"Sergio is dead. The Italian Mafia," He sighed, "would either go to Leonardo or Antonio." Marco said from his place.
Leonardo's sharp gaze zeroed on him "Or, to no one. We could enjoy the last era, the last leader, and the last everything of the Italian Mafia. Let his death be an example for the world that no bad last in the world, not even their ruins. There shall be an end to the very start of the bad."
Antonio nodded after Leonardo. Allegra's heart suddenly started beeping louder and faster the usual. Their panic gazes landed on an already panicked and fearful Allegra.
"Leo, I-i cant-cant feel my-my legs." She spoke trembling. The doctors rushed inside the room and pushed the boys to the side.
"Relax. Take a deep breath. It's nothing serious." Allegra did as asked, and the doctors nodded. As her heart calmed down, they shared glances with the Valentino brothers.
"We would like to check something, Ms. Allegra." The doctor spoke, and Allegra cringed.
"Call me Allegra please."
"Can you feel it on your legs?" The doctor asked as he hammered the reflex hammer on her ankles.
"No." Her eyes widened as she knew something was not right.
The doctor raises the hammer higher each time, asks her the same question, and receives the same answer.
The Allegra looked up at the doctor, who sighed. "What can't I feel my legs?"
The doctor stared at her brothers and then looked down at her. "Um-"
The doctor left the question hanging and went out of the room. Allegra's tear-filled eyes raked across each of her brothers. Leonardo, who stood closest to her, kept looking down at the ground.
Allegra held his hands in hers. "Leo, wh-why can-'t I fee-l feel my legs?"
She questioned every person in the room, and everyone remained quiet.
"CAN YOU TELL ME WHY THE FUCK I CAN'T FEEL OR-OR MOVE MY LEGS? Pl-ease." Her voice broke down into sobs. "Please please please tell me why can't I move my legs?"
Allegra knows. She just wants assurance that she can't ever walk. She can't ever experience standing ever again. Maybe. she wants approval that she is not normal, wants validation that she just lost a part of her. Lost a part of her body. Lost a blessing.
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|Happy Reading|
2 more chapters to go!
Is there any mystery that is yet to be answered? list them down. Alot of them Ive covered in this chapter and in the next one. But still if you think i missed something lmk.
byeeee!!!!!!!!