Matteo
I watch Sylvie through the rear view of the mirror, and the expression on her face is scaring me. I don't know what is going on in that head of hers, and I'm sure it's not pretty.
It was my fault, I should've been more observant, I shouldn't have taken my eyes off of her. It all happened all because of me.
I can't stop thinking about who that man was, she called him 'dad', but there's no way he can be alive, and why would he try to hurt someone who he helped raise.
I can't stop the thoughts in my head, so I just decide to focus on driving us safe to our house right now.
Sylvie didn't even acknowledge anything going around, she was lost in a trance. She didn't even move when Andrea lifted her up and took her inside.
She looked lost, and it was all because of me. I did that to her.
Andrea pulled her into a hug, which she didn't really take in at first, but eventually she wrapped her arms around him and started crying.
Tears of my own pooling up in my eyes. I run my hands through my hair blinking away the tears. The sound of her loud sobs echo through the house and I can't stop feeling guilty about it.
Francesco notices my guilt and places a comforting hand on my shoulder, a lone tear rolls out of my eye and now I can't hold myself back from crying.
Francesco pulls me into a hug and I don't even resist it, "It's not your fault, Matteo" He whispers, "You did everything to keep her safe, no one could have seen it coming, it's not your fault" But it is Frank, how do I tell him that maybe I could've protected her better.
"Sylvie" I hear Luca shout, I release myself from the hug and snap my head towards Andrea holding Sylvie's limp body.
I rush next to him and Francesco lays her down trying to check her pulse. "Her pulse is very weak, we need to take her to the hospital wing, right now" Francesco orders and Andrea doesn't skip a beat before pulling her body into his arms and walking towards the hospital wing.
Her eyes flutter open for a minute before she closes them again.
All of us run behind, following Andrea's lead. He places her on a stretcher, while two doctors wheel her into a nearby room.
The doctors run a few tests and ask us to wait for a while to get the reports, "why isn't she waking up, it's been 8 minutes, isn't that too long" Andrea asks facing Francesco.
"I asked them to give her a mind sedative, trust me she needs the rest," All of us are beyond worried, first there's an attack, then Sylvie was on knifepoint, and she claims that man to be her dad, and she's definitely in shock right now.
"The effect of the sedative will wear off in an hour" Francesco walks over to the chair next to her bed and sits there holding onto Sylvie's hand.
"Hey," Andrea turns towards me, "It was not your fault Matteo" He says, there's no way anyone could ever hide what they're feeling around Andrea, he'll know. "You did everything you could to save her, you kept her safe ok" He reassures me again, this time pulling me into a hug.
I always have loved his hugs, they make me feel like I'm hugging dad. He gives the exact same level of comfort, "Why don't you go get yourself cleaned up?" He points towards my scraped knee and elbow and also a tiny cut on my forehead from when I was fighting.
Before I can object and stay, he gives me a look which no one would dare argue with. I seal my mouth shut and walk over to the first aid zone.
Andrea
I called Aurelio to check up on what happened with the Samuel look-alike. He wanted to stay with Sylvie, but I sent him to get more information of him.
I was shocked to say the least when I found out that the person I had shot looked exactly like that mam, and even more in shock when Sylvie called him dad. It made me realize how much of a different life Sylvie has had compared to ours.
She's soo strong and doesn't even know it.
And then it hits me, it's been two days since she's been living with us and she's cried on both of those days, and I couldn't even protect her properly.
When Francesco came and told me he had a feeling, I didn't hesitate before sending people and later following up myself.
The men I had sent ended up being killed, but I'm glad we caught the person who attacked Sylvie, and he's alive right now.
Aurelio picks up my call, "What's the update?" I ask in a stern voice. "It's him," He confirms, "It's Samuel Walters," He pauses for a moment, "He was on a mission the entire time he was with her, the accident was not an accident, it was a plan to kill Sylvie" He completes.
"He's working for the Russian" He further speaks confirming my suspicions.
"Anything else?" I ask, I want to kill that man, but I want to know if he has anymore information in him, he might as well be put to some use.
"No, but I'm working on it" he speaks up, "How's she doing?" He asks concerned, I know he wants to be here right now, I understand. But I need information out of Samuel as fast as possible.
And no one is a better option than Aurelio for this job.
"She's under sedation right now, her blood pressure had dropped due to the exhaustion and shock" I tell him all the other details the doctor told me, he calms down and tells me he'll call back in a while.
I walk back into the room and find Luca near the side table, looking out the window, Francesco near Sylvie, still holding her hand and rubbing tiny circles with his thumb, he loves doing that. I look around and find Matteo sitting on one of the chairs, zoned out while leaning forward and his elbows perched up on his knees. I immediately know he's blaming himself.
"Hey, why don't we go and get something for everyone to eat" I suggest, He could use a change of scenery and some fresh air, maybe I can even talk him out of blaming himself. It's not his fault.
"Sure" Matteo responds getting up from the chair and straightening his t-shirt. I notice the tiny specs of blood on his shirt and quickly text one of the guards to get me a fresh shirt in 5 minutes in the cafeteria.
We walk in silence towards the cafeteria and he places the orders for everyone, I notice he get's something for Sylvie in case she wakes up.
We sit at one of the tables waiting for our order to be ready. "You know it's not your fault right?" I break the silence between us. He snaps his head up and stares at me for a moment before responding, "How is it not my fault?" he asks, before I can respond to him, "I couldn't protect her, I should've been more cautious knowing that she can't defend herself." He keeps a straight face throughout.
It's as if he already believes whatever he's speaking. "How is it your fault, explain how you could've protected her in that scenario" I try to make him realize how he's not at fault.
I know my brother, and I know he wouldn't do anything to hurt Sylvie on purpose.
"Maybe if I would've not bent down to tie my shoelace then I would've seen him attack her" he starts, "Ok you did shoot a man on the scene, he would've probably tried to neutralize you before trying to do anything to Sylvie" I reason with him.
He continues to list down 3-4 more possibilities, and I counter attack trying to prove that it's no way near his fault in this.
"Ok I can't come up with anything else" He gives up, "See, it was not your fault Matteo" I tell him looking in his eyes so he knows I'm not lying.
"Order number 467" The person on the counter shouts, that's our order. I stand up to go collect it, but I'm tackled by Matteo into a hug. "I understand it's not my fault, thanks Andrea" I pull my lips into a straight line and pat his back before pulling away.
"Anytime, Matteo" I say as I go over and collect our food.
A comfortable silence falls between us as we make our way to Sylvie's room. Both of us clearly worried about her health.
I'm about to open the door as I hear Sylvie's voice echo from inside the room, "Where's Matteo, I want Matteo" I hear a loud sound of glass shattering before I open the door.
The room falls into silence as I step in and notice that the glass jug next to her table is now shattered on the floor, I look over to her as she stayed frozen in her place now sitting up and clearly has tears pooling up in her eyes.
Matteo steps in beside me and walks over towards Sylvie. She doesn't skip a beat before yanking his arm closer and pulling him into a hug, she carefully wraps her arms around his torso and hugs him as if he's going to disappear the next moment.
Matteo looks like he didn't expect her to do that, but quickly recovers from the shock and hugs her back.
"Hey what's wrong, Sylvie?" He asks rubbing her back trying to calm down her rapid breathing.
I walk over and try to talk to her, "Hey Bambina, can you tell us what's wrong? what happened?" I use the softest tone trying not to startle her.
She calms down, pulling away from Matteo, "I got scared, I thought they'd hurt you" She says looking up at Matteo. "I wanted to see if you were safe" she explains as Matteo sits down next to her and hugs her again.
She's starting to slowly get comfortable with everyone at home, and suddenly I feel bad for not being able to make enough time for her. With the recent Russian threats, I've had to go to the mafia base almost everyday to make sure the work is getting done.
"I'm sorry for breaking the jug" She muffles into Matteo's shoulder, "it's ok Sylvie, did you hurt yourself though?" I ask sitting down on the chair next to her bed.
I look over and see that Luca isn't here anymore and Francesco is sitting on the chair a bit further away from the bed. Hearing my question he comes closer trying to check for injuries.
She slowly pull out her hand and there's a tiny cut which is currently bleeding, she winces as Francesco tries to move her hand trying to search for any other visible cuts or wounds.
He pulls out a tiny first aid kit from the cart next to her bed and takes out some cotton and spirit, "This might sting a little" He warns before pressing the swab onto her wound. What surprises me the most is that she doesn't even flinch.
Since it's a small wound he just wraps it with a band aid and let's it be, "There, all done" He says placing her hand back on her lap.
"Thank you Frank" I notice how she uses his nickname, they must have really bonded when they played Uno this morning, I could practically hear her scream in excitement all the way up to my room.
"Andrea," she whispers out my name, before she can further ask me anything, "I know you have a lot of questions, and I will answer every single one of them" I speak up, she looks at me like she doesn't trust my words.
"I promise, once we go home, we can sit and discuss about whatever happened" I assure her, she doesn't seem to be convinced but nods her head either ways.
"Ok, I'll go talk to the doctors about taking you home, how about you get some sleep until then" I say looking over at her, she nods and says ok before Matteo gets up and she lies down on the bed.
"Why don't you guys join me outside, and Matteo, there's a fresh shirt kept in the bathroom for you, go and change" I tell him before walking out of the room with Francesco by my side.
"What happened?" He asks me concerned knowing that I wouldn't pull them out of the room if I didn't have anything important to tell them. "Let Matteo come, I'll tell you guys at the same time" Matteo takes 3 minutes before stepping out of the room and closing the door behind him.
"Ok so, the person who attacked you today morning was Samuel Walters" I say looking over at Matteo, "What?" he whispers out looking at me disbelief.
"Wasn't he dead?" He asks, clearly confused on how someone came back from the dead. I explain the whole situation to the both of them, about how he was in a part of the Russians and how he was undercover the entire time.
"How are you going to explain this to her?" Francesco breathes out, "you promised to answer all of her question, and I am sure she's gonna ask about him" I wish I knew, "I think I'll tell her the truth, other than the mafia, of course" I tell him.
He gives me a nod and proceeds to pull out him phone from his pocket. "Where's Luca?" I ask, I assumed he would've just gone to use the restroom, but he's been gone for a while. "He's at home, he asked me if he could go home and maybe talk to Aurelio about what was going on" I don't even have the patience to get mad at him right now.
I give up on that guy, I've tried to explain to him try and talk to Sylvie, maybe get her to trust him a little, but that guy seems to have no interest in that. And he won't even tell me why.
He's always been the type of person to keep to himself most of the time, he doesn't talk a lot and tries to keep short conversations. He isn't much of a talker.
That's why I get worried sometimes, he doesn't talk about his feelings to anyone. I'm scared that he'll dwell too deep into his thoughts that no one will be able to save him from that.
I pull out my phone and call Aurelio to check up if Luca has reached home safe or if I should be concerned.
"Andrea, I foun-" I hear a loud banging noise in the background, "merda, I'll talk later bye" (shit) Aurelio hangs up my phone after telling that one sentence.
~