Chapter 5 - RECKONING AND RECOVERY
My vision was dimming fast. The room was spinning in circles, the bright lights merging into a giant halo of golden fire. The massive blood loss, combined with three days of infection and fever, was finally pulling me under into the dark abyss.
Suddenly, two powerful arms scooped me up from the cold floor, lifting me off the glass as if I weighed nothing at all.
I gasped, instinctively flinching, but a deep, warm voice spoke right beside my ear.
“Easy, Hannah. I’ve got you.”
I forced my heavy eyelids open. Luca was holding me tightly against his broad chest. He didn't care that the blood from my torn dress was staining his immaculate bespoke suit. His dark eyes were no longer cold; they were filled with a intense, burning concern.
“Mr. Moretti…” I choked out, my fingers weakly clutching his lapel. “My mother… Vanessa said… she said she would kill my mother…”
Luca froze for a fraction of a second, his grip on me tightening securely. “Where is your mother?”
“Saint Anthony… Rehabilitation Center… Room 402…” I wheezed, every breath feeling like a stone in my chest. “Please… protect her…”
Luca turned his head toward his remaining guards without dropping his pace as he carried me toward the private elevator.
“Marco!” Luca barked. “Take six men. Go to Saint Anthony Rehabilitation Center immediately. Secure Room 402. Place a twenty-four-hour armed guard around Hannah’s mother. If anyone from the Bellini family or Michael’s crew comes within fifty feet of her… eliminate them.”
“On it, Boss!” Marco yelled, pulling out his radio and rushing out the entrance.
I felt a massive weight lift off my chest. My mother was safe. Lily was safe.
“Thank you…” I whispered, my head slumping against Luca’s shoulder.
“Don't close your eyes, Hannah,” Luca commanded, his voice laced with a raw emotion I had never heard from him before. “Stay with me. You saved my daughter. Now let me save you.”
He carried me upstairs into his private master suite—a place no domestic servant had ever been permitted to enter. He laid me down gently on the massive, silk-sheeted king-sized bed. Within seconds, the estate’s private medical team, led by Dr. Evans, rushed into the room with emergency trauma kits.
“She’s lost a tremendous amount of blood, Mr. Moretti!” Dr. Evans exclaimed, cutting away the bloody dress to examine the deep slash on my thigh. “The knife wound is severely infected, and she has a high fever! We need to perform immediate surgery to close the artery and flush the infection!”
“Do whatever it takes,” Luca ordered, standing over the bed, his dark eyes locked on my pale face. “If she dies, Doctor, your career ends tonight.”
“I’ll do my best, sir!”
As the doctor prepared the local anesthesia and IV bags, Luca stepped closer and grabbed my cold, trembling hand in his large, warm palm.
“Why didn't you come to me sooner, Hannah?” Luca asked quietly, his voice thick with unexpressed pain. “Why did you suffer through this alone for three days?”
“She… she threatened my mother,” I sobbed softly, the tears spilling down my temples. “And… I was just a maid, Mr. Moretti. I thought… I thought you wouldn't believe me over your own fiancée.”
Luca squeezed my hand tightly, his dark eyes burning with fierce sincerity.
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“You are not just a maid, Hannah,” he whispered softly, bending down until his face was inches from mine. “You are the bravest woman I have ever met. You bled for my daughter when my own blood betrayed me. I will never forget this. Ever.”
As the anesthesia began to take effect, the darkness finally swallowed me whole. But for the first time in three days, I felt completely, utterly safe.
