She’d be warm.
I covered her up, sitting as close to her as possible, giving her my warmth. I closed my eyes again, setting her pulse close to my mouth, breathing over her skin. Breathing her in.
My eyes refused to open even when I heard one of the medical staff enter the room. This one wasn’t being quiet. They usually tiptoed around me.Good.This one had balls. I didn’t fucking like when they seemed too afraid, as if my wife was already go?—
My eyes opened when the voice in the room called my name.
“Mariano?” The woman smiled. “Casanova?”
I blinked at her.
She laughed quietly. “They told me a wife of a Fausti had been brought in, but…I did not believe them when they gave meyourfirst name. The Casanova Prince? Married?” She shook her head. “Madonna mia, perhaps pigs will grow wings and fly.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. The room was dim. Only a light or two on. It must have been dark outside.
She smiled at me again, rubbing her swollen belly. She was pregnant enough for it to be noticeable. “Ah!” she breathed, shaking her head. “This baby is not yours.”
“I fucking know,” I said.
She nodded. “Do you even remember me?” She stepped into the light a little more so I could see her better.
Maybe at one time I would have remembered her, but after my wife, women were only defined by hair color and a plain description if pressed for more. So she wasted her time and mine trying to bring herself to life for me. For my mind to catch on a memory and bring it forward. She didn’t matter. Nothing else mattered but the woman next to me.
“Blankets.” I turned back to my wife. “After that, get the fuck out of this room.”
She sighed, as if she might not go away.
I turned my eyes to hers.
Her hands were on her hips, but she took slow steps back, then hustled out of the room. Maybe the crusted blood still on my face and clothes didn’t do it for her. Or maybe it was the look of no return in my eyes. She didn’t come back.
Another nurse brought in the blankets. An older woman who hummed and spoke to my wife while she meddled with her machines and things. She had told meProzioTito was her favorite doctor when he was still practicing. She also told me how impressed she was with my will—You’re fighting for your wife.Keep it up.
The only person I allowed in the room with us wasProzioTito. I had a feeling mamma had told the nurse those words to tell me. Even though I had a decent feeling about the nurse, and mamma must have too, if she had sent a message with her,I still watched everything they did. I watched for any sign of misconduct. I’d tear a head from its body if I ever found any.
The nurse hummed out of the room, and my eyes fell to my wife, her hand back to my mouth.
I blinked.
She blinked. “Who—” She had to stop, take a breath. “Who was that woman?”
“Baby,” I said, breathing her in.
“Baby,” she said, her voice raspy. “I must have woken up in another universe.Ah.”
My arms were around her, my entire body trembling, tears streaking down my cheeks. I laughed and fucking cried at the same time. I fucking lost it.
My wife.
“Ah,” I growled, shaking my head, kissing her. Kissing her all over her face.
“Mariano,” she barely got out as she touched me, but even the slight touch felt like the only force keeping me together.
“Annie,” I managed to get out.
“This is correct,” she breathed out. “Not the other one.”
I laughed, cried, held her even tighter to me.
