I go in.Right to the table, getting jostled this way and that.She’s asleep, the expression on her face neither peaceful, nor scared, nor angry.But she’s not dead.
Blood is still flowing from the wound in her stomach.And her hand is still warm as I hold it in both of mine.
“Who is this?”one of the men trying to stop my sister from bleeding out barks.“Get her out of here.”
Strong arms grab my shoulders and pull me back from the table.Chiara’s hand slips from my grasp like water might.
“Let me go, that’s my little sister, I have to be with her.”
But the man just pulls me all the way out of the room and someone else closes the doors behind us.But I can still see my sister through the large circular windows in those doors.She’s still asleep, still bleeding and the people around the table seem to be growing more and more frantic around her.
The man who pulled me out stands in front of me, blocking the doors so all I see are his green scrubs.
“We’re doing everything we can for your sister,” he says.“But you have to let us do our job now.You can’t be in there.”
He leads me to a bench to the side of some other door with circular windows beyond which someone else is bleeding.“Wait here, I’ll come tell you as soon as we stabilize her.”
He pushes on my shoulders gently to make me sit and I let him.“Will you?Save her?”
A moment of stark, undeniable doubt is quickly replaced by a big smile on his face.“This is the best ER in the state and we’re doing our best in there.So, yes, we will.”
He rushes back into the room, and I decide to believe him.To trust him.To take his words as gold.
Anything else but them saving my sister is unthinkable.
I follow after him more slowly and look in through the window in the door, but don’t try to enter again.And I’m praying to Mother Mary harder than I’ve ever prayed in my life.Even when I was a little girl and still believed prayers got answered.
Chapter36
MATTEO
I followedGianna into the hospital and got there just in time to see her golden hair disappearing through a sliding door into the main part of the ER, and Ferro looking after her like he’d just seen something amazing.I know how he feels.
Ferro’s just about to follow her, but I hold him back, ignoring the agitated nurse next to him, talking about procedures, and rules and calling the cops.
“They’re not going anywhere,” I tell Ferro.“Let’s wait outside.”
Everyone in the ER waiting room that can stand is standing and they’re all staring at us.We don’t need to be drawing this kind of attention to ourselves, and I don’t understand how Ferro doesn’t see that.
Lorenzo shoots me a thankful glance then escorts Ferro out of the waiting room by his arm.Both of them are covered in blood and I’m sure Goldie caused quite a scene before barging in and violating all of those rules and procedures the nurse was talking about.My heart and soul are with her in that ER, and I hope her sister makes it.Though judging by all the blood on Ferro and Lorenzo, that might not be possible.And we gotta start being practical about this.
“How bad was it?”I ask once we’re outside.Everyone in the waiting room is still staring at us, I can feel it.
“She wouldn’t have made it much farther than here,” Lorenzo says, lighting a cigarette and smearing blood all over the paper.
I can clearly hear the unspoken part of his answer, namely that she might not have made it here either, not really.
“She’s gotta live,” Ferro says.He’s pacing up and down in front of the entrance, running his fingers through his hair so that now his forehead is also covered in blood.
I have no idea how to diffuse this situation.But I’m sure cops are already on the way, and we shouldn’t be here when they arrive.
“She’s in good hands now,” I tell him.“We can leave and come back for her.”
He stops pacing and glares at me.“I am not leaving her.”
I figured Ferro had grown actual feelings for Codelli’s younger daughter, but I didn’t know he was willing to risk everything, all his grand plans and what he’s already achieved, for her.Especially seeing as she’s close to death already.
“You gotta be reasonable here, Angelo,” Lorenzo says.“The cops are coming, no doubt about that.And we can’t be here when they arrive.”
