Chapter 7 - THE FINAL BEAT
"Get the car!" Luca roared, his voice tearing through the empty warehouse.
He didn't wait to see if Richard or I moved. He scooped Anna’s lifeless body into his arms and sprinted toward the entrance.
I grabbed Lucy’s hand and ran after them, my lungs burning.
Richard was already at the SUV, throwing the back doors open.
Luca slid into the backseat, laying Anna flat across the leather. He immediately began chest compressions, his large hands pressing down on her frail sternum with desperate rhythm.
"Drive to Chicago Med! Now!" Luca bellowed at the driver.
The SUV tires squealed against the wet pavement, launching us forward into the night.
I pulled Lucy into the front passenger seat with me, wrapping my arms around her to shield her from the terrifying scene behind us. She was sobbing hysterically, burying her face against my neck.
"One, two, three, four," Luca counted loudly, his breath ragged. "Come on, Anna. Don't leave me. Not when I just got you back."
"Luca, she's not breathing," Richard panicked, leaning over from the front seat to try and help.
"I know she's not breathing!" Luca snapped, continuing the compressions. He paused, pinched her nose, and breathed into her mouth. He waited a second. Nothing. He went back to the chest compressions. "Stay with me, Anna!"
The hospital was a blur of neon lights and screaming sirens.
Before the SUV even fully stopped at the emergency entrance, Luca had the door open. He carried her inside, screaming for a doctor.
A swarm of nurses and doctors descended on them with a gurney. They ripped Anna from his arms.
"Sir, you can't come back here!" a nurse shouted as they pushed the gurney through the swinging double doors into the trauma bay.
Luca stood frozen in the hallway, his hands covered in her blood, his chest heaving. For a man who owned half the city, who could destroy lives with a single phone call, he looked utterly helpless.
He slowly slid down the hospital wall, sitting on the cold linoleum floor, and buried his face in his hands.
I sat down on a plastic waiting room chair, pulling Lucy into my lap. She was clutching her one-eared rabbit, staring blankly at the doors her mother had just disappeared behind.
Richard walked over. He looked at the floor, unable to meet my eyes, or his brother's.
Hours passed.
The silence in the waiting room was heavier than the warehouse had been.
Luca hadn't moved. He just stared at the floor, occasionally turning the small red mitten over in his fingers.
Finally, as the sun began to peek through the hospital blinds, the double doors pushed open.
A doctor in blue scrubs walked out. He looked exhausted.
Luca was on his feet in a microsecond.
"Is she alive?" Luca demanded.
The doctor took a deep breath. "She's alive, Mr. Moretti. We managed to resuscitate her. But her heart is incredibly weak. The stress of tonight, combined with her underlying condition..." He paused. "She needs a valve replacement surgery immediately. But she’s so frail, the surgery has a fifty percent mortality rate."
Luca didn't blink. "Do it. Bring in the best surgeons in the country. I don't care what it costs."
"We already have our best team scrubbing in," the doctor said gently. "But Mr. Moretti... she's awake for the moment. And she’s asking for you. And for her daughter. You should say your goodbyes, just in case."
A strangled sound escaped Luca’s throat.
He turned to me. "Bring Lucy."
We walked into the ICU.
Anna looked tiny in the massive hospital bed. She was hooked up to a dozen monitors, tubes running into her arms. But when she saw Luca, a weak, beautiful smile crossed her pale lips.
Luca fell to his knees beside her bed, taking her fragile hand and pressing it to his lips. He was crying openly now.
"I'm here, amore mio," he whispered. "I'm here."
Anna reached out, her trembling fingers brushing his dark hair. "You look exactly the same," she rasped.
"I've been dead for eight years," he answered, his voice breaking. "You're the only thing that's kept my heart beating."
Lucy ran to the other side of the bed. "Mommy!"
Anna turned her head, her eyes filling with tears. "My sweet girl. You were so brave."
"Mommy, the doctor said you have to go to sleep again," Lucy cried. "Please don't leave me."
Anna looked at Luca. The unspoken plea hung heavily in the sterile air.
Luca stood up and leaned over the bed. He kissed Anna's forehead, then looked down at Lucy.
"She's not going to leave you," Luca said, his voice ringing with absolute certainty. "And neither am I."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small red mitten. He placed it gently in Anna's palm.
"Hold onto this," Luca whispered to her. "I expect you to give it back to me when you wake up."
Anna smiled, her fingers curling weakly around the worn wool.
"Luca?" she whispered as the nurses came in to wheel her to surgery.
"Yes, my love?"
"If I don't wake up..." she swallowed hard. "Look inside the lining of my purple coat. The one I gave Lucy."
Before Luca could ask her what she meant, the nurses pushed the bed out of the room.
We were alone again.
Luca turned to the corner of the room, where Lucy's faded purple coat sat on a plastic chair.
He walked over to it, his hands shaking. He felt along the inside lining near the hem.
There was a tear in the fabric. And inside, something hard.
Luca reached in and pulled it out.
I gasped.
It was a perfectly preserved, folded piece of paper. But it wasn't a letter.
It was a marriage certificate.
Dated eight years ago. Signed by Anna Mitchell.
And signed by Luca Moretti.
May you like
They were already married.
TITLE: THE PROMISE WE KEPT
