Chapter Twenty-Four

My head feels fuzzy and my body feels strangely weightless, yet stiff at the same time.

I crack my eyes open and wince immediately at the glare of fluorescent lighting. I try to figure out what happened.

Did I drink too much last night? Is that why I'm feeling so woozy? I feel the threat of pain hovering around the edges of my consciousness, which I would usually associate with drinking too much wine.

I try cracking open my eyes again and manage to keep them open this time.

I look at the commercial ceiling tiles in confusion. That's not right. I was at the Baldini house, I remember. Did they drug me and move me somewhere? No, that can't be right either.

I hear some beeping sounds, the hum and whir of machines nearby. I have been all over that huge mausoleum of a house cleaning and there isn't a room like this on the property that I know of.

I open my eyes a little wider, and turn my head cautiously. It hurts a little, but not as much as I expected. Maybe I haven't been drinking then.

Still confused, I realize that I feel pressure on my fingers. I force my head to tilt slightly to try and see what is touching my hand and I realize that I see long, slim, tan fingers gripping mine.

My brain struggles to understand. Who is holding my hand? Whose hand is this? Then I smile as I remember. Oh, it's Elio's hand. That's right, Elio came to stay with me at the house.

I remember that fiery love making session and my heart leaps a little in my chest at the thought of getting to do that again with him.

As my eyes adjust to the bright lights, I realize that Elio is leaning against the bed, his cheek resting on the mattress.

I can only see the thick, tousled mass of his dark hair because his face is turned away from me. I try to lift my other hand that he isn't holding so I can stroke his hair.

Mateo has the same thick mop of hair. It's one of the things that he got from his father.

As I lift my hand, I realize that there is an IV connected to it. I stare at it for a moment or two, confused. Why would I need an IV? That doesn't make sense. I was just sleeping next to Elio after spending the night with him.

I don't need an IV. Did I drink so much that I got sick enough to end up in the hospital? That doesn't make sense to me either. I would never do that.

I ignore the IV and force my arm to move across my body. The movement is very difficult. I feel like I'm barely strong enough to lift the dead weight of my arm.

I have so many questions, but my focus has been reduced to a desire to touch Elio's thick hair.

I finally manage to place my hand on Elio's head, but my fingers aren't cooperating well enough for me to sift them through his hair as I wanted to do. I give up on that part of my goal and simply stroke my hand gently over the top of his head, loving the feeling of his silky hair beneath my fingers.

His hair smells unfamiliar, like hotel shampoo, I think. Another detail that I don't understand. There's so much I don't understand about what is going on, but Elio is here and that means things can't be too dire.

Elio stirs in his sleep, feeling my touch. He turns his head and I see his handsome face for the first time and my heart leaps in my chest.

He's too handsome to be real.

I want to say something, but for some reason, I can't make my tongue form words. I smile at him instead.

"Kate?" he says, his tone full of wonder.

I just smile, still unable to speak for some reason.

The effort to make words come from my lips feels far too complicated to be accomplished. That should worry me, but for some reason, it doesn't seem like a major concern right now.

"Oh my God, Kate!" Elio cries out. I see the shadows under his dark eyes now, and his cheeks have hollowed out. I wonder why he looks so tired and stressed. What on earth has been going on?

"She's awake!" he cries out jubilantly.

Awake? I turn that over in my mind. Have I been injured? Is this a hospital? That would explain the IV in my hand and the strange fuzzy, disconnected way I am feeling.

"Oh Kate, welcome back!"

The voice is a woman's and I look away from Elio to see an older woman who looks a little like Elio standing next to him and smiling down at me.

I realize that it's his mother. I haven't seen her in years but she has aged gracefully. I manage to lift my lips a little bit at her in a small smile.

"Mama?"

The sound of Mateo's voice makes my heart leap in my chest. I turn my head despite the sharp jolt of pain that it causes, trying to see my child.

Elio and his mother move back from my bed slightly and Mateo pushes past them, his little hands trying to grab mine.

I smile at him as he grips my fingers with both hands and tries to clamber into the bed.

"Careful, careful," Elio chides him gently, grabbing his waist and lifting him onto the bed. "Mama has gotten hurt. We need to be careful that we don't cause her pain."

"Okay," Mateo says, immediately going still. He glances at my face. "Sorry, Mama," he says regretfully, snuggling into my side with care.

"It's okay, baby," I manage to croak out and I'm rewarded by the sight of Elio's huge grin.

"Mom, can you go grab the doctor?" Elio says, looking over his shoulder at her.

The doctor. So, I am in the hospital. I try and remember what happened to me.

I suddenly remember hanging from Luca's back, stabbing down at him with the letter opener. How did I get a letter opener? Then I remember seeing it on the desk, lying there like the key to my freedom.

I remember curling my hands around it and looking at the men fighting on the other side of the room. I remember the thought that my life was the bargaining chip that could save Elio and Mateo right before I lifted the knife to my own throat.

My eyes fill with tears as I remember lying on the floor looking at the Baldini's ugly chandelier, hearing Elio's voice ringing in my ears as he pleaded with me to stay with him.

I remember being so sure that I would die. But clearly, I didn't die.

"What happened?" I ask, even though I am remembering everything now.

Elio's expression grows haunted for a moment and he blinks. I can see that he is feeling emotional as well. "You tried to save Mateo and I by bargaining with the Baldinis, do you remember that?"

I nod slowly. "I mean what happened after…" my voice trails off.

"You had a brain bleed," Elio chokes out. "And a stroke. They weren't sure if you would wake up again."

I glance down at the small child nestled against my side. My heart pinches in my chest. Poor Mateo. How scared he must have been to see me lying in the hospital in a coma, not sure if I would ever wake up again.

"Well, I managed that much, I guess," I say a little weakly. I covertly try wiggling my toes and nearly faint with relief when I find that I can do so.

"Well, hello!"

The voice is female, and I look away from Mateo's dark head nestled against my shoulder to see a tall, spare, blonde woman looking down at me.

"I'm Doctor Gregory," she says to me with a big, sunny smile. "I've been handling your case for the past week."

A week? I look at Elio, my eyes wide.

"It's only been a couple of weeks since your fall," he says to me.

Only a couple of weeks. My God, two weeks is an eternity to be trapped in bed when your son and the man you love are in danger.

"Where was I the first week?" I ask.

Doctor Gregory takes over the conversation again. "You were moved here last week because your condition was not improving at the hospital where your surgery was done after the fall."

Surgery? My head is spinning. I don't remember anything about being at the other hospital or about a surgery.

I must have been in a coma for that entire time. I don't remember anything about being moved to this new hospital either.

I look at the tall, skinny woman holding my patient chart. I would have remembered her if I had been conscious at any point during my time here. She's not someone that you would easily forget.

"How did you manage to get me moved here?" I ask, still terribly confused about the timeline of the past two weeks. "And how did Mateo get here?"

"That was my doing."

I hear yet another woman's voice, but this one is somewhat familiar to me. I try to identify who the woman might be, but I'm not sure until her face shows up in my line of sight.

I realize with a start that I'm looking at Grazia Baldini.

"I thought that you were in Mexico?" I say with some confusion.

I know in my heart that I should be angry at her for allowing her brothers to kidnap me, but I can't find the gumption to be mad. I'm too confused and too fundamentally grateful to be alive, to be angry at anyone right now.

She nods. "I was until my brothers asked me to come back home to take care of Mateo due to your accident. I didn't realize everything that had happened since they kidnapped you," she says regretfully. "My brothers are foolish and impetuous. I decided that I needed to come and take this situation in hand."

I would laugh out loud if I had the energy to do so. Grazia has turned out to be far pluckier and more assertive than I would have expected.

The woman that I met in Mexico right before I was kidnapped was so eager to keep me from ruining her wedding that she saw me mostly as a nuisance.

Now, however, it appears that she has realized that her brothers were wrong and she has set about fixing the mess that they have made.

"Also," Grazia says to Elio, "we need to talk about this deal that they want. Marco and I have come up with a solution that I think will take care of their wounded pride and help make money for all of us. I want you to be able to focus on your recovery and put all of this nonsense behind you." She glances at Elio and he nods, clearly willing to trust her completely. I relax slightly.

"I have some other really exciting news to share with you," Doctor Gregory tells me, still flipping through my chart. "I've already told everyone else, but now it's your turn to find out the news."

I blink at her, trying to figure out what she might be so excited about. I feel like it's more than enough excitement that I have just woken up and that I seem likely to make a full recovery.

What other exciting news could she have to share with me?

"When you had your surgery, it was too early to show up in your bloodwork," she says. "However, when we pulled blood work after your arrival here, we got confirmation."

I am still staring at the doctor, not sure what she's getting at.

She grins at me, showing me her beautiful, Hollywood-white teeth. "You're pregnant. And somehow the pregnancy has survived all the turmoil that your body has been through."

I open my mouth to say something, but then snap it shut. I don't know what the right words are in a situation like this.

I glance over at Elio, and he's grinning just like the doctor. I tighten my hand around Mateo's form pressing against my side.

Pregnant. I suppose it is possible, but it feels like some kind of strange miracle.

I press my fingers into my abdomen. I can feel my ribs sticking through my skin. I've lost weight, but then again, that makes sense.

Poor baby, I think. We will take better care of you from now on.

"That's probably more than enough exciting news for one day and I'm sure that you're exhausted. I'm going to start bringing in specialists to help you with physical therapy and rehab. We will need to do some tests to see if there is any damage related to the stroke as well. But for now, you can just rest." She reaches down to squeeze my calf, then leaves the room.

Pregnant. The word chases around in my brain over and over. I glance up at Elio, trying to gauge how he is feeling. He is still smiling and he reaches out to stroke a hand over my hair.

"Rest, amore," he says to me. "That's the most important thing right now."

I nod, my eyes already drifting closed.

Elio leans close to me and presses a kiss to my forehead, then he whispers in my ear, "I love you."

My heart leaps with joy and my lips tilt into a smile.

I knew that he did, but it feels incredible to hear him say so.

As I slip down into the comfort of sleep, my fingers pressed to my stomach, I think that I could not be luckier.

This time, Elio will be by my side during the pregnancy and we will face all of the challenges of my recovery together.

Even better, it sounds like the Baldinis are going to finally leave us alone, which is in itself a huge feat.