Chapter Twelve
1053 Words
Anna's POV
God, her head was throbbing. And would someone turn off that ridiculous light? Why would someone add more colored light to the already bright room?
Wait...
Anna opened her eyes and groaned with the motion. It felt like someone was hitting her on the head consistently with a hammer. She tried to remember what had happened. She was likely no longer in the room. Did the two factions come to war? Was that what this was?
Her vision was not reliable. She was loathe to keep her eyes open because of the pain, but from the little she'd been able to deduce, her sight was flashing at the edge with color.
That could mean a lot of things.
"Hello!" she tried to say, but her tongue wasn't cooperating. She mumbled some words, feeling her strength sap with each attempt. But at least she could remember now. It was her engagement party, she'd been drinking from a glass. Was it alcohol poisoning? She didn't think so. It felt more like she'd been drugged.
"Hello!" she tried to call out again but could feel herself drifting. It felt like she was trying to drag herself through a pool of mud. The light around her eyes intensified, even closed, and sounds reached her ears. The hammer had a friend, a loud friend. She snickered as she felt herself fade again. This time, she welcomed the darkness.
When she next came to, her head seemed better. There was still pain and she could feel her veins throbbing but it was minor. The source of the light had also been turned off. She knew there was someone beside her even before she opened her eyes.
"What happened?" The words came out more as 'wharpened', but the person got the point.
"Oh." she heard just as she opened her eyes.
Doctor Pedro stared at her with pursed lips and she closed her eyes immediately. What an irritating sight to wake up to.
"Ms Moreni," he called. She ignored it.
Her mind was clearer this time and she knew for sure that it had been something in the drink now. She hadn't drunk enough to have alcohol poisoning, and if it was general, her Mom would have noticed first because she'd been guzzling hers like water. So she'd been drugged.
"Fine," the man said impatiently. "I wanted to examine you more but I should probably get the Boss instead."
She stubbornly ignored him. If she were to rate on a scale of 1 to 10, the people she hated in the Moreni household, the Doctor would be number three, right next to her father and Matteo.
He'd known her from the first day she had found herself in the country, bleeding and unable to move without help, and yet he still insisted on calling her that ridiculous name. Even knowing the number of bones she'd had to mend.
Her eyes remained closed but she tracked his movement. He paused at the door, probably to watch her, but she remained motionless.
When the door opened and closed, she released her breath in a burst. She opened her eyes.
As she suspected, she was in what they called the medical room. It looked like an actual hospital, with the curtains around each bed, but that was where the similarities ended. She'd never been to one, but books wouldn't shut up about the smell of chemicals around them. This room smelled stale. She suspected it was because she was the only one who ever needed it.
Whenever the men came back riddled with bullet wounds, they received attention in their rooms. And the female were far more careful than to attract the wrong type of attention.
The room was drab, the whiteness of the walls and curtains making it more so.
She sat up, her legs swinging weakly below her. Irrespective of how she felt, she needed to be out of bed before anyone came.
Picking her way with her hand, she slid down the bed and landed on the floor. At least the floor was clean.
'Get up,' she shouted to herself. If someone witnessed her, she'd still end up having to stand up herself. It was better to do it without the audience.
Grasping at the strength she didn't have and plenty of willpower, she eventually forced herself to get to her feet. She was resting heavily on the bed and her head was starting to spin again, but at least she was on her way out.
She just needed a way to take the 30 or so steps toward the door and find her way to her room, all without anyone being the wiser.
She forced her eyes open again and swallowed a small sob. When had she closed it? God, she was so tired. Her head had resumed the drum and her throat just simply hurt.
A slight sound made her look up in horror but it was just one man. She had a little difficulty remembering his name with the whole circus going on in her brain, but it came to her. Kane.
He was leaning on a bed closer to the door and watching her with pursed lips.
She stopped, not like she'd gotten anywhere before, and to her horror started to slide again. Her knees collapsed under her and her eyes watered.
The man continued to watch in silence.
"I wonder what your plan is." She heard him mutter.
And then he was leaving. Not leaving, she realized in a panic, he was coming closer. He stopped in front of her and she looked up at him with watery eyes.
"Well," he said after a while.
"Well, what?"
"Do you want to remain there or are you going to pick yourself back up to the bed?"
She clenched her teeth. Asshole.
"Alright, then," he said, walking away.
She waited a beat, and then "Wait," she called out.
He stopped.
"What happened?" she asked.
He turned back to her slowly. "That's what I wanted to know too.
There was no evidence of foul play..."
Her breath rushed out of her.
"...except in your room."
The words didn't make sense to her. She stared at the back of his trousers.
"What did you say?" she asked.
He scoffed, laughed, and then walked out of the room.
- Writer
