Chapter Sixty Four

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Hailey's POV

"Hi, Adriana," Mr. Fioreli treads carefully.

Mrs. Matteo inhales a sharp deep breath, tears starting to weld into her beautiful brown eyes. "F- fer- Fernando?"

He nods.

Isaac's mom instantly places the drinks down behind her and runs towards her brother as he accepts her in wide open arms, finally embracing each other after who knows how many years.

I sit quietly in my chair as Mrs. Matteo instantly begins to break down, hugging the dear life out of her brother, as he does the same to her, as I try my hardest not to get emotional.

"I'm so fuckin' sorry," he says, pulling her in closer to him. "God I'm sorry, Adri, I'm a fuckin' idiot," he continues to pull her in closer, kissing the top of her head as tears begin to run down his face as well.

I give the siblings a few seconds to each other before getting out of the chair and interrupt their little family moment, "I'll give you guys some privacy," I smile pointing towards the door.

Mrs. Matteo instantly pulls away from her brother, "no, stay, please," she wipes the tears that are still free falling from her eyes. "This is Fernando, my other brother, my oldest brother," her voice threatens to crack again, clearly overwhelmed.

I smile over at him, "I know, we met a couple minutes ago," I inform her.

"We did," he confirms with a smile.

"Really, Mrs. Matteo, please, I don't mind stepping out side, I'm sure you guys have a lot to talk about."

Mrs. Matteo quickly frowns clenching her beautifully shaped eyebrows together, as she turns to look at her brother. "What are you doing here, Fernando? How did you even know we were here?"

He gives her the same answer he gave me a few seconds ago, "Sal."

"This, out of all things you decide to show up to?"

"Adriana, please.."

"This isn't his first time being in the hospital, Fernando!" She begins to raise her voice a bitnand I quickly glance over at Isaac, who still seems to be asleep. "He's been in the hospital four times, not counting his birth, which you missed by the way, but four times, Fernando, four!" she holds up four  fingers. "And this is what you decide to show up for? Him nearly dying."

Now I really do want to step outside, things definitely escalated quickly.

Mr. Fiorelli quickly starts to shake his head, "no! I've been wanting to reach out to you for years, Adri, but I was so afraid that you wouldn't forgive me!"

Now he's the one raising his voice.

I quickly look over at Isaac again and my heart nearly stops when I see his face scrunching up, it's the most movement he's made in days.

"Um, Mrs. Matteo.."

She looks over in my direction, past her brother, "yeah, sweetheart?"

I point towards the bed, towards Isaac, her son, and she's quickly looking in that direction. Isaac is now slowly turning his head to the side, starting to groan softly. She doesn't bother wasting anymore time and is quickly pushing her brother out of the way, walking towards the hospital bed.

"Isaac?" She keeps her voice at a soft tone, sitting down at the edge of the bed. She cups her son's face, slowly turning his face to look at her. "Isaac, honey, can you hear me, baby?"

Isaac groans again and slowly but surely he starts peering up at his mother until his eyes are fully open and he's officially staring back at her, frowning, blinking a few times.

"M-mom?" He rasps.

Instant tears begin to stain her beautiful flawless face as she lets out some type of half suppressed laugh, relieved breath, "hi, baby boy."

He groans quietly, "where am I?"

"I'll go get the doctor," Mrs. Matteo's brother speaks from the back of the room, she quickly nods her head as he scurries out into the hallway.

"W-who is that?" Isaac continues to groan as his uncle who he's never met before leaves the room.

"No one, honey," his mom answers, and I quickly frown, but maybe it's for the best to hold off on the family reunion right now. "Do you feel okay? Do you need anything?"

"Everything hurts," he mumbles. "My mouth is so dry."

"I-I'll go get some ice chips," I say.

Isaac quickly looks over at me, his brows starting to clench together. "H-Hail?"

Unwanted tears start to surface as I try my hardest to smile without breaking down, "hi."

"You're actually here," his voice is husky, in desperate need of hydrating.

"She never left," his mom smiles, looking back at me now. "Come here, sit," she waves me over and I slowly walk to her. She gets up from the bed, "I'll give you guys some time, I should  probably go call your father, let him know that you're awake. I'll be right back," she leans down to kiss Isaac on the head. "I love you."

Isaac smiles softly, "I love you too ma."

Mrs. Matteo looks like she actually wants to cry and takes a quick second to gather herself and then leaves the room to call her husband, the love of her life, like she likes to say.

The rooms quiet for a few seconds, the only sound in here at the moment is the hospital heart monitor device thing. I don't dare to move a muscle, I barely want to breathe, afraid of completely crumbling in front of him, but I can't, I need to stay strong right now.

I take a deep breath and walk up to Isaac, reaching for his hand as he tries his hardest to keep his eyes opened and stay conscious.

"D-do you remember what happened?"

He nods his head, "I was shot."

I nod in return, my voice cracking, tears threatening to spill from my eyes, "y-you ran in front of me."

Isaac begins to smile slowly, opening his eyes he looks straight at me, running his tongue across his bottom lip. I can only imagine how dry they felt.

"I'd protect you with my life," he continues to smile.

A tiny sob escapes my lips as the light stream begins to pour from my eyes. "Please don't ever do that again," I squeeze his hand gently.

Isaac's smile only continues to grow as he lays their in bed, "I love you," he murmurs.

Another small sobs escapes my lips as I bend down to cup his face and kiss him on the lips.  I hover over him for a few more seconds until I'm breaking away from him, but stay close, our noses grazing each other. "I thought I lost you," I whispered. 

Isaac chuckles softly, "it's gonna take a lot more than a tiny bullet to get rid of me."

"I didn't think you were ever gonna wake up," I confess, tears spilling from my eyes.

Isaac reaches a hand up to my face, wiping my tears with his thumb, "I'm okay, Princess."

Isaac's mom walks back into the room and I cut the water works, only she's not alone, she's accompanied by Dr. Okeeffe and her brother, Fernando.

Isaac's gaze immediately turns to his uncle, a now steely expression on his face.

Mr. Fiorelli hovers in the back as Dr. Okeeffe continues to examine Isaac and check all of his vital signs.

He talks to Mrs. Matteo and Isaac as Fernando and I just listen in on everything, Dr. Okeeffe continues to explain that he'll send someone up to help him ease the pain, that he's plans on keeping Isaac in the hospital for a couple more days and will be discharged then.

Mrs. Matteo, Mr. Fiorelli, and I are the only ones left with Isaac after the doctor dismisses himself and leaves the room.

I can't help but feel like Isaac actually knows who Fernando is already with the nasty looks that he keeps shooting his way.

A couple more minutes pass by when Mr. Fiorelli walks up behind his sister, laying a hand on her shoulder, she's currently back sitting on the edge of Isaac's hospital bed, as I sit back in my original chair to the side.

"I should go, Adriana," he says, deeply lacing her name with the same Italian accent Mr. Matteo does, who is currently now on his way back to the hospital, who was still unaware that his brother in law was back in the picture. "I'll be at Sal's if you need anything, my flights in a few days, we'll find a better time to talk."

Mrs. Matteo nods, "okay, but I wanna do something first." She quickly grabs her brother's hand, pulling him forward. "Honey," She turns towards her son and then back to her brother. "This is-"

"Fernando," Isaac snarls. "I know."

She quickly turns back to him, "what do you mean you know, how?!"

Isaac then attempts to sit himself up, slightly wincing here and there, "I hired a PI to find him about two years ago."

"You did what?!" Mrs. Matteo exclaims, quickly getting off of the bed.

I stay quite in my chair, getting ready for what's about to happened, rather than leaving the room and giving the family their privacy, but instead I'm wishing that I had a bucket of popcorn right about now.

"Why would you hire a PI, Isaac?!" Mrs. Matteo voice is ringing through out the room again.

Isaac stares at his mother, his voice stern but weak still. "Cause I was tired of seeing the same hurt look on my mother's face every time the holidays came around! I was tired of her locking herself in her room for days until our birthdays past. I was tired of having to thread on water, I was tired of him having a hold on your life!" He strains.

"I hired a PI because I wanted to get this shit over with, because I wanted to know what it felt like to have a mother be over joyed with their kids birthday coming around! I wanted to know what it felt like to have your parents plan and celebrate your birthday rather than your own friends!"

"Isaac.." his mother's voice cracks as she attempts to get near him, placing her hand on his and he quickly pulls it away.

"Nana, Pops, uncle Sal, no one would tell me anything about him, no one, so I hired the PI, and he found him within a week. Chicago," Isaac glasses at his uncle Fernando, who's only standing a couple feet away from me. "I told you and pops that the Ricci's had invited me to go on their weekend trip, when in reality I flew out to Chicago, alone, and I went looking for him, but when I found him I couldn't get out of the fuckin' rental, I couldn't move, I couldn't think, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't do anything."

"Isaac-" Mr. Fiorelli breaks his silence, taking a step forward.

Isaac quickly looks over at him, his vein on the side of his neck now surging. "You don't get the chance to speak to me, I don't even know what the fuck you're doing here. I wanted to kill you that day," he seethes through clenched teeth.

"Isaac!" This time I'm the one calling out to him, quickly rushing over to his side.

Isaac's heart rate on his monitor starts to pick up.

"The only thing that kept me from picking up the gun off my lap, and leaving that rental car, was your own daughter, my cousin," Isaac practically chokes on the word cousin. "I was so angry, I didn't even know you and I already hated you, I hated you for taking my own mother away from me."

"Honey.." I glance up at Mrs. Matteo to see tears welded in her eyes.

"When I seen her run out of that house and into your arms it changed everything, it  changed me. It made me realized that I was being selfish, just like you were. I realized that I was putting my own feelings before my mothers, just like you did before your own sister! I had a lot more in common with you that day than I did with my own father, the one person you can't stand in this world, and that made me sick to my fuckin' stomach."

"Babe, please," I place my hand on his arm. "You need to calm down."

"Get out," he growls.

"Isaac!"

"No, Adriana, it's fine." Mr. Fiorelli try's to comfort his sister. "I'm gonna go."

"Yeah, you should, probably before my dad gets here."

"That is enough, Isaac!" His mother exclaims.

Isaac turns to look at her, "you should probably go too mom."

Mrs. Matteo, Mr. Fiorelli, and myself, all look over at Isaac, the same confused look on all three of our faces.

"I literally just want to be left alone with Hailey," Isaac utters softly, keeping his gaze away from his mother.

I look in her direction and kills me to see that she's on the verge of tears.

"Fine," her voice shakes. "I'll be outside," she looks over at me now and I'm quickly nodding my head. "Let's go," she tells her brother, as he lets her leave the room first.

He turns back to Isaac and I as he makes his way out, "this isn't her fault, Isaac, don't punish your mother for my mistakes."

"Why are you still talking to me?"

Mr. Fiorelli sighs long and hard before leaving the room. I turn to look at Isaac as he keeps his gaze away from me once were all alone.

"Hey." He quickly turns to look up at me, almost like if I actually startled him. "You okay?" I ask softly.

"I don't wanna talk about it," he shakes his head, looking away.

"Okay, that's fine, but we will talk about it eventually, Isaac." He looks back at me but stays silent. "I love you, babe, but you know he's right. If she can learn to forgive him, then you should too."

"Yeah," he mumbles. "Maybe he is right, but what if his intentions of him not wanting his sister with my dad were right as well?" I frown not really following. "He, and I quote, couldn't watch his sister throw her life away for some monster... That's the same day that I started hating being compare to my father. What kind of monster do you have to be to want to hurt your own family member?"

"Hey," I say softly as I take a seat on the edge of the bed. I lay my hand on top of his and squeeze it, "you are not a monster. You have more heart than you let on, Isaac. Pain, it makes people do stupid things, just as much as love does. You should be looking at the bright side rather than beating yourself up, you didn't go through with it," I smile. "And honestly,I don't think you could have even if you wanted too, no matter how angry you were back then. I know that you love your mom, and you and your dad would do anything for her, but this something between her and her brother, baby, you don't have to keep defending her."

Isaac stays quiet while nodding his head.

"Everything's gonna work out, you'll see," I smile. "You just gotta give it time."

"You're amazing."

I instantly look down as I begin to blush and have no idea why. This wasn't something knew, Isaac was constantly praising me, yet it always felt like as if he was complimenting me for the very first time ever.

"I didn't know," he murmurs, squeezing my hand in return. I frown a bit confused and he immediately clarifies. "Your dad," he begins to explain. "I didn't know he was on my dads pay roll, Hailey, I swear."

I begin to shush him, "stop, I know, I already talked with my dad."

He instantly looks relieved and is lifting his hand cupping my face for a second, when his hand moves up to my forehead and his thumb is brushing over the cut on my face.

"I should've taken better care of you, I'm sorry."

I begin to softly shake my head, "I should've known better than to make you call your guys off."

"I should've seen it coming though, I should've stopped it."

"Shh, it happened already, it's in the past, I just want us to move on."

He nods, "c'mere, lay down."

I start to shake my head again, "I don't want to hurt you."

"I'll be fine," he smirks, patting his hand down on the bed.

Slowly and carefully I lay down next to Isaac and he instantly scoots closer towards me, laying his head against my chest. I wrap my arms around his body, careful not to hurt him as he begins to tell me how much he's missed me, how he's never going to let me out of his sight after this, that I'm stuck with him forever whether I liked it or not, and quiet frankly I didn't have one problem with it.

We stay in each other's embrace and I eventually turn the tv back on, putting a movie on that was currently playing. We watch the movie for a little while as Isaac chuckles quietly here and there, when I notice that Isaac has gotten extremely quite and still. I look down at him to find him with his eyes closed and an instant wave of paranoia hits me out of no where.

My chest begins to feel real tight, and I know it's not from having Isaac lay on it, it's the anxiety trying to kick in. I look back down at him, towards his chest, watching it slowly rise up and down, he's still breathing.

I bring my hand up to his face, slowly caressing it, as Isaac slowly start to open his eyes.

"You're falling asleep," I mumble quietly.

He turns his head to look up at me, barely able to keep his eyes open. "I got tired," he mutters.

I pull him in closer to me, careful not to hurt him as my eyes begin to water up. He just woke up, I just got him back, I'm not ready to lose him again, I'm afraid of him not waking up.

"I just got you back," I squeak, trying my hardest not to cry.

Isaac quickly lets a small breath of air out through his nose, smiling faintly, "and I'm not going anywhere, baby, I just need a small nap, fifteen minutes tops."

The selfish part of me wants to tell him no, that he's been asleep for days, that he can fight it a little while longer, but the better part of me knew better, the part of me that loved him unconditionally knew that he needed to rest.

"What if- what if you don't wake up.." I voice my thoughts out loud.

"I'll wake up," he smiles, looking me straight in the eyes. "I promise, okay?"

I nod sadly holding my pinky out in front of him, "pinky promise?"

This instantly makes him grin. Pinky promises soon became our thing after I caught Isaac making a pinky promise to his little cousin Jessie. Isaac was a totally completely person around her and I loved seeing that side of him, he was so good kids.

Isaac bring's his pinky up and is soon interlocking it with mine. "Pinky promise, now give me a kiss," he commands and I lean down to kiss him so that our lips our connecting.

"I'll be right here on the couch thingy," I mutter pulling away from him.

Isaac quickly shakes my head, grabbing my arm. "Stay, please, I always fall asleep faster when I'm in your arms."

This definitely makes me feel ten times better, I nod and carefully lay back down as Isaac makes himself comfortable, laying his head against my chest again and is instantly falling asleep.

***

6 Months later

"I can't believe you're actually leaving me," Isaac grumbles as he loads the last of my things into the back of my car.

Today was the big day, moving day, the day that I finally went off to college and flew the coop.

Unlike my brother I decided to stay in the state, close to home, but not too close, I still wanted the whole college independent experience. I actually got accepted into three schools, two university's near the city and of course your local community college as well, but I of course decided to choose the one that my best friend just so happen to get accepted to as well.

Not only did we get accepted into the same schools, but we were also going to be living together, we were going to be roommates in our own apartment, not her mothers.

The school that Carmen and I got accepted into was about half an hour away from Carmen's place, so instead of having to leave early almost every day we decided to look around and just so happened to get lucky and found a girl who was looking for a couple roommates to

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