Garden of Roses ✔️

Chapter 31

Dante

          The doctor said she would be fine. She just needed to rest, but the whiteness of her cheeks and the coldness of her skin still worried me. It's been an hour since I pulled the warm covers over her cold body, yet she still doesn't feel nearly warm enough.

What if she catches a cold or something? It would make her improving health take a huge step back. The thought that it could make her stay here a while longer flashes in my mind, although I quickly push it out and curse myself for even thinking about that.

I get up from the bed and walk to the thermostat on the wall, raising the temperature in the room to warm her up faster. The temperature rises quickly and I have to take off my suit jacket to survive. It's pretty warm now, almost as warm as outside. Still, her cheeks hold the sickly pale shade. I don't know what else to do except sit beside her and wait for her to pink up again. I sit on the chair next to the bed and reach for her hand. It's ice cold.

If I only knew what was going on inside her head. What thoughts ran through her mind? If I knew, then I could fix it.

"What went wrong, Amore? What drove you to do this to yourself?" I whisper to myself, knowing yet again that I wasn't going to get an answer.

I sigh, dipping my head down and rubbing small circles on her palm with my thumb until her hand feels a little warmer in my hold. I don't know how much time passes with me sitting like that, but when I lift my head back up, I notice her cheeks getting a pale rosy color, and it makes me smile a little bit.

Finally.

When I cup her cheek with my palm, her skin doesn't feel ice cold anymore, and the fact brings me a small wave of relief. She's going to be okay. Again, she's proving to be stronger than she seems, and my feeling of pride grows a little more.

There is nothing else for me to do but leave her to rest and wait for her to wake up. In the meantime, I decide to go find Camilla and have a little talk with her about the recent events. Maybe she knows something more about the woman lying here unconscious wanting to leave so abruptly.

I lift myself off the chair and press my lips to her temple, inhaling deeply the lavender vanilla scent of her hair before forcing myself to step away and leave her be. With one last glance at her, I hope she will open her eyes before I leave. Her face remains serene, and her eyes shut, so I exit the room without further hovering and close the door behind me.

The unnecessary enormity of this house annoys me once again when I can't settle on where to look for Camilla first. In her room? The back terrace? Maybe the living room, or the main kitchen? Is she even home? I have no idea.

I scramble through my pants pocket and pull out my phone, figuring it would be easier to just call her and ask where she is.

It rings for a while, and just as I am about to hang up, irritated that she never answers her phone, I hear her voice on the other side of the line.

"Brother! What a nice surprise. Haven't seen you in a while," Camilla chirps and I can hear her trying to catch her breath. What the fuck is she doing?

"Yes, we can't seem to bump into each other in this damn arsenal you call a house," I retort, obviously agitated, but she responds with a loud laugh, my agitation apparently being amusing to her. Well, that makes one of us.

"Where the hell are you? And why are you breathing like that? Did I interrupt you at something?"

"Oh, nonsense. I'm at the pool. I just had to swim from the other side of it to get to the phone." I roll my eyes as I remember the enormous rectangular infinity pool that overlooked the Tuscan valley.