Pleased To Meet You

Like They Had Taken Something Away.

Around midnight I woke up because I was feeling a bit uncomfortable because I needed to pee and I was really thirsty, so before I went downstairs to the kitchen I went to the bathroom. I heard some noise, like someone had broken a window from the living room, I thought maybe the wind was pretty strong that night but I decided to check on it anyway. When I took the first step I felt like someone pushed me and I fell over the stairs. My body was aching, my head hurt and my pijama pants were getting covered in blood. I tried to scream or called Giovanni but I was in shock and in so much pain. However, he did  hear all the noise, so he quickly got up and helped me. He saw someone running away from our house. Unfortunately, he didn't recognize it. Giovanni called 911 and tried to calm me down.

From all the chaos I can barely remember that night. Your dad says I wasn't all there. I mean, the voices of the medics seemed far away and I could see them really blurry. I couldn't help crying in pain until they sedated me. Before I started to fade away I heard the doctor saying I was losing a lot of blood and they needed to do something quite risky. I closed my eyes and tried to ease my pain. 

I was really worried about Camilla and our baby. I couldn't understand what anyone was saying. The doctor wasn't telling me any news about my wife and the officer needed me to tell him about the person who broke in. It was like time couldn't wait for me to process what had just happened. 

Officer Fontaine: Sir, I know you're stressed about the incident but we need you to tell us exactly what happened. 

Giovanni: I-I- I don't know. My wife went to the bathroom and I don't know why she wanted to go downstairs. She must've heard someone. 

Officer Fontaine: On the phone you said you saw someone leaving your house? 

Giovanni: Yes. He was running away.

Officer Fontaine: Did you have any visitors during the last couple of weeks?

Giovanni: Uhm- I think so... My father-in-law visited us. 

Officer Fontaine: Can you give us the name of this man? 

Giovanni: Alberto Ontiveros. 

Officer Fontaine: Do you have any reason to believe he could've done it? 

When he asked me that I thought it was an easy question to answer but it really made me think of my response. For several years Mr. Ontiveros had done horrendous things to his own family. Things you wouldn't even believe. Could it be that he resented us enough to do this? 

Giovanni: I do, Officer, but I don't think he was the one who actually pushed my wife over the stairs. I think he hired someone. 

Officer Fontaine: Is there someone else who could have access to the house? 

Giovanni: Only our gardener. The owner who sold us our house recommended him. He wanted to work full time but Camilla doesn't like to hire people to do our cleaning because we do it ourselves, so he just does the gardening. 

Officer Fontaine: Mr. Bartolini, he might be a prime suspect, so we're going to need his full name and a physical description.

Giovanni: Allard Faure. He's medium tall, dark brown hair, he looks really tough and he always wears a bell around his neck. Blue eyes and very raspy voice. 

Officer Fontaine: Thank you, that would be all. We'll contact you in a few days, Mr. Bartolini. 

I waited for hours to hear about Camilla, I called Christine and Lucy but no one answered until the next morning. I didn't have any sleep but when I was about to close my eyes the doctor walked into the waiting room. 

Dr. Vincent: Mr. Bartolini? 

Giovanni: Yes? 

Dr. Vincent: Well, your wife is fine. She's stable but she had several injuries, so she'll need to stay here for a while.  

Giovanni: Thank you, Doctor... What about the baby? 

Dr. Vincent: The fall caused her a lot of injuries and one of them affected the baby. I'm sorry to say this but your son was already dead when the ambulance brought your wife to the hospital. The baby suffered a brain injury and there was nothing else we could do. I'm really sorry. 

When I heard those words I felt like someone punched the air out of my lungs. My heart was completely ripped. The doctor left and I just stood there. Tears were running down my face and I slowly got my knees on the floor. I screamed, cried like never before. They had taken our beautiful son away from us and there was nothing we could do to ease this pain. We didn't even know it was a boy.

One of the nurses tried to calm me down because I was kind of scaring the other people at the waiting room but I couldn't breathe. Christine called me and when I answered I took a deep breath and told her. She cried too. 

I was at my worst and I didn't even know what to say to your mother. I wasn't sure she knew, so it was going to be more than tough. 

Camilla woke up around noon. I held her hand and waited for her to know I was there. 

Camilla: I don't know. 

Giovanni: What is it, my love? What don't you know? 

Camilla: I don't know... I don't know why I woke up if my baby is gone...

I didn't know the answer to that. Both of us were broken and we weren't so sure if we would ever move on from this. 

Later on the week, Officer Fontaine contacted me and said that I was right, our gardener did it. Mr. Ontiveros had paid him to do it and now both of them would be in court at the end of the month. They needed us to testify but it was going to be hardest thing for us. However, when your mother got better she accepted and well, Mr. Ontiveros and Allard have been in jail ever since. 

After a couple of the days, Camilla started to change and who could blame her? We had lost our child. She had every reason to be upset. She would hardly come out of the room and she refused to eat. Everythings was just so wrong and destroyed. I suggested we both could go to therapy but she didn't want to, Camilla wasn't ready.