Us Against All Odds (En)

The fourth week

You are the answer to all the prayers I have prayed. You are a song, a dream, a whisper, and I don't know how I've lived this long without you.'

Nicholas Sparks

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Carina had been holding out hope since Maya shook her hand, she didn't know if it was her fiancée responding and in a sense being aware, or if it was just a reflex of her body.

She continued to tell her their story, sometimes not in the right order, sometimes according to what she had experienced during the day. From time to time, she would tell her what had happened during her work day and sometimes she would read her the news. It had been almost a month now since the attack.

Lane's charges were not against the assault itself but against failure to assist a person in danger. Maya's testimony was crucial. Lane had not yet released the name of his accomplice, lest he declare that Maya's father was the one who had broken her cheekbone, her leg, and above all, orchestrated the assault. To tell the truth, at the moment, he only regretted one thing, that he had not asked for her execution.

For all he knew, his daughter could wake up at any moment and tell what had happened. He had wanted to destroy her life and for now all he had managed to do was destroy his own.

Lieutenant Decker continued to bring Carina to the police station once a week, to come and identify the potential assailant, but nothing helped, she couldn't remember if she had been followed or not, if she had felt watched or not.

Three months, it had been three months since they got engaged. Of course they had not known each other for long, but they told themselves that when you are sure, you are sure.
The first objective had not been the most romantic one at the time.

Carina's work visa was about to expire in six months and with the elections coming up, President Trump had frozen all visas and immigration to try to get as many votes as possible on the Republican side. This did not help him at all, as he had just lost the presidential elections the previous Sunday. He had however managed to freeze this for another 8 months. And the new president, unfortunately, could not do anything about it.

This meant that Carina could not reapply for her Visa for the next eight months and that her current one would not be valid in six months, hence the wedding in four months, while the proof of marriage went through the court. Otherwise, she would have to return to Italy in six months, at the latest, then reapply for a Visa, two months later, which would not necessarily be accepted quickly, and only then return to the USA.

The alternative to marriage to avoid having to leave the U.S. would be for her to obtain a higher position in a hospital, as her presence would then become essential.

Her desire for Maya to come out of her coma was not only related to the fact that she wanted to get married to stay on American soil, but also to be able to stay with the woman she loved while she was hospitalized. That seemed to be in jeopardy at the moment, but she had no head for another position.

A big argument had then burst between the two women, but today it was not this memory, that Carina wanted to tell to her fiancée, it was the proposal and only the proposal. She would come back on this quarrel later but today it was three months that Maya, in a last gesture of reconquest had convinced her beautiful of their engagement.

She had managed to wedge herself against her fiancée on the bed, her body half in the air, opposite her broken leg and wrist, on the side of her still swollen cheekbone. She had put her hand around her waist, in front, having intertwined her fingers, on the back, with those of her fiancée's left hand. Looking at her engagement ring and the hand devoid of any jewel of her future wife.