Duchess Trilogy: Book 1: Mafia

Chapter Twenty-Three: The Recovery

Ryan's POV

Week 1

It's been a whole week since we rescued Alex and Brie from the forest. When we brought her back to the house, the doctor took a blood sample and realized that she was very malnourished and on some abnormal drugs. They ended up inserting a feeding tube and worked on giving her the proper medicine to help reduce her fever and some fluids to help wash the toxins out of her system. They had to clean the open wound in her arm and restitch it as it had become infected. Everything Henry had done seemed to have helped, but it's been a week, and she still hasn't woken up. Now, all we could do was wait.

When we arrived back, Niccolò wanted an urgent meeting with all the male family members (and Janja, too) over Jake's behavior. We all unanimously voted on removing his power over the head of the family. He was removed from the family immediately and was even killed in the basement after finding information regarding him selling some women under the table. Removing him from power was concerning, as someone needed to be in charge of the family.

Janja wasn't interested in taking over, and I wasn't planning on it either, as I had no desire to run a family. Niccolò decided to go ahead and slowly disband the family. Everyone would apply to the well-known families and then go on their way. It was heartbreaking to do it this way, but Jake ruined the family name by doing what he did. Soon, families will know of the situation, and it would be best to stop the family altogether. We all agreed it was best for everyone.

This week, we also arranged the funeral for Alex Sicilian and kept it for our family. We held the funeral in a different place and then laid him to rest next to his wife. When everyone left, I left Brie's side to pay my respects to him and laid some flowers for him and his wife.

"I wish you could be here, pal. If there is any way to get through to Brie to hold on for us and survive this, I will treat her with the best of my intentions."

Week 2

Henry, the family doctor recommended to put Brie into an induced coma since she hasnt shown signs of waking up. With much pain, we did grant his request and then moved her to the hospital to get the proper care she needed. In the second week, many family members were getting their pay cut and then moving on to either their own lives or a different family. Louie (the new Don of the Castellano family) pitched in on the situation and offered many homes for the family here. Some did go with them, as others went in another direction.

It was an awkward week of saying farewells to everyone. Midway through the week, there was a fight between John, Louie, and Tom over the head of the Castellano family title. John had retired and given it to Louie, but the rules are that you can't retire and then take the head title back due to a disagreement. It got so ugly that the family disbanded as well. It was unknown who followed John or not or if he started a new family. It was unclear what was going on with everyone. But I didn't pay much attention as I rather put my focus on Brie's health.

Upon putting our house up for sale, the Lucchese family sent a letter that they were interested in purchasing the home since the news of the family disbanding. It was a generous offer, and we accepted and said we would move out within the month.

Week 3

The days seemed longer, but I never left Brie's side other than paying my respects to Alex on the day he was buried. It had been a long three weeks waiting to see if she would awake. I was eager to know the answer to everything. As the house was sold, I stayed with Brie in the hospital. This week Henry wished to run more tests to see if anything would help change her condition. The nurse came in today with some news that thr medicine was helping and that there was a change of pace in her heart monitor and that she may awake soon. It was the best news I've heard since we brought her back home. The doctor worked on relieving her out of her coma and then the waiting began.