Thorns & Roses

-thirty seven-

AURORA VALENTINA MARINO

"Padre, it's been 6 days since they were supposed to be back home. None of them have called to say anything."

"Something probably came up-"

"Then they would've called!" I let out a shaky breath as tears filled my eyes.

"Mija, sit down, this isn't good for the babies." Mrs Elena said, trying to calm me down.

"No, something bad has happened. I just know it. Eli wouldn't just ignore my calls like that. What if Sofia killed them?"

"Mia stella..." He cupped my cheeks, wiping my tears, telling me to breathe. "Stay calm, they'll be fine. It's late, you should get some sleep."

"My husband, who is the father of my children and the love of my life, my brothers and my bestfriends could be dead, Padre. Don't you dare tell me to calm down. Lucky, get your keys, we're going to the airport. We're going to Italy."

"Sis, I'm with your dad on this one, you're not doing the babies any favours by panicking like this."

"Keys. Now, Lucky."

"You're not going to Italy." Padre, Zio, Lucky, Angelo and Mrs Elena all followed me to the front door, trying to stop me.

"I'm going to go over there and kill her myself if she did anything to them." The front door opened and Eli walked in with Ciano and Nate. Domenico walked in after, holding a little girls hand.

I walked to Eli, cupping his cheeks not being able to stop the tears from flowing down my cheeks. "You're here." I said, my voice shaking. He leaned into my hand, kissing my palm before wrapping his hands around my waist, pulling me in.

"I'm sorry, my love. I'm here." I pulled away and groaned loudly.

"What happened?"

"Oscurità got shot in the arm and Nate was in a coma for 5 days. Elias was put in a medically induced coma for 6 days." Ciano said. I looked at the four of them in shock

"And you, Ciano, what happened to you?"

"I'm fine, I got there after the shootout and explosion."

"Explosion?" Mrs Elena asked in confusion.

"Let's all get some rest, we'll talk about this tomorrow." Zio said and everyone made their way to their rooms.

"Why did they put you in a coma, Elias?" I asked him when we got to ours. He lifted up his top and I felt my breath hitch. He had a bandage wrapped around his abdomen and a gauze dressing on his chest. "Baby, what happened?"

"There was a shootout and I blocked Alessia and Domenico from getting hit, I didn't notice until a while after. I went back in to get Nate and there was an explosion. Everyone else was ok but I was the closest to it. It knocked me out and a metal rod from the warehouse hit my chest and sliced into it."

"And the coma?"

"I wanted to come back home to you because I promised I would. I was refusing to rest and I kept tearing my stitches so they had no choice but to."

This isn't happening.

"Valentina, look at me." I shook my head but he tilted my head so I was facing him. "I'm ok."

"But you're not, baby. Look at you, you're covered in bandages and grazes." I said, looking at the back of his arms. "Don't leave me like that again, I thought you were dead. No one called me to tell me what happened."

"Everyone was busy trying to prepare incase Sofia retaliated."

"A fucking text was all I needed, Elias, it didn't even have to be a long one. It was 6 days and I hadn't heard a single thing. I felt like I was dying inside not knowing." I said before letting out a whimper at a pain in my stomach. I sat down on the bed and Eli kneeled in front of me, pressing three kisses on my belly.