Oblivion ✓

8| A favour

THIRD PERSON

Domenico looked disgusted at the coffee mug in his hand. He was very demanding when it came to coffee, but even his lowest expectations were simply too high here. After being escorted out of the room, he went to the cafeteria and tried his luck there. Without success. The audacity to just send him out of the room! He wouldn't have expected the two women to have that much courage. However, he had to give Josephine a certain amount of privacy, and it didn't seem wise to push past her boundaries at this point. That was something for later times when she would hopefully develop like his two youngest brothers. Or maybe they would be lucky, and she would be an angel. One could only hope.

A glance at his watch told him that the two of them now had half an hour to shower. That should probably be enough. Domenico walked back to the little girl's room at a leisurely pace. If her circulation remained stable, she would also be transferred to a peripheral ward, according to the doctor who had met him shortly after he left. He acknowledged this without a word and then left her there. She seemed to like to talk a lot, which was hard for him to tolerate. Vito was responsible for such things. He would certainly have liked to talk to her about everything, but Domenico didn't care as long as it wasn't directly important for Josephine's health.

'Speaking of the devil,' thought Domenico as he turned the corner and saw Vito accompanied by his little brother. He carelessly threw the plastic cup in his hand into the trash can and fixed his gaze on the cardboard holder in Vito's hand. "I hope it's what I think," he muttered to no one in particular as he approached. Without a word, he held out his hand to Vito, who didn't hesitate and handed over a cup. "About time," he commented before taking the first sip. This, this was coffee. It was music, a pleasure.

"Where is Josephine?" Vito ignored his brother's comment. He knew how quickly Domenico could become grumpy, especially when he didn't have coffee.

"In the room. She's fine; the monitoring of her vitals has been finished, and she wanted to take a shower. Besides, she can probably be moved to another ward if the tests are good. What is the frog doing here?" he asked, looking at Valentino.

Dismayed, Valentino placed his hand on his chest. "Brother! How can you?" Domenico rolled his eyes, even though he secretly thought it was a good idea for him to be here. "I have to get to know our new addition. More importantly, she has to get to know me so that she knows there are sensible people in our family."

"And you really think you are the right choice for this? Your brain must be worse than I thought," replied Domenico. Then he saw the bag in Valentino's hand. "Did you go shopping before you came here?"

"No, but she can't just walk around in your clothes all the time, which are at least six sizes too big for her. Matteo was kind enough to donate some of his clothes," Valentino shrugged and looked curiously at the door in front of which they stood. So she was behind it. He was excited to meet her after everything he had heard from his brothers. "Oh, one of you just has to tell him. Should we go in then?"

"Remember what we talked about!" Vito warned.

"Vito, I'm not thirteen anymore, and I don't need to be told how to behave, thank you very much."

"I'm not so sure about that," said Domenico and knocked on the door.

The older nurse with the wrinkled face opened the door shortly afterward. She looked at the other two but stepped aside when she saw Domenico. "It seems like you've had even more visitors, Josephine."

The first thing Vito noticed was Josephine's hair. It had become shorter but looked much better compared to the strands of different lengths before. There was something else about her, but he couldn't name it. "Good morning, Josephine. How are you?" he greeted her as he came closer.