Forever Changed

Chapter 23: Love and Loss

Angelique POV

(6 Months Married)

T/W Discussion of miscarriage

I could hear voices but felt like I was underwater. The sounds were coming in and out of focus and my stomach was burning. I could feel the sun beating down on my face where my head was laying on the ground. It was always so hot here this time of year, why was I outside in this heat?

"Fuck! I think the old lady's dead. What are we going to do. We were only meant to scare them, but she ran at me like a lion protecting her cub when I pointed the gun at the girl and I thought she was trying to take the gun. I panicked!"

"I know! This is a mess. Why did she do that? She'd already taken a bullet to the arm, why would she jump in front of the other one like that. Jesus! Hasn't she heard of self preservation."

I felt hands on me and I was flipped onto my back, it hurt like nothing I'd ever experienced before and I felt a loud moan bubble out of my mouth.

"Oh god do you think it's her daughter? It would make sense, the way she protected her like that. Jesus! We've messed up so badly. And you shot her in the gut you idiot. They're both gonna die. We're screwed. Fuck! They didn't pay for this. We need to get out of here."

I felt myself slip into darkness and the next sounds I heard were more loud voices. Different than before.

"GSW to the abdomen. Possible broken nose from impact on fall. Her BP is at 80/60 and falling, she's losing blood fast. We need to get her to the hospital before we lose her."

The darkness took me again.

Next time I woke it was to the sounds of beeping. The pain in my stomach was horrendous and my whole body hurt. Lifting my hand to my face which was throbbing I realised I had a bandage on it, and I had a canula in my hand. I was obviously in a hospital room. What had happened?

Thinking through my pounding headache the last thing I remembered was walking out of the chemist with the three different brand pregnancy tests. Isabella almost bouncing with her excitement. Her infectious mood was starting to rub off on me and I was allowing myself to feel a small amount of hope that I was in fact pregnant and that Mattia and his father would be happy when I gave him a son.

That's where my thoughts ended. Why was I in hospital and where was Isabella? Had we been in a car accident. Looking around the room it was in darkness. It must be late. Only the small lights above the bed and a beam of light coming through the window in the door were visible. I was alone. If I was hurt why wasn't Mattia here with me? Or my parents? What was going on? I attempted to shift my sore body and white hot pain shot through my stomach. I gasped but no sound came from my dry throat.

It was too much. The darkness took me again.

Next time I woke it was to the sound of low voices. My mind was fighting to bring me to the surface so I could open my eyes, I lay there listening as I breathed through the pain in my stomach.

"Nico it's not right. He should be here with her. She's his fucking wife and she's unconscious in a hospital bed and he just left without a word. I can't believe him. What am I supposed to tell her when she wakes up."

"Antony he's in pain. We all are. You know he doesn't handle his emotions well, papa raised him to think that feelings were weak so he is spiralling right now. When he found out about mama and that Angelique was the one she was out with, he snapped. Mama would never go out unguarded, Angelique must have said something to her. He blames her. I hope he'll see sense once he calms down."