Iris POV
The beep of a machine is the first thing I register when I regain consciousness. The annoying sound already puts me in a bad mood. How does anyone deal with this? I open my eyes, expecting to see my room, instead I'm greeted with the sight of white walls.
The machine beeps louder, and a male makes a noise from the side of the room. Looking closer, I see that the male is Leandro. He jumps up from the chair he had been sleeping in, and rushes toward me.
"Iris," he says, looking at me with tears in his eyes, "you're okay."
I try to speak, but it's only then that I realise that there's something in my throat, I look wearily at Leandro who seems to understand the questions running through my head.
"We're at the hospital, Iris. You had a punctured lung, now I understand why you wouldn't have told us about how much of pain you were in, but next time if something happens, could you give me a heads up?" When I nod, he continues.
"The tube down your throat is called an intubation tube, and it'll be removed when your doctor believes you'll be able to breathe without it, speaking of, I need to let him know you're awake." With that, Leandro reaches next to me and presses a button that does.... I actually have no clue what it does, but about a minute later, a nurse runs through the door of the room.
"You're awake! I'll go get Dr. Allan!" The nurse exclaims before she runs back out of the room.
She seems... Excited. If I didn't know any better, I'd think she was happy to see me alive.
"Can I hold your hand?" Leandro asks, looking at me like I hold all the power in the world. When I nod my head in a way that indicates my approval, he takes hold of my hand and clutches it tightly.
"I thought we'd lost you, Iris. You can't ever do that to me again." He says, his expression soft.
Once again, I nod my head, and Leandro simply sighs and drops his shoulders as if I just promised I wouldn't die.
Ha! What a joke. I can't control that. My life was never in my own hands. It was never meant to be.
It is then that the doctor waltzes in like he owns the place, and Leandro shoots him a glare that has the doctor pausing in his steps before he shrugs it off and continues walking toward me.
"Well, Miss Ivanov, it's good to see you're finally awake. I just want to listen to your lungs real quick so I can see if they're strong enough to breathe on your own, is that okay?" The doctor questions, I immediately shake my head yes because I would like to get this tube out of my throat. (A/n this next part is made up because I couldn't be bothered to research how you would test that 💀)
Dr. Allan takes out a stethoscope and brings it to my ribs. "Now breathe in for me." He says, and then waits a few seconds. "Now breathe out."
We repeat this a couple more times before he moves away, a smile on his face.
"Well, I believe that you're going to do just fine without this pesky intubation tube, I'm just going to remove it now." He says, then he peels off the tape around my mouth and pulls on the tube as gently as he can.
As painful as the removal of the tube was, the relief I feel when it's finally out of my mouth is unbelievable.
Leandro immediately hands me a glass of water, and I chug it down as fast as I possibly can.
"Where'd you get that from?" I ask, referring to the glass of water, but he just shrugs, and I accept the fact that he won't tell me where to get more from.
"Is the absence of the rest of the family not bothering you, mia luce?" Leo questions, his brows furrowed in confusion.
"No, not really. It's your presence that's confusing me, if I'm being honest." I admit, pursing my lips.
"Why is it confusing you? I care about you so obviously I'm going to be here."
"Well, I just wouldn't think I'd be worthy of being dared about. It's like my whole life I've been taught that nobody will ever care about me and then, well, out of nowhere you pop up and now it's just... Disorienting." I reply, not thinking twice about my words. It's the truth.
"See, that's where you're wrong, mia luce, I love you, and well, I care about you so I'm going to be here every step of the way from now on. We're family, Iris. You'll never have to live without me or your other brothers ever again." Leandro says, and then he kisses the crown of my head, and even though my brain screams at me to not allow it, my heart begs me to give my family a chance. So I allow it, I'll let him through all my walls and I'll care about him too.
"Where's the rest of our brothers, Leo?" I question, now genuinely concerned about why they're not here.
"I convinced them to go home, we all haven't slept in a while. They were here for the past three days though."
"Three days? I was out for that long?" Honestly, I'm kind of proud of myself for that. I've rarely ever slept for more than three hours at a time. This is incredible.
"Yes... Why do you look happy about it?" Leandro questions, blinking at me in confusion.
"It's nice to know I can sleep for that long." I reply with a shrug, this only makes him smile at me in response.
And today, for the first time in a long time, I have a feeling that things might just be okay in the long run. Maybe, just maybe there's hope for me yet.
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Hello people of the world, yes I'm actually alive 💀
I'm sorry yet again, there's just like zero motivation lately. Like to do ANYTHING.
But like seriously, thank you to like the five readers in the past three or so days for giving me the motivation to actually do something because I happen to be a people pleaser. 💀
Anywayyyyssss
Y'all have any guesses about where the story might be going yet? Bc I don't 💀
It's like everytime I write a new chapter, there's a new direction for the story to go.
Anywhooo
Thanks for reading
Love ya lots
Muah ♥
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Burning Ties
Teen FictionThe tale of an only girl born into a mafia family. Iris Romanov, the only girl born into both the Italian and Russian mafia was kidnapped, join her in her journey to find her way back to being herself when she's suddenly thrown back into a life with...
