Heartless Ending Book 3 of the Heartless Series

Chapter 3 - Recovery

Carmela's POV

"This is ridiculous." I screamed at the doctor that told me I had to stay in bed. "I want to get up. Now." He sighed. "You have sustained too much trauma, your body needs time to heal." He tried to reason with me, but I wouldn't have it. He left me alone like he always did because I was so unreasonable and always shouted at him. It had been 6 months. 6 fucking months and I was getting sick and tired of this room, the same old routine. I manoeuvred the bed to a sitting position and used my arms to slowly move my legs over the side of the bed and dragged myself to the edge, it had been 2 weeks since I had woken up and 5 and half months since... the incident. I still couldn't bring myself to say the words.

"What are you doing?" Timo yelled at me and came rushing over to put me back into bed. I held up my hand to him stopping him in his tracks. "I am getting out of this bed. I'm sick of being an invalid. I want my baby back and I want my revenge for so many things." I still didn't know the sex of my child, I didn't know if I had a beautiful baby boy or girl, I hadn't held them in my arms or looked upon their beautiful face. I forced tears away from my eyes and took in a deep breath trying to calm myself. Tears wouldn't help me in any way, I had to be strong and get back on my feet.

I could feel the cold laminate flooring beneath my toes as I inched forward and could start to put my feet flat on the floor, my feet felt tingly as I put pressure through them. I mentally prepared myself and pushed up from the bed finally putting weight through my feet and instantly fell, luckily before I hit the floor Timo caught me and sat me in the chair at the side of the bed. "Carmela, your gunna have to be patient. You have coma induced weakness and muscle loss in your legs. It's took you 2 weeks to get your arms to work properly." I felt defeated. If I couldn't walk, then I couldn't get my baby back. This thought taunted me every day, driving all of my fears to the surface. "I just want my baby back." I whispered looking down at the floor, as a tear fell down my cheek. Timo rubbed my arm. "I know, and we will. But first you need to take care of yourself and we need to find out where they went." I nodded. "Is there any news?" He looked away from me not wanting to make eye contact, I knew what that meant.

I wanted him to fill in the blanks from that day. Since I was left for dead to where I was now, recovering. Timo had been trying to find out any information he could on Romeo's whereabouts, although it was proving difficult, he was still optimistic. He had tried to access the old estates system that they used to use but it had been disconnected about a week after I got here. Leaving Timo with no leads.

"Why did you never go to the upstate mansion after you woke up?" This question had hounded me for a while, he could be with Romeo now, his best friend... and my baby. He sighed. "After I woke up, I couldn't find anyone alive and when I saw Stefano's men haul your bleeding body out of that place, I couldn't think about anything else but finding you. I began to run for the treeline to the east, our van wasn't too far away and wanted to catch up to them. The pain in my side and shoulder blazed but I pushed myself faster, Leo rounding the opposite side of the house catching my attention. He saw more than I did and asked me as he got closer why he left with them, and I couldn't answer him. After I found you in that alley, I saw that they had taken your baby from you and I didn't want to be with anyone that could do that." His voice was grave, barely above a whisper as he said this. "Thank you. I don't believe I've ever thanked you for saving my life." I replied sadly and patted the back of his hand. "Your welcome." My eyes started to droop, and I didn't want to ask but there were no other way. "Timo?" He looked at me through tired eyes. "Could you help me back into bed please. I'm so tired." He smirked at me and nodded. He stood by my side as I pushed up from the chair, he supported and guided me two steps towards the bed, but I didn't have the energy to lift myself onto the bed, he saw my struggle and scooped me into his arms, and he placed me in the middle of the bed. Once I was back in comfort the relief of my screaming muscles dulled and I was taken under by sleep quickly.

I was woken sometime later by the nurse checking on me and giving me much needed pain killers. "Thank you, Sheila." I said after I had gulped them down. "I hear you had quite the eventful day." She looked expectantly at me, like a mothers disappointed glare after their child had disobeyed them. "I needed to get out of this bed, I can't take it anymore." She nodded understanding. "I have a friend that's a physiotherapist. I've asked him to stop by tomorrow and come help with your rehabilitation." My eyes went wide with excitement, I was practically bouncing in the bed. "But you have to understand this will take a long time." She reprimanded me for my eagerness.

That first session with Ben was slow, we started with exercises to just move my feet in bed, this was to regain muscle and rotation of my legs and ankles. I spent the full hour flexing my ankle back and forth, left and right and trying to lift my leg up and support it myself for 5 seconds. It sounds like nothing, like it would be easy, but in fact it was harder than I thought. I didn't manage to hold my leg up, but I did manage to twist my ankle from side to side a few times. It took a full week to be able to get my legs moving properly on their own again, but not as long as my arms took while doing it on my own, I was angry and frustrated at the end of each session with Ben, as he put it, 'I was expecting too much in one go.' I don't think any of them understood my urgency in this situation, but I had to give them there due, without any of their help I would not even be alive.

I spent the next year in and out of Dr Kent's care for various reasons, mostly because my rehabilitation took too long, 4 more months to be exact. After that, I pushed myself too hard in training to get back to fighting strength, but also once because my abdominal wound got infected and I developed sepsis, this then caused me to have another surgery and put me back at square one, and another 3 weeks in the hospital. Each time I got knocked back it only fuelled my desire to get back out of this place and start training again. I needed to train to distract myself from not having any information and still not knowing the whereabouts of my child. It was killing me, each time I touched my stomach was an agonising reminder that I lost my bond to that tiny person that was growing inside me. New thoughts started to torment my mind, what if my child doesn't remember me? What if I never find them?

I punched the punching bag harder at every problem I thought about, every knock back I experienced and for every day I was parted from my child, my knuckles were raw and bleeding but that didn't curb my anger at the situation. Romeo was supposed to protect us, to stop our grandfathers from taking what was ours but instead he let them have what they wanted. He stopped fighting for us, I saw it in his eyes that day just before the darkness took over me.

He chose our child which is what I wanted him to do if the worst should happen to me, but disappear from the face of the earth wasn't in the plans. Maybe he was underground to protect our child, maybe it was the only way, but deep down I knew it was because he had become a lap dog of his grandfather. The realisation that day was devastating and heart breaking and there wasn't anything I could do about it.

Timo, myself and Leo all moved into an apartment across the street from my last residence, this was so we could keep tabs on that place in case Romeo ever visited it. I didn't think he ever would, but Timo thought he might because he would miss me or some shit like that. The space was large, modern and high tech thanks to the boys, but I didn't mind it was an upgrade to the system that I had in my apartment and as a gift they installed a training room for me. I was so touched at the gesture, it was sweet of them to think of me. Leo had well stocked us with weapons. I got pissed off one day and went round to my old place and got some of my daggers, clothes and personal effects. Timo got mad at me for this, but I didn't care, it was my birthday and I was particularly frustrated as it marked another 6 months of nothing.