LOGINOLIVIAThe air smelled like antiseptic and medicines. And I found myself in that same situation, on a hospital bed, screaming as I pushed something out of me.“I… I can’t do it anymore,” I cried.“You’ve got to keep pushing,” a voice said firmly. “Your baby is almost here.”I groaned and pushed with all the strength inside me, but it wasn’t… enough. Weakness took over my whole body, and I struggled for air.“My insides…” I gasped. “They’re ripping apart.”Hands tapped my cheeks and thighs, trying to jolt me back to the moment so I wouldn’t pass out. I pushed and pushed with everything in me, screaming at the top of my lungs.“Mrs. Olivia?”A voice echoed in my ears, but I’d already transitioned from that room. I was in another living room, holding my baby in my arms while a… man screamed at me to get out of his house.“Leave!” He screeched. “Get this witch out of here right now.”“Mrs. Olivia?”The same voice kept calling me. I searched around, but nobody was there. It was just me,
AXEL SALVATORE ROSSI“Where’s she now?”Elizabeth asked as I walked into the kitchen, her eyes staring at me with pity and concern.I walked straight to the fridge for an ice pack, my voice barely above a whisper. “She’s asleep.”She sighed in frustration. “I’m sorry you had to endure that. She’s never lost her temper like that.”I knew.And it was the same reason why I didn’t try to reprimand or stop her from reacting. A lot of things were happening to her at once, so it was normal for her to feel rage.I opened the fridge and retrieved an ice pack to place beneath my eyes. Olivia threw a shoe at me and it bruised the spot.“Where’s Alix?”“Sleeping as well.” She stirred the pot on the stove. “I thought you had a chef?”Rosa.I hadn’t heard anything from her or Viper. Knowing she’d committed a crime by lacing my medications with xylazine was enough reason for her to keep her distance.As for Viper, I couldn’t pinpoint why he was running away. Maybe he was working with Nelly… or Leon
OLIVIA“Do you want anything else?” Mum asked me later that evening, but I shook my head in response. She sighed tiredly, her fingers raking through my hair.“I’m sorry you’re going through all these,” her eyes stared pitifully at me. “You don’t deserve any of the things happening to you right now.”I curled my lips into a small smile, gently reaching for her other hand. I had no idea what had happened, but seeing her healthy and alive made every pain inside me disappear.“Axel said it’s only going to take a few weeks before you find your voice again.”Axel.My stomach always tightened up whenever I heard his name.I retrieved my phone from the top of the pillow next to me, then began to type slowly.“Is he holding you hostage?” I asked through my screen.Mum read it and shook her head. “Not at all.”Believing her words was difficult for me because I knew how manipulative Axel could be.I typed again. “Did he bring you here himself?”“No.”I glanced at her face, searching for somethi
OLIVIA“We’ll be home soon.”That was what he said to me—Axel. When he tried to reach for my hand to hold, I pulled away immediately.I didn’t want him holding or touching me. And I still couldn’t get why Isabella insisted that I leave with him.All I saw in my mind was a man who’d done nothing but hurt me. He was the reason I’d gotten shot in the first place—the last face I had seen before passing out.His countenance shifted after I refused to let him touch me. I sat close to the door of the car, making sure he sat far away from me.Minutes later, we arrived at his estate and I got down before he could open the door for me. Axel walked up to me and tried to hold my hand again, but I flashed him a cold glare, clutching my phone tightly.“I just want to take you inside, Olivia,” his voice cracked softly. “I’m not trying to hurt you.”I didn’t believe any of that. I turned to the entrance and began to walk in. Staring around the familiar space, I noticed the few changes.It was far di
AXEL SALVATORE ROSSI.“Salvatore,” Damien called behind me, his footsteps echoing after mine. “Just listen for a second”No.I didn’t want to listen, or hear anything else. Everything I’d heard and seen in the hospital room was enough to make my eyes form with tears.Eventually, I halted, but it didn’t stop my heart from twisting violently in my chest.Damien caught up with me, halting two feet away. I turned to face him with narrowed eyes, doing everything to hold back the tears in them.“Don’t do this.”“Do what?”“Walk away,” he said firmly. “How’re you going to pull through this if you can’t even handle the truth?”We stood outside the hospital’s building, with passerbys staring as they walked in and out.My throat tightened. “The truth? Did you even hear what the doctor said?”“Salvatore—‘’“—She lost her memories,” I uttered shakily. “You saw what she did back there. She stared at me like I was some kind of monster that terrified her.”I replayed Olivia’s actions that occurred e
AXEL SALVATORE ROSSIONE MONTH LATER…The hospital became my second home and the only place I constantly slept in for days. I hated the smell of antiseptic and medicine, but had no other choice as it constantly whipped my nostrils without remorse.Isabella and I had been discharged weeks earlier, but Olivia still hadn’t woken up. She’d remained in a coma, and the doctors had no idea when she’d wake up.Rosa and Viper were nowhere to be found, and honestly, they weren’t even a part of the things on my mind.I needed Olivia to wake up. I wanted to see her again smiling and talking to me.That fateful afternoon, I sat next to her bed, my hand gently brushing against her cheeks.The heart monitor continued its steady rhythm as Olivia lay unconscious beneath the white hospital sheets. Apart from the machines surrounding her, the room was silent.She lay face up on the bed, unaware of the constant pain that tugged at my heart, and that sight of her that shattered everything inside me.I’d
OLIVIA“So this is it now?” Darren asked as he stormed after me, his voice cracking. “You’re cheating on me with Axel?”I halted in my tracks, my fists clenching while I tried to release the tension in my chest. Slowly, I turned around to face him, ignoring the way his eyes glistened with tears.I
AXEL SALVATORE ROSSI.Two hours had passed since Olivia left. And I couldn’t stop thinking about everything that had transpired between us.I wanted to go after her, to talk to her and make her stay a little longer. But Rosa had held me back from doing any of that.She said time was what Olivia nee
OLIVIADarren continued to kiss me. His hands tightened around my waist, guiding me towards the bed behind us.At first, I didn’t reciprocate. Then, it got intense, and I could barely breathe from the roughness of his lips against mine.“Darren…” I moaned in his mouth, my chest tightening.He didn’
AXEL SALVATORE ROSSI.“What?” Her eyes widened. “You can’t call off the wedding?”Yes, I could. And I already did.I stepped closer, approaching her with slow, deliberate steps. Nelly locked her eyes onto me, watching every move. My feet walked towards the broken shards, threw my cigarette down, a







