Chapter 6

"Vincenzo!"

I dashed over to hold him up. His arms hung limply by his side, and his eyes were tightly shut.

I immediately hugged him in my arms and screamed at the crowd of onlookers around us.

"Call the ambulance! Call the ambulance at once!"

By the time the ambulance arrived, my clothes were already half soaked through with Vincenzo's blood.

I followed him into the ambulance, my arms shaking so hard the entire time that I couldn't even hold on to his hand.

I kept telling myself again and again that Vincenzo was a liar. He was the one who had put me in this predicament, and he wasn't worth my concern or my emotions.

However, I still couldn't stop myself from getting frightened. I was so frightened that he would just die on me like this.

…

The emergency room light was on for a long time. It stayed lit up for so long that I thought it would be morning soon, but then it finally went off.

The doctor said that Vincenzo was out of critical condition now, and he just needed to stay for a night for further observation.

I heaved a sigh of relief and felt my legs turning to jelly, nearly dropping to my knees.

I never slept that whole night. Instead, I sat next to his hospital bed and watched his peacefully sleeping face instead.

Vincenzo's face was a literal carbon copy of Lorenzo's. I'd been seeing Vincenzo for three years, but this was the very first time I had ever observed him so quietly like this.

He had thick eyebrows, long eyelashes, and chapped, dry lips because he'd lost too much blood.

I reached out, wanting to touch him on the cheek. However, just as my fingers were about to touch him, I suddenly drew them back.

I told myself that I would only let this go on for tonight.

I would just pretend tonight that this man, now lying in the hospital bed, was really Lorenzo, the same man I'd been loving for three years, and he also loved me back.

When it was almost dawn, I quietly made my way out of the ward, thinking of grabbing him some breakfast for when he woke up later from the shops downstairs.

Ten minutes later, I returned with some hot chicken noodle soup.

The ward door had been left ajar.

I could hear Vincenzo inside, chatting on the phone with a smile in his voice.

"Damn it, you don't have to worry about a thing, Lorenzo! I was the one who arranged for this to happen so that I could save her like a damsel in distress.

"I was the one who hired the drunkard. He's a professional stunt actor and knows just how hard to hit me so it looks convincing enough. I'm not going to die."

I froze at once, my feet refusing to take another step forward. The container of piping-hot chicken noodle soup immediately dropped to the ground, spilling soup everywhere, but I didn't even notice that it scalded my hands.

"I only did this because I don't know what the hell Eliana's gotten into these days. She just won't let me fuck her anymore. She should be all fixed after this incident now, don't you think?

"Honestly speaking, Lorenzo, she has a mole on her boobs in the exact same location as the one on Fiore's body. I won't get in between you and her, but I'll just have to satisfy myself with Eliana as her stand-in."

He continued speaking afterward, but I could no longer hear another word he said.

It was smack in the middle of summer here in Deyork, and the sun was shining down brightly on me. However, I felt so cold and chilly that I shivered and shuddered with every fiber of my body from the roots of my hair down to the toes of my feet.

So, even Vincenzo saving me from the drunk pervert was fake after all.

I didn't know how I got back to the apartment after that.

I sat down on the couch and stared at the sky outside the window as it got lighter and brighter as the sun rose without moving a single muscle.

The door then opened, and Vincenzo strode right in.

His head was still wrapped up in gauze. When he saw me, he came up to me with a smile and wanted to pull me into his arms and kiss me like he always used to.

"Darling… Won't you give me some? I'm hungry…"

I refused to move. Instead, I used up every ounce of strength in my body and shoved him off.

"Fuck off," I said in a cold, chilly voice.

Vincenzo staggered backward and nearly fell.

He was completely caught off guard as he stared at me. Then, his eyes lit up in fury.

"You fucking ingrate, Eliana Torre! I nearly got killed last night while saving your life! And this is how you repay me?"

He grabbed his coat from the couch and left, slamming the door loudly behind him.

I sat alone in the darkness and finally broke down in sobs.

I cried until my tears went dry and my voice went completely hoarse. I couldn't produce another drop of tears anymore.

I didn't want anything Lorenzo or Vincenzo owed me anymore. I just wanted to leave them forever.