Chapter 7

[Alessia's POV]

I had no idea how much time had passed before I finally came to. I lay there, listening to the muffled voices outside the door.

It was Cecilia. Her voice was thick with sobs, soft and pitiful. "Vito… I'm sorry. I really don't know how Alessia ended up in the morgue. I was just joking with her when I told her I put the jewelry there and she could head there to look for it. I didn't think she'd take me seriously…

"Now she's called the police. They came knocking and accused me of unlawful imprisonment… What am I supposed to do?"

Vito was quiet for a moment. Then, he said reassuringly, "I've already signed a settlement with the police as Alessia's family member. It'll be fine, so don't be scared."

I lay on the cold hospital bed, listening to them, feeling like my heart was being sliced open. Cecilia had locked me in the morgue and almost made me freeze to death, yet Vito had just brushed it off and signed a settlement for her.

I grabbed the glass medicine bottle by my hand and, using every ounce of strength I had, hurled it viciously at the door. A moment later, the door swung open. Vito walked in with Cecilia at his side.

I pushed myself up to sit, my eyes blazing with fury as I stared hard at Vito. "She locked me in the morgue and almost made me freeze to death. How could you just casually sign a settlement and let her off the hook?"

A trace of something complicated flashed in his eyes when he took in my disheveled state, but his tone was still blatantly protective. "Cecilia was just being immature and joking around with you, Alessia. She didn't think you'd take her seriously."

"A joke?" I sneered. "You know what I'm like, Vito. I'm not letting this go so easily."

He pinched his nose bridge, his voice edged with exhaustion. "Then what do you want?"

I ignored him and looked straight past him, issuing an order to the bodyguard at the door. "Get me a 45-pound weighted gear set!"

The bodyguard froze for a second, instinctively glancing at Vito. Vito nodded.

Soon, a weighted vest and sandbags were brought in and laid out on the floor. I pointed at them and looked at Cecilia, saying icily, "You're going to carry all of that and run six miles around the back lot of the hospital. Once you finish, we'll call it even."

"What?" Cecilia's eyes widened in disbelief. She immediately turned to Vito, tears welling up again. "Vito, I… my body can't handle that. The doctor said I can't do intense exercise!"

Vito's head snapped toward me and said sharply, "Alessia, don't be ridiculous. You know what Cecilia's condition is like. This could kill her!"

"She didn't think about whether it would kill me when she locked me in the morgue, did she?" I retorted.

Cecilia stared at the pile of sandbags, her face drained of all color. She trembled uncontrollably.

In the end, Vito drew in a long breath, shrugged off his suit jacket, and began strapping the sandbags onto himself. "Fine. If this is what you insist on, then I'll do the running on her behalf."

"Vito, you can't! Your injury isn't healed yet!" Cecilia cried.

"I'm fine." His voice was calm, as if this were nothing more than a minor inconvenience.

I watched him. Seeing how far he was willing to go for Cecilia's sake made me feel like a knife had been driven straight into my chest, leaving me bleeding out inside.

Once Vito finished securing the weights, he looked at me. Exhaustion and warning both flickered in his eyes. "I'll run for Cecilia. When I'm done, I hope you'll stop making things hard for her."

I didn't answer. I just stared back at him coldly.

He turned and started toward the back of the hospital. But the second he turned his back, I lunged forward, grabbed Cecilia, and dragged her toward the stairs.

Her sharp screams echoed through the stairwell as I hauled her outside. Then, mustering all my strength, I kicked her straight into the hospital's man-made lake, its surface crusted with a thin layer of ice.

She shrieked as she crashed into the frigid water.

Vito chased after us when he heard her screams. The moment he saw what was happening, his face went red with rage. He roared, "Alessia, what the hell are you doing?"

I stood at the edge of the lake and looked at him, my gaze as cold as the water was. "She likes frosty places like the morgue, so I gave her a bigger freezer than that. Isn't this a good thing?"

Fury surged in his gaze, but he didn't have time to waste on me. He dove straight into the lake.

In his panic, as he jumped, his elbow slammed hard into me where I stood on the bank. I was caught off guard and staggered backward from the impact. My feet slipped on the frosty ground, and my head whipped back, cracking against a heavy decorative stone behind me.

Pain exploded through my skull. Warm blood gushed from the back of my head, quickly staining the stone red. My vision went dark around the edges.

Through the blurring and the spinning in my eyes, I could just barely make out Vito fighting through the icy water toward Cecilia. He carefully pulled her into his arms and frantically called her name.

From beginning to end, he didn't spare even a single glance for me as I bled out on the shore.

I gritted my teeth and pressed a hand hard to the wound at the back of my head, forcing myself to stay upright through the throbbing pain and dizziness. Then, step by step, I turned away and walked off.