All Chapters of One Night Stand With My Future Uncle In Law : Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Gabriella POV The buzzing woke me up.My phone was on the nightstand and it was vibrating so hard it was moving across the wooden surface. The screen was bright, cutting through the dark room. I reached for it with my right hand while Mariano slept beside me. His arm was still heavy across my waist, pinning me to the mattress.I looked at the screen. Mom. Calling for the fifth time.My heart started beating faster before I even swiped the screen to answer. My mother never called this early in the morning. She never called five times in a row. Something was completely wrong."Mom?" My voice was scratchy and thick from sleep. I slid carefully out from under Mariano's heavy arm, lifting it off my waist, and walked quickly to the bathroom so I would not wake him up. I shut the door halfway. "Mom, what is going on?""Gabriella." Her voice was high and strained. She was crying hard. I could hear the breathlessness in the way she said my name. "Gabriella, where are you? Are you safe right n

Gabriella's Pov The light was too bright. I opened my eyes and immediately regretted it. Everything was a searing, bleached white. The world was blurry, out of focus, and my head felt less like a part of my body and more like a hollow cavity where a rhythmic, sickening pounding was echoing. I tried to shift my weight, to roll onto my side away from the glare, and a sharp, white-hot pain shot through my shoulder. A ragged groan caught in my throat, and I squeezed my eyes shut again, praying the darkness would swallow the ache. "Gabriella? Can you hear me? Gabriella, try to stay still." A woman's voice. Soft, urgent, and smelling faintly of sanitized lavender. I forced my eyelids open again, fighting against the heavy, leaden weight of them. This time, the blurry shape hovering directly above me slowly coalesced into a sharp image: a woman in crisp white scrubs. Her face was kind, lined with premature wrinkles around the mouth, but her eyes were wide and worried as she checked the

Gabriella POV "You don't care!" I screamed, breaking down completely, my whole body sobbing so hard the monitors began to beep erratically again. "You don't care about a person's life! A man is dead! Mariano is... he might be..." I couldn't even force the words out. The word dead felt like swallowing glass. "And all you can do is interrogate me?! All you can do is ask about lies and rules and schedules?! Someone's life has just ended! Let them settle where he is! Let them find him before you start screaming at me!"I buried my face in my good arm, my chest heaving with ugly, gasping sobs that shook the entire bed. My mother threw her arms around me, while my father slowly stepped back, his face suddenly washing over with a guilty shock. He looked at his shaking hands, realized what he had done, and turned away, staring blankly at the floor.The suffocating weight of the grief in the room was unbearable. We were a family completely fractured by panic, tearing each other apart because

Gabriella's Pov Davis touched his reddened cheek with his fingertips. He turned his head slowly and looked back at me. The coldness in his dark eyes did not waver at all."You should not have done that, Gabriella," he said very quietly."I will do it again," I said, glaring at him. "Do not test me. Do not say another word about him.""Gabriella—""Mariano is not going anywhere," I interrupted, leaning toward him. "Do you hear me? He is not going anywhere. He is still a part of this family. He is still a part of my life. And if anyone in your branch of the family hears you talking about him like he was just an obstacle to be cleared, you will be in serious trouble with the rest of the board."Davis let out a short, harsh laugh. "You actually think anyone cares about Mariano? You think anyone in my family actually respected that man? They were all just terrified of him. That is not the same thing as respect, Gabriella.""Then they should have been scared of him," I snapped. "Because co

Gabriella's Pov"Not yet," Vincent said, putting the device back into his pocket. "But he will. He cannot help himself when he thinks he has won. You need to know something else, Gabriella. Whatever happens from this moment on, you cannot tell a single soul about this. Not your father. Not your brother Raphael. No one. Do you understand the risk?""I understand," I said."Good." Vincent adjusted his collar as a noise came from the hallway. "Your parents are coming back down the corridor right now. I need to leave immediately. Remember exactly what I told you. Act like he is dead. Pretend you are completely broken inside. Let Davis think he has won everything."The heavy door opened. My mother walked back into the room. Behind her, my father stepped in and closed the door.Vincent stepped away from my bed instantly. His entire expression shifted in a split second. The hardness and the urgency vanished completely from his features. In its place was the somber, respectful face of a griev