- b e l l a -"Bella, can you hear me?" I heard a lady-like voice question. My arm moved randomly, pulling at something that was held against me. "It's okay. If you can hear me, I want you to squeeze my hand," I said before the feeling of the hand slipping into mine could be felt. Slowly, I squeeze the small hand into a grasp before slowly letting go."That's real good, Bella. I dimmed down the light in here a bit, so now I'm going to need you to open your eyes," she said. Slowly, my eyes peeled back only to be met with the lady's soft brown ones. She sent me a bright smile before nodding her head."Very good! Now look into this light. I know it may hurt, but it is really important. Follow it with your eyes without moving your head," she said. I watched the light shine into my eyes before she began to move it side-to-side. The pain from looking so long began to make me have a headache.She turned off the light, a smile still on her face. Then, she reached over and handed me a cup of
I figured that was a conversation for another time. "So if you and I were never really stepbrother and stepsister, wouldn't that make this whole thing kind of boring and a bit misleading?" I asked jokingly. He had a look of ponder as he looked up towards the tip of the ceiling."I guess it would," he laughed out. I turned over to where the doctors and nurses once were to see that they had already left. I watched as he picked up our sleeping Andrea who must've fallen asleep during our conversation.Just as he grabbed the baby, the door swung open and a very cheerful Anastasia ran into the room. Her hands were on her face as a shocked expression took over her features. A few minutes later, Valentino walked in."I can't believe it! You're awake! Oh, my god am I dreaming again, or is this real?" She asked, her accent coming on strong once again. I can recall the fact that her accent was only stronger when she was overwhelmed with any emotion."Anastasia!" I called out. She quickly walked
"Andrea, I said to stop doing that," I exclaimed. He had come home from school with a call his teacher had given me. Once again, she notified me of his fighting at school."It wasn't my fault! He was picking on a girl for no reason. Papa always told me to defend those who can't defend themselves. Volevo solo aiutare, ma," he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Shaking my head, I grabbed his arm and pulled him towards his father. [I only wanted to help ]"I swear he acts more like Valentino than Valentino acts like himself," I said, rolling my eyes before letting him go. Alex looked at Andrea before his eyes went up to me."What happened?" He asked."Andrea decided it would be fun to get into only his third fight this week. They're talking about suspending him, and he's only nine years old," I explained before sitting right beside Alex on the couch. Andrea stood in front of us, an eyebrow raised in a question."What did I tell you about fighting? Combattere senza scop
"Anastasia!" he shouted back, cheerfully. We have always suspected of the crush he had on Anastasia. He liked her from the second he could talk. I remember how for months he'd been asking if Anastasia could come visit us here in Italy. Now that she's here, I could just feel his excitement.She bent down, but instead of kissing his lips, she kissed his cheek. A pout was present on his face, but it didn't last long when Valentino walked in side-by-side with Alex."You still trying to get a kiss from my wife?" Valentino asked, smirking slightly. Andrea looked over at him before narrowing his eyes. "If you hadn't come first, she would be my wife right now."My eyebrows raised as I watched him roll his eyes. I hoped Valentino's lifestyle wouldn't rub off on him, but it seemed like there was no way of stopping how much he was exactly like his uncle. I thought my son would come out like the man I had him with, but who would have guessed that he'd turn out to be the complete opposite?"I hear
VALENTINOAs I held my weeping baby brother in my arms, I could only stare out at the mess. The blood and dead bodies were littered in front of me, breaking my heart. The faces of my pregnant mother and my stepfather would be burned into my memory forever. I was going to have a sister—our family was going to be complete. Then, in just a blink of an eye, they were gone, leaving me with my younger half-brother, Alex.I could still remember sitting there at the kitchen table eating my favorite soup. My mother had the most beautiful smile on her face as she talked about the weather outside. She loved the rain, she loved everything it represented. As she went on and on about the old times when she would go outside and play in the rain all on her own, I rolled my eyes. Her words were strange, but I wished I could take it all back now. I wished I would have paid more attention and asked more questions to keep that smile on my mother’s face, but I didn’t. I ignored her.Everything happened wa
AnastasiaI was prepared to become a woman when I was just a little girl. Childhood vanished before my eyes. That’s what happens when you rid someone of love. You open the doors to darkness without letting them realize there could ever be color. I want to say that I blamed my mother, but the only way I could do that was to also blame her mother, and then the mother of her mother.The heat that escalated through my body only seemed to grow as I tried to ignore it. The longer I tossed and turned, the more the temperature pricked my skin. A sigh escaped my lips as I just lay there in a pit of sweat, hoping it wasn’t affecting my sister as much as it was affecting me.“Nana,” Aria called out from the other side of the room. “Mum didn’t pay the electricity bill again, did she?”“Stay here, I’ll figure it out,” I whispered before getting up from the mattress.We weren’t fortunate enough to own anything to lift our bed off the ground. We were lucky enough to simply have a mattress.I walked
I looked over at Aria to see that her nose was bleeding. The longer I watched her, the quicker I realized that her eyes were shut as she stared at Mum. I couldn’t help but also notice how unevenly her body seemed to sway.“Aria, are you okay?”I hurriedly walked over to the restroom, grabbing as much toilet paper as I could. Promptly, I held it up to her nose as my heartbeat seemed to race. My brows were furrowed as hope began banging on the door to my heart that Aria would be okay.“Nana, I don’t feel too good,” she whispered. It wasn’t the first time she had her nose bleed. She had been having them for the past few weeks. However, I had never seen her so drained before.I walked her to the bed, and I helped her lay down. My eyes scanned her body and saw many bruises and red spots. She looked terrible, and my constant work made it challenging to notice any of this.“We need to take her to a hospital, now!” I exclaimed.“For a nosebleed? Really, Anastasia? It’s probably just the heat,
AnastasiaLeukemia. My little sister had stage four leukemia. No matter how hard my mind tried to grasp that there was almost nothing the doctors could do, I failed.I stared at my sister, who was sleeping soundly due to the medicine the doctor had given her. I couldn’t help but pace back and forth around the room as I tried calling my mother over and over again. At first, it seemed as if she were ignoring my calls, but it soon turned into every call I made going to voicemail.Throwing myself on the chair, I brought my hands up to my face as tears streamed down my face. I could only focus on the dust that fluttered around the room as I thought about not being able to see my sister again. Never in my life could I imagine having to bury my little sister. She was always supposed to outlive me.A knock sounded on the door, leaving me with a mere moment to wipe my tears away before it opened. A woman strolled in wearing a smile on her face. I knew she could see how I had just been crying