Eros's POV

*

I felt her warm, smooth back as my arms went around her and she leaned into my touch. I frowned when I opened my eyes to see she was getting dressed.

"You're getting ready now? Stay some more." I croaked.

I pecked her back and heard her heave a contented sigh.

"Eros, you know I can't. Your sister and mom will get to the store before me and I don't like that." She told me softly.

"I'll drive you there, kiss me." I bargained but she laughed softly.

"Nope. The the hickey you left on my thigh after asking for a mere 'kiss' yesterday morning is just fading, you chauvinistic man. Keep your lips to yourself."

"Maybe I need to leave another one on that luscious thigh then?" I raised my brows with a doting expression but she flipped me the bird and I went out to my bathroom to have a quick shower.

I watched her move around, applying cream to her beautiful body, putting on clothes and then her jewelries.

"Let me come with you. I'll get ready too in a bit." I took off my sweatpants in a hurry but slowed down when I found her ogling my body in a dreamy state.

I had tats from my elbow upwards and it trailed to my back where there were normal male hand shaped palms clasped together holding a rosary.

The ones on my upper arms were words written in Italian language which meant: Life is like a baton in a relay race. When it is passed to you, you have to pass it to others.

"I know you like what you see, I'm fulfilled as a man." I told her with a sly smirk as her cheeks flushed, eyes suddenly widening. "What do you say baby? Let's go together. Tell my mom you're going with me instead." I flashed her my dimples. They always had a deep, intense effect on her. Her expression turned indignant and I smiled.

"It's not right to see the bride in her wedding gown before the wedding day. Also, I can't ditch your mom. She's planned to see this day since forever and she is even more excited about this than I am." She argued.

"Okay, I'll just follow you since I'll be bored at home anyway." I shrugged and ruffled my hair, eyeing her like a lovesick puppy.

"Really?" Her eyes twinkled in excitement but she remembered something and looked away. "I think you should concentrate more on your work so you can get a good sleep. You slept very late last night."

"That's why I took today off. I need the rest and you're my stress reliever, I just don't know how you do it."

I left after eyeing her and enjoying her flustered expression. Chuckling, I went to have my bath and dress up but funny enough, she was still combing her untangled hair.

I fell into a daze while staring at her.

After my ex who broke up with me, I never knew I could love anyone as much as I loved her this moment...

*

"Eros..."

I looked up and blinked, feeling my muscles ache all around me. Just for how long had I been in this position? It didn't matter. She was in there, she'd been in there for hours. She was in severe pain.

"Mom." I murmured as she sat beside me and stayed quiet, a gesture I appreciate greatly at this time.

They'd found her.

My angel.

But she wasn't the same Angela from a week ago. She was hurt, and I wished I could take all her pain but I simply couldn't. She was all over the news, local and international. She was the woman that'd tried to jump down from a hotel balcony while two armed men in black were about to catch her. Before the jump, there'd been a white clothe wrapped around her head. Meaning some sort of harm had been inflicted on her.

I watched the video as it happened, replaying it over and over as the surveillance recorded it and it had even been taken from various angles. She'd been scared, but also unresponsive to some extent because she just jumped, as if she'd had no other choice. No second thought whatsoever.

Something had died in her before she jumped. Her hollow eyes from the side view, her resigned expression.

I saw her fall like a bird from the skies. Yes she fell right on a straw rooftop where a picnic was being held, thankfully, but she had been hit so badly that only through prayer and some miracle from the doctors would she be okay again.

Two days felt like forever.

A nurse approached and I got up to follow her as per the doctor's demand. We were at my grandmother's military hospital, managed by the very best experts. But that didn't ease any of my fears, as I awaited the doctors reports.

"I'll be back in a few minutes Eros. Let me get you something to eat." My mom told me and for the first time in twenty four hours, I didn't argue as I watched her leave before following the nurse.

Each step closer to the doctor's office felt ten times worse than the former.

I shut the door. The heaviness in my heart grew as a new wave of panic engulfed me.

"Mr Del Peiro." The doctor nodded and drew out his hand, which I gave a weak handshake- for the first time in my life.

"I-is she alive?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper as guilt ate at my insides. If anything more severe than what I'd seen happened to her, I would be the one to be blamed. I should've found her sooner.

She shouldn't have fought on her own.

They'd been operating on her while I was out there meeting with Pedro's parents. We should've met with them sooner but they flew out for an impromptu meeting. I'd taken the most available flight here as soon as I was notified.

"She's alive. She's still struggling to breathe at the moment because it appears that some kind of pressure had been put on the neck hours before or even during the attempted escape was made and there was a large cut on her left eyelid - which was quite deep- but according to the optician, there are no casualties."

My heart immediately jumped into my throat. "What?" I whisper yelled, my eyes reddening as I realized she could as well be blind on one eye at the moment.

Those blue-green eyes I loved staring at. My breath stuttered.

"Please calm down sir. She will still be able to effectively make use of the eye, we just need to give her some time to heal as she responds to treatment. She broke her right arm but it has been fixed and is currently healing as well. Lastly, she suffered some scrapes from glasses as well and a one and half inch broken glass, precisely from a broken plate was found to have been pierced deep in her left heel."

I gulped, realizing my throat was rough.

In one word, she was alive. But with so much injuries all over her body that she would have to endure for a very long time. She was in pain.

"When will she be able to come back to consciousness?" I struggled to ask.

"We'll put her on observation for the next thirty six hours."

"But everything will be fine? She won't like, forget me or anything, right? She didn't hit her head or anything, right?" I gestured with my right hand, seeking for confirmation and he shook his head.

"We'll update you on her steps to recovery. Be strong."

With that, I nodded and got up. "Can I see her?"

"Of course. Go ahead and see her."

I headed for the door, hopeful. I couldn't take her pain but I'd walk with her each step of the way.

I stopped and turned around. "Did you give her any pills? For the pain, I mean."

"She's been placed on-" he started, shaking his head to buttress his point but I'd have nothing of such.

"Please," I cut him off. "I don't want her in any sort of pain at all. Do whatever you can to make sure she doesn't feel any pain whatsoever. I'll take responsibility."

He blinked further. "Sir, her parents-"

"I'm her husband. Do it as I've requested." I bit out. My voice had turned cold and harsh but I didn't care. This was Angela so it didn't matter how I got my point across to him. I didn't want her in even the slightest pain, she'd gone through enough!

His expression turned solemn. "Alright sir, I'll have a nurse attend to her right now."

I smiled. It hurt to do that, because at the moment, a major part of me felt lifeless. "Thank you so much. For understanding."

I left afterwards and went straight to Angela's room. It was on the second floor. My lips parted as I sucked in a resigned breath and pushed the door open, hope spreading through me but my smile faltered and my breath got shaky.

I paused in my tracks.

The melody of fury blasted through me. It burned me deep down, to the deepest parts of my loins as I watched him hold her soft, delicate hands with a tensed stance. There was a flower, a single rose, at the foot of the bed. I pulled my gaze from the flower back to the criminal in question.

Pedro Denaro.

He had the guts to come here at this time, as if he wasn't currently an internationally wanted criminal for the kidnap and attempted murder of Angela Alfonsi, my fiancee. Good for him, because I would give him the beating he so deserved before he gets dragged out of here.

"My gravest mistake ever, was leaving you alone in that room. He should've taken you to his friend. Brown, I mean. He left me a video, expressing how sorry he was for leaving you there. Toby has also expressed how mad he is at my nonchalance but I swear on your life that I'm deeply sorry, my sweet dear. I came up with a plan, it can make all these better. The others don't think it's a great idea but I'm sorry I have to do this angel. It's for the best-" he rambled on, voice croaky. I realized he had a syringe in his hand, which I hadn't noticed earlier on since he'd just raised it up now and was about to insert it into her lower arm.

My legs were quick to move into action.

"You worthless piece of shit!" I thundered, landing a blow on the back of his neck. The effect had him flying forward and almost knocking over the IV drip attached to my Angel's arm. The plastic syringe fell but the sound of him crashing against the window was higher.

He took a while to recover, having being caught offguard. I denied him that benefit of recovery. Eyes red, I smacked him on both cheeks, still standing behind him in his hunched position and dragged him out of her room to avoid any further casualties.

He swung a fist into my stomach immediately I shut the door and that had me doubling over but my fury overpowered the pain and I kicked him in the nuts, landing punches in his sides as he howled in pain and agony over the murder of his family jewels. I caught sight of security guards running towards us from both sides and if anything, this further angered me.

I needed a chance to kill him with my own bare hands.

"Leave her alone! She doesn't love you, she doesn't want you and she certainly would never say 'I do' if you were on the altar with her. You disgust her!" I roared and ducked as he rammed his fist into my face.

I wasn't fast enough, because he still got me at the side of my face and my left eye blurred and stung. I reciprocated, punching him hard in the mouth before we sadly got pulled apart.

Trying to yank myself free proved futile. A nurse who was approaching turned around and ran off in alarm.

I kicked Pedro's stomach as he struggled in the guard's hold.

"I didn't lie to her! I didn't deceive her by saying I was a neighbor! I love her!" He shouted, out of breath, not looking like the high and mighty Pedro Denaro I'd heard about. Tears were rolling down his eyes and that only intensified my anger.

He had no right to shed even a single tear.

"Shut the hell up! Your love nearly cost her her life. She doesn't need yo- get your hands off me! Now!" I told the men and they released me, still standing close enough though. They were aware of my identity but I understood that they still needed to do their job. I took a deep breath to clear my unnerved self, still shaking in fury. "She doesn't need you, Pedro Denaro. Can you see what she did to get away from you? She attempted suicide. You and the rest of those psychos in you should despise yourself for such a deed. Don't come near her again. That is, if you escape jail!"

I huffed and left him there, going back in to see my angel.

My tears gushed out in full force the moment I was back in there and staring at her weak, frail form on the bed. The things that fell when I was beating that bastard had been replaced to their rightful places and a nurse was now attending to my angel.

Slowly, I shut the door and went to stand beside her.

My eyes blurred. I raised my hand to touch her but it trembled. Shakily, it fell back to my side.

I sat beside her, staring at her face.

There were tubes connecting to some parts of her body and one directly to her mouth. My index finger softly grazed her cheek and I hissed. The cut on her eyelid looked bad. And purple.

One hand was bandaged. She was in pink and white polkadot hospital dress. The small hair beside her ear looked caked with a thick substance which I prayed wasn't blood.

Her cheeks were unharmed though. I pecked her injured eyelid and hoped I wouldn't be getting germs on it by doing so and that reminded me that I needed to take a good, long shower. I'd probably be stinking by now, if not for my strong cologne.

My gaze traveled down to Angela for the umpteenth time and my heart burned as I listened to the heart monitor.

She looked broken, and hurt. And wounded.

But she was brave. She was my fighter, who'd never give up and keep fighting for what she loved and that made hope swell in me. She was my fighter. We would live through this.

*

SERIOUSLY UNEDITED. Will come back to it as soon as I can and then edit it a thousand times. Lol. I do hope you guys are doing okay though. Take care. Kisses!