HIDDEN

Chapter Four

Luca hurried down the stairs into the basement. The place looked more like a large office than an actual basement.

“ Lorenzo!”, he stood in the middle of the office and called out his father’s.

“ No need to shout”, Lorenzo said from behind him.

Luca turned to see his father walking down the stairs coming towards him. He was being accompanied by his old friend and family Doctor Agostino Morello. The old man looked tired and worn out and Luca wondered if he had been attending to that woman.

“ Father what did you get yourself into?!”, Luca asked with a serious tone.

“ Son I don’t have time for any of your sermons, not now. Please go in there and save her life”, Lorenzo pleaded with his son.

“Why do we have to save her life? Just let her die”, Luca said and his father looked at him with wide eyes.

“ How can you say something like that. You are a Doctor!”, his father said raising his voice.

“ Not to save people like her”, Luca answered calmly.

Lorenzo looked at his son and he knew Luca very well and that look on his face indicated that he was not going to save Elena’s daughter. He would have to tell him the truth, why he needed that young woman alive. One of his bodyguard who was inside with Mia Conti rushed out of the room with a worried look on his face.

“ What’s wrong Diego?”, Lorenzo anxiously asked his bodyguard when he saw the worried look on his face.

“ I think she’s dying”, he answered.

Lorenzo looked at his son with pleading eyes. Luca shook his head and then hurried inside the room, his father followed him closely behind. He asked his father and Diego to wait for him outside and asked Doctor Morello to accompany him as he shut the door.Luca walked straight to the heart rate monitor machine. It indicated that her heart rate was going down which meant she could go in cardiac arrest at any minute. The patient was unconscious and was lying on her back covered with a green bedsheet.

“ Her heart rate is too low, her oxygen level is decreasing. We need to stabilize her for the operation otherwise she will not make it. Have you checked her blood group? did a blood count? and you know the rest Doctor, I don’t have to tell you. I need the X tray”, Luca urgently said as he walked over to the sink and washed his hands.

He put on his gloves and cap then wore a blue gown over his clothes. Doctor Morello showed him the X tray and he noticed that the bullet had hit her in her right shoulder and luckily the bullet had missed the pulmonary hilum otherwise they could have had more complications. They couldn’t do a proper CT Scan so he couldn’t tell if there were other damages to any other tissues. Luca didn’t have any other choice, he will have to rely only on the X tray for the extraction of the bullet. The operation will be risky especially since they are not doing it in a proper hospital. If the operation is successful they will have to eventually find a way to sneak her into the hospital for a complete scan. Luca looked at the woman lying there lifeless, he will have to forget that he disliked this woman and her whole family, he will have to pretend that she was just one of his patients from the hospital.

Luca informed Dr. Morello that they had to monitor her heart rate closely and to make sure the defibrillator was ready at the time that they might need it. She had lost a lot of blood and they needed to do the blood transfusion straight away, luckily they had enough of her blood type from the blood bank from the hospital. He approached her and took a closer look at the bullet wound on her chest. His eyes glanced at her face, at her pale lips. It’s been ages since he last saw Mia Conti, now she was all grown up and her life was in his hands.

“ Ready?”, Luca asked Doctor Morello and the Doctor nodded.

They had to put the patient on general anesthesia, even if she was unconscious they didn’t want to take the risk that she might wake up in the middle of the operation. Doctor Morello kept his eyes on the heart monitor and checked her breathing. Using a scalpel, Luca made a small incision on her right shoulder, he looked at the screen at Mia’s X-tray. He ensured that he had enough light as he cut a little deeper. He grabbed a straight forceps and placed it in the small incision that he made and he felt the bullet, he slowly grabbed it with the forceps and slowly pulled it out and placed the small bullet in the metal bowl. He proceeded to stitch up the incision that he made which will definitely leave a small scar on her shoulder. Once he was finished he cleaned the stitched incision with some antibacterial solution and placed a medical gauze on the wound and finally he placed a waterproof bandage around her arm. He looked at Doctor Morello, the old man breathed a sigh of relief but the danger was not over. He hoped that there will be no complications with the blood transfusions, the next 24 hours was very crucial and they will have to keep monitoring her closely.

Luca was hoping that his father was not expecting him to stay the whole night, he will have to work in the morning and he definitely didn’t want to attend to this woman anymore. He had done his part and it was time for him to leave. He checked her I.V and then stood up and moved his head slowly from side to side. He walked over to the sink and removed his gloves and cap putting them in the waste bin.

“ You will have to monitor her heart rate the whole night and I hope she doesn’t get any complications with the blood transfusion or get a high fever”, Luca said to Dr. Morello.

“ Are you leaving?”, the old man asked him with a frown.

“ Yes, my job is done here”, Luca said as he walked over to the bed grabbed the metal bowl with the bullet, and walked out of the room.

Luca found his father pacing the room. He turned and looked at him with narrowed eyebrows.

“ What happened?”, Lorenzo anxiously asked.

“ I’ve removed the bullet. The next 24 hours are crucial, it’s only then that we will know if she will make it”, Luca coldly said and handed his father the bowl with the bullet.

“ But you cannot leave. Stay with her only for tonight. I know if she is in your hands then she will be saved. I promise you that tomorrow we will talk, I’ll tell you everything son”, Lorenzo pleaded with him.

“ Bring along with you a female bodyguard tomorrow morning. If she makes it, she will need to have a sponge bath and a change of clothes. I don’t think I should be the one to do that”, Luca said and his father nodded yes with a faint smile.

Luca noticed that he was tired and he didn’t want to argue with his father. He asked Mustafa to drive his father and Doctor Morello back home and without saying another word he walked back into the room where Mia was. Luca told the tired Doctor that he could go home and he didn’t miss the look of relief that crossed the old man’s face. He walked past him and gently patted him on the back as if he was thanking him for releasing him from such a big responsibility. Luca glanced at Mia, she was still unconscious and he checked the heart monitor. Her heartbeat had slightly improved, he checked the blood bag and then her IV. He shook his head and exhaled deeply. He stood there looking at Mia, he might have saved her life but Luca wasn’t proud of what he did. It was the first time that he had to operate on someone he hated and he considered her as one of his worst enemies. He knew that the feeling was mutual between them. She had once expressed that when they met at a birthday party of a mutual friend ages ago.

She must have been in her early teens and he was in his twenties. He was studying at medical school in the USA and had come back for a short holiday when one of his friends had invited him to attend his sister’s sixteenth birthday party. That’s when he met Mia Conti for the first time, she looked much younger than all the other girls who were attending the party. He thought that she was too young to feel any grudge against anyone but he was proven to be wrong when Alain introduced him to his sister and Mia was standing there next to her. He remembered the look in her eyes at the mention of his surname. She looked up at him, her honey brown eyes were filled with hatred and it was such a chilling expression that he remembers to this day. He had tested the water by extending his hand towards her for a handshake but in front of everyone, she had walked away leaving him standing there looking like an i***t. He remembered how he had wanted to shout at her that she was just a spoiled brat, the daughter of a murderer, but he had held his tongue. The pot couldn’t call the kettle black, he was in the same shoes as her. It was well known to him that his father was also involved in the dark world of the Mafias and he had often wondered if his mother wasn’t murdered by one of the mob leaders, as her death still remains a mystery for him.

He grabbed the broom and the dustpan and cleaned the pieces of cotton covered with blood which he had used for the surgery. He stretched his arms as he glanced back at Mia, she was lying there naked underneath the green cover and he wondered what she looked like now as a woman.

What are you thinking about! Seriously Luca!, he said to himself as he walked out of the room. He walked over to the mini-fridge, grabbed a bottle of water, opened it, and took a sip. Who would have guessed that his night would end up like this, he rather that he was back in his bedroom having some fun with Nathalie or Nathalia whatever that woman’s name was, anything else than being here taking part in his father’s drama. He hated getting involved in his father’s issues, he had often told him that it was high time that he changed his lifestyle and to put this dark world behind him for good . His father had promised him several times that he will stop all of those dirty transactions, things were getting more complicated and the other mob leaders were getting more dangerous. He will often think that his father had really changed until something like what happened tonight comes up then he gets disappointed again.

Lorenzo had transformed the basement into a personal space. He held his private meetings and turned one of the rooms into a private clinic, for his personal use. If one of his bodyguards would get injured with a bullet or in any other way and they didn’t want to arouse the police’s curiosity. The injured person will be brought to the clinic and will be attended to by Doctor Morello, but now he was getting too old and he couldn’t deal with these situations as efficiently as he used to. Often Luca would tell himself that his father encouraged him to pursue his interest in medicine because he will need a Doctor to eventually replace Dr.Morello. He ran a hand through his hair which was now dried and probably all messy, but he couldn’t be bothered with how he looked at the moment.

Luca walked back into the room and to his surprise, Mia’s eyes were opened and she was staring straight at the ceiling. Luca hesitated, he wondered what he should do. He slowly approached the bed and looked at her. Mia winced as she felt a sharp pain in her right shoulder, she felt the presence of someone in the room and she gazed at the handsome man standing at the foot of the bed that she was lying in.

“ Water”, she whispered softly.

Luca looked at her and wondered what he should do, he quickly walked out of the room and came back with a bottle of water. He poured some in a glass and grabbed a plastic pipette and filled it with some of the water. He shouldn’t give her a lot of water to drink, just enough to moisturize her lips.

Luca approached her and her honey brown eyes followed his every move. Mia looked at him as he approached her bedside and closed her eyes as she felt the droplets of water on her lips. She felt like she couldn’t move her entire body felt numb, but little by little she was feeling more conscious. She looked at the IV on her hand and then the bag of blood hanging on the metal pole and she wondered where she was. She started to feel anxious as she couldn’t remember anything , everything was blank as dark as darkness . Her heart rate started to increase.

“ Calm down”, Luca said trying to make sure that he sounded calm.

The young woman looked at him and for a moment he thought that she knew who he was as she looked at him with wide eyes and her eyelids were barely flickering.

“ Who are you?”, she finally spoke up.

Her voice was soft and she could barely pronounce the words. Luca didn’t answer, he was thinking about giving her something that will calm her down and put her to sleep at least until tomorrow morning. Mia didn’t like his silence, she closed her eyes and everything for her was still blank .She started to feel anxious again and then she looked at the man and whispered.

“ Who am I?”.