Chapter 24
Luca’s POV
I walked out of the hospital room and closed the door quietly behind me, the ever distracting facial
expression of Sofia when I had informed her that I was leaving, and the look she had worn throughout
the small conversation that urred between us before the doctor came in, was still brightly imprinted
on the front of my mind. I inserted my hands deep into my pants pockets and nced at the roof of the
hallway of the hospital, directly staring into the security cameras located on the four corners of the roof.
I got into one of the empty elevators and sighed silently when someone ced his foot in between the
doors, stopping it from sliding close, and it slid back open after a fleeting seconds to reveal the face of
someone I’d rather not see at the moment.
“Good day, Luca.”
“What are you doing here, Richie?” I sighed out in a voice void of any emotion a few minutes after he
had made his way into the elevator to stand on the other side of the elevator, keeping a wide amount of
space between us.
Richie and I had been friends, once. It was a long time ago, when we were still kids. Identifying him as
one of my ex friends seemed too far-fetched. Richie and I were never all that close, we were both
involved in the mafia somehow, that was one of the many things that made us start talking at first.
Being in the mafia from birth and getting brought up in a particr lifestyle, meant even the school I
went to while growing up, knew the kind of lifestyle their kids'' parents were into. The school had its own
bodyguards which was to keep the whole students safe and protected from anyone and anything– their
mantra was: once your childes into our school, their well-being and safety is automatically
entrusted into our arms, right until they leave the school premises. If anything was to befall any of the
students while in the school premises, the school would get sued and would have to pay whatever due
requested by the child’s parents.
Richie and I met one day during break, in the yground. I could remember everything as clear as day,
it might have happened decades ago, but my retentive memory was sharp as fuck.
“Visiting the hospital, obviously.” Richie replied in a low voice and I studied him from our reflections in
the mirrors of the elevator doors.
“Could have fooled me, thought you were tailing me and wanting to all up in my business.” I mused
after a few seconds, my voice carrying a air of authority like it normally does.
Despite all that has gone down between us in the past, he’d always have to be respectful to me,
whether he wants to or not.
“I can’t do that, I have more… important things up on my sleeves.” He replied and I watched as a scowl
crept into his once rxed facial expression, making the lines in his forehead more prominent and
outlined.
I didn’t bother giving him any other reply, I was obviously bigger than him mentally and would be acting
like the bigger person here, because that was usual style and I wasn’t going to be changing that
because of Richie.
The elevator finallynded on thest floor and slide open, I puffed my chest out and moved my
shoulders around a little without taking my hands out of my pants pocket as I made my way out of the
elevator, vividly aware of Richie falling into steps behind me.
“Er, a word, Luca?” His voice finally drifted up from his spot behind me and I slowed down before
pausing in my tracks.
“What’s that?” I demanded without bothering to face him, I wasn’t worried about Richie trying anything
stupid on me like stabbing me in my neck now that my back was turned to him, or blowing my brains off
because I wasn’t looking at him.
Richie and I might have a past together, but that didn’t stop him from being automatically part of the
mafia family.
Not like I trusted anybody in the mafia.
“I want to talk to you about something, I might need your help for something important and…” He
started to say almost immediately, in a voice low and barely audible. Only a few people were walking
around here on thest floor and some of those said people were throwing me curious nces, while
some were openly looking at me and drinking me up.
I was used to getting this kind of attention wherever I go, here in the mafia, and in some neighboring
mafias. I wasn’t popr in the states and I was extremely thankful and grateful for that.
People in the states were not aware of the fact that this kind of lifestyle we live out here was indeed a
reality here and not a fictional story like they used to think it only was. Only a few people who were also
involved in the underground business were aware of the kind of things our lifestyle entails, which was a
really good thing.
“Make an appointment with my secretaries ande see me, we will discuss whatever you want us to
discuss then.” I said to Richie who was still standing behind my shoulder, my voice just as low as his
was, moments ago.
“I...” He wanted to say something else at first, it was obvious in the stall in his voice before he finally
replied, “Alright, thank you.
I didn’t say a thing to that, nor acted like I noticed the stall in his voice as I made my way away from the
stop I was in for a few minutes, all the way outside the hospital this time, and I was aware throughout
that he didn’t continue to walk in my footsteps, like he did at first the moment we exited the elevator
together.
The guards situated outside the hospital doors bowed their heads respectively as I made a way out the
doorway, into the afternoon sun and the cool breeze of Venice.
Two of my personal bodyguards, which I had assigned over to Sofia the day after we got married, lifted
up from their reclined position from the car they were once leaning against and discussed quietly the
moment they sighted my presence.
I paused a few feet away from the car with my hands still lodged deep in my pockets and both guards
bowed their heads down slightly in respect, and in sync. “Good afternoon, Mr Ri.”
“Ethan, Ryan.” I murmured as they lifted their heads up and kept their hands behind their backs, their
heads raised high.
“How did you find out about Sofia’s injured arm?” I asked, because the territorial part of me had been in
The part of me that had been next to dead inside of me throughout my whole life.
“Mrs Ri came into the kitchen and started calling out for the housekeeper, I heard her from the sitting
room and went to meet her when it was obvious the housekeeper wasn’t going to be replying to her.”
Ryan, one of the two guards started to say and I nodded my head once as I silently questioned myself
why I was suddenly concerned about all these?
“And so i went in there and asked her if there was anything I could help her with since it was obvious to
me that she needed something, she told me she didn’t need anything, but then I noticed that she was
clutching her right elbow and her skin was paler than normal, which was what spiked my attention. I
asked her if there was something wrong with her arm, she said there wasn’t anything wrong with it at
first but changed her mind and told me she fell off the bed this morning.”
“I inspected it, and by the look of it, it seemed really serious, and so I informed her that we were going
to be visiting the hospital for her to get her hand checked out.” Ryan finally paused and flexed his
fingers before continuing.
I tugged out my phone from my pocket and texted my driver toe pick me up. After dropping me off
at the hospital, he had driven off with James in it to a meeting which James and I were supposed to
attend together, but I had asked James to go on without me and drop me off here at the hospital
because a nagging part of my mind just wouldn’t be at rest if I hadn’t satisfied it by going to see Sofia
and confirming that she was indeed fine, by myself. As
“She refused to go to a hospital at first though, for reasons best known to her because she didn’t share
her reasons for not wanting to get checked up at a hospital.”
“She refused?” I echoed quietly, my mind turning the particr detail around in my head, perhaps she
was afraid of hospitals…
“She did at first, but agreed toe to the hospital the moment I said I was going to give you a call and
let you know that she didn’t want to visit the clinic.” Ryan exined while Ethan remained quiet
throughout, making me guess that he wasn’t any where around them when the whole thing had
unfolded.
Oh? Interesting…
“The doctors would be done with her in some minutes, go wait for her upstairs. Once she’s done, get
her home safely and tell Sarah I said to make sure she get some sleep.” I instructed Ryan and once he
indicated copying my instructions, I turned around and walked away from them, towards the wide open
gates of the hospital.
The Masaretti which I had ridden this in morning in slowly drove towards me before finally stopping a
few feet away from me. The front doors got pushed open and the driver along with one of the guards
who had ridden with James and I stepped out from the car. I pulled the door open before they could
step around and get to it before briskly sliding into the back seat and mming the door shut.
The car slowly pulled away from the hospital premises and into the busy roads. James was on a call
with someone so he only eyed me from the corner of his eyes, looking at me with a look that judged
silently. I ignored him and turned towards the front of the car before leaning forward and tapping on the
button which rolled the demarcation ss upwards to seclude the backspace to ourselves, giving us
more than enough privacy.
“How did the meeting go?” I asked James the moment after he ended the call with whoever it was that
he was talking to.
“It was alright, the majority of the ns have been changed though. The list has been retouched a little
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as well. The map and the list would be sent over in a few days.” James started to say and I listened
attentively, not having any problems with the fact that some changes had been made to the n
without my consent, James wasn’t just someone closer than a best friend to me, James was also my
right hand man and someone’s judgment I trust so much.
I don’t ever have to worry about him making a bad decision without me in the picture, that was how
good of a right hand man he was.
“That’s nice. They didn’t mind my absence, did they?” I asked and james shook his head before
replying.
“Nah, they weren’t too bothered about it because I was there at least.”
“That’s a good thing then.”
James eyed me from the side of his eyes this time, his eyes ghosting over my body in a fast second.
I narrowed my eyes at him when he didn’t look away yet. “What?” I demanded.
“Where’s your suit jacket?” He asked and the side of my lips twitched once before I slowly nced
down at myself and took in my appearance.
Oh.
“I gave it to Sofia.”