More Than This by Dominique Wolf

CHAPTER 56:

Isabella

J

ust after three in the morning, I unlocked the door of my apartment and pushed through as Reyna shut it behind us. Now that Giovanni had been moved to a ward, we couldn't stay at the hospital any longer. We had to come back in the morning for visiting hours. Thankfully, that wasn't too far from now since we spent most of the night and the early hours of this morning waiting to hear what happened with the surgery.

“Can I get you something?” Reyna offered. “I can make us something to eat.”

I shook my head. “I'm not hungry.”

I still had tears in my eyes and the hovering pain from earlier was still present. I was so happy that he was going to be okay, but I just wanted him to wake up. I wanted to hear his voice again and to know that he was fine now. Seeing him hooked up to all the machines and the marks on his face just broke my heart. I hated knowing that he was in pain and there was nothing I could do to take it away.

“I'm going to take a shower.” Reyna walked over to me. “I think you should try and get some rest.”

“I'll try.”

She pulled me in for one last hug before disappearing down the hall. I took a deep breath in and pulled myself up onto the bar stool by the counter. Sudden exhaustion washed over my body and I couldn't hold back a yawn. The emotional rollercoaster I was on tonight had drained me. We had left in such a hurry earlier that I didn't even grab my cellphone. It was still lying on the counter where I left it. I reached for it and disconnected it from the charger. I turned it on and waited for everything to load. I was tapping my fingers nervously on the counter. I hadn't quite wrapped my head around the events of the evening. I couldn't believe that Giovanni was in an accident and that I had almost lost him. That thought alone brought on a wave of nausea and I couldn't hold back the tears anymore. I allowed them to stream down my face as I glanced down at my phone, my notifications now popping up. I scrolled through them and my heart dropped as I saw Giovanni's name on my screen.

Oh my God, he had left me a voicemail.

My hands were trembling as I reached for my phone and brought it to my ear.

“Isabella, it's me,” his voice came through the other side and my tears filled again. “I need you to call me back right now. I have to tell you something - everything is going to be fine with us, but I need you to ca-”.

And then suddenly I heard the sound of shrieking tires in the distance before the call disconnected.

The ache in my chest worsened. He was trying to get a hold of me before the car hit him. I couldn't hold myself together any longer. I hung my head in my hands and cried, allowing the pain to consume me. He said he had something to tell me. He tried to phone me earlier and I wasn't there to answer. I just let it go to voicemail and I felt sick to my stomach with guilt. I just needed him to be awake when we went back to the hospital tomorrow.

I needed to apologize to him.

I grabbed my phone again and dragged myself to my room, dropping onto my bed and fell into a deep sleep.

***

When I woke up the next morning, I was convinced that it had all been a horrible nightmare. Until I was reminded of what really happened and I was consumed by the same pain I had felt the day before. Giovanni was in a car accident. He was going to be okay, but they were still waiting for him to wake up. I was sick with anxiety over that. I would only start to feel better once I saw him awake. Then I would know for sure that he was here with me again and he wasn't going anywhere. I was thankful for the few hours of sleep I had managed to get, but I could feel the lingering exhaustion. I was way too eager to get to the hospital so I had already showered and was ready to go.

Reyna strolled into the kitchen, still in her pajamas.

“What are you doing?” she asked. “Are you going to the hospital now?”

I nodded and reached for my handbag that was hanging on our coat rack by the door. “I need to go and see him and visiting hours are soon.”

“Visiting hours aren't for another two hours, Izzy,” she said softly. “Don't you want to have something to eat first?”

I shook my head and walked back to the counter to grab my phone. “I just need to be at the hospital in case anything happens.”

“Nothing is going to happen.” She reached for my hand. “Izzy, hey, stop and look at me.”

I stopped and looked over at her.

“Giovanni is fine. The doctors said he was going to be just fine.”

“But he's not awake yet,” I objected.

“He needs his rest. He was in an accident, he's going to need time to recover,” she said softly.

She was right. Of course, he was going to need time to rest. I was just far too anxious to see him again. I needed to see him.

“If you give me a bit of time, I can come with you.”

“No Rey, your parents are arriving soon,” I reminded her. “You have to fetch them from the airport.”

“I forgot all about that.” She poured hot water into a cup to make herself some coffee. “I can ask Katrina and Sergio to do it.”

“You don't have to do that,” I objected. “But I don't think I'm going to come through tonight for dinner. I need to stay wi-”.

“Hey, Izzy,” she stopped me and reached for my hand again. “You don't need to explain. Of course, you should go and be with Giovanni.”

I squeezed her hand. “Thank you.”

“But I'm not letting you go to the hospital alone so give me 15 minutes tops and I'll be ready to go.”

I opened my mouth to object to her offer again, but she ignored me and walked back to her room, cup of coffee in hand. I sighed and leaned against the counter. I was dying to get to the hospital again. I just had to see him. My stomach growled, reminding me of the lack of food in my system so I walked over to the bread bin and grabbed a slice of bread, placing it in the toaster. As I was reaching for a plate from the cupboard, my phone started to ring. I turned back and glanced down seeing my father's name on the screen.

I grabbed it and brought it to my ear. “Hi dad, how a-”.

“Hi, Isabella,” My mother's voice greeted me on the other end.

I stopped in my tracks. “Mom? Why are you phoning me off dad's phone?”

“Because you wouldn't have answered if I had called off mine.”

She wasn't wrong. We had left things on very bad terms when I left London and I had no desire to try and save a relationship that was already so damaged. She had made her feelings very clear and I didn't care for them.

“Why are you phoning me at all?”

“Because I'm your mother, Isabella, and you can't ignore me forever.”

I scoffed. “I hardly think you and I have anything to speak about.”

“Well, how are you doing?” she asked, not being able to hide how uncomfortable this conversation was making her.

My mother was never one for small talk. She was never one to reach out to find out how people were doing. That would require her to have feelings and she had proven over and over again how incapable she was of that.

“I've been better.”

I was not about to get into a conversation about how I was really doing with her. The fact she had called me at all was making me feel incredibly uneasy.

“Are you not coming home for Christmas?” she asked.

“I am home.”

I could practically hear her rolling her eyes over the phone. “London is your home.”

“Oh God, Mom, not this again,” I groaned. “I don't have time to have this argument again with you.”

“I'm not trying to argue with you, Isabella,” she retorted. “I just wanted to see if you would be joining your family for Christmas. It's Christmas Eve already and you've given no indication that you'd be coming home.”

“Because I'm not,” I argued. “I already told dad that. I have my own life here and that hasn't changed. Clearly, you haven't changed either it would seem.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“I mean you seriously called me believing I would be coming home for Christmas,” I argued, “How could you possibly think that would be happening? We haven't spoken in weeks and you've made your feelings about my life perfectly clear.”

“I know I was a bit harsh the last time we spoke, but I just thought things would have been different by now.”

“You mean you thought your little plan with Nate would have worked and I would have gone back to him and back to the life you tried to force on me?” I snapped.

She was silent for a moment before answering, “You spoke to Nate?”

“Yes, and listened to his attempt to win me back after you advised he would have had a chance.” I laughed at that thought. “You really disrespected my relationship with Giovanni by doing that, you do realize that right?”

“You're not still with that club owner are you?” she scoffed.

I didn't have the patience to do this today. I didn't have the patience to deal with this ever again. Time and time again she continued to prove how little she respected me and the choices I made. I spent so much time being sad over our broken relationship, but it's very clear to me now that it was meant to stay broken.

“His name is Giovanni,” I clarified. “And that same club owner is lying in hospital now after being in a car accident, but you wouldn't know that. You wouldn't know anything about my life because of the choices you have made.”

“He was in a car accident?” she repeated, a flicker of emotion in her voice.

“Yes mother, a really bad one,” my voice cracked.

“I'm sorry to hear that.”

I could hear the emotion in her voice, but I didn't believe her. Even if she was trying to be genuine, I just couldn't accept that because that wasn't who she was. She had no problem disrespecting my relationship with Giovanni so no, I didn't think she actually cared about him.

I ignored her previous statement and continued with my own thoughts. “I just want you to take a moment and think about what you just did. You were the one who called me and for what? So, you could continue to take digs at my life and my choices. It's been weeks since we spoke and you still don't realise why I want nothing to do with you. Just take a look at what you keep doing to me, why can't you just leave me alone?”

“I'm your mother, Isabella,” she muttered, a hint of sadness coming through.

“Well, you're not acting like it. You just can't accept the fact that you can't control me anymore.”

“I just want my daughter back.”

I took a deep breath in before responding. “I am not the Isabella that you once knew and I'm okay with that. I like who I am now and I think you would like me too if you actually gave our relationship a chance. I have made a life for myself here and I am happy with the way I have chosen to live it but until you accept that, you won't be hearing from me again.”

She took a moment before responding. “Merry Christmas, Isabella.”

And with that, she disconnected the call.

I was shaking with anger and sadness. What the fuck was the point of all that? She didn't want to make amends unless it was on her terms. Every interaction with her was making it easier and easier to accept that our relationship had reached a point of no return. I didn't want to have to constantly deal with her general disrespect of my life.

“Seriously?” I groaned, replaying the conversation in my head.

I stopped and took a deep breath in, trying to focus on nothing more than my breathing. In and out. I repeated this until I slowly started to feel the anger leave my body with each breath. My toast popped up and I opened my eyes, feeling better acquainted with myself at that moment.

“Okay, I'm ready to go,” Reyna announced, walking back into the kitchen.

I reached for my toast and my handbag, placing it over my shoulder. “Let's get going then.”