𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐥'𝐬 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟚𝟞

The meeting I was in last over three hours. It was about investments with legal and illegal business, drug trades, and property taxes for the land we recently bought. During the last two hours of the meeting, there have been constant knocks on the double doors.

The only problem with that was it wasn't my place to tell them to come in. We were talking about confidential things that only the inner circle can know. I was in the room with a cartel leader at his drug warehouse. Every time a knock sounded on the door, and he wouldn't answer.

I had enough of the constant knocks and not answering that I got up and opened the door to see one of my guards with his fist raised to the doors. Upon seeing me, he straightened out his poster and held his head up high.

"Sir, your sons, have been calling something about an emergency with Rose?" the guard said the last part questioningly. No one knows besides the family and their friends that Rose is my daughter. Except for the fair share of rumors circulating in the underground, no one has anything confirmed.

"What kind of emergency?" I said, walking over to the table and gathering all of my papers. If this man thought I would stay in the meeting when one of my kids could be hurt or worse. Then whatever deal we were having is fucking off.

"Medical they are at the hospital you own closest to wherever you live," he said. They didn't give him an exact address for safety reasons.

"Go ahead. We will discuss the rest of the deal when your family is well," the man I was in a meeting with said standing up and walking out of the room.

"Follow me to the hospital," I said, rushing out of the warehouse and to my car. I drive towards the hospital, growing more nervous by the second. I park in the parking lot seeing the guard's car also. I loosen my tie thinking maybe it will lessen the tightness in my chest, but to no avail, it remained.

I walk towards the hospital's double doors and walk-in, making my way towards the waiting room before I enter, taking a shaky breath, thinking of all the worst scenarios. Entering the waiting room, I see all of my sons sitting, obviously distressed and exhausted emotionally.

"What happened?" I asked all of them. My mind was running a mile a minute. I just got my daughter back, and not even a week later, she is in the hospital.

"I was checking in on her at twelve, and I found her throwing up, was boiling hot..." Giani said, trailing off, leaving something out.

"What? What are you not telling me?" I asked Giani. He looked scared to answer as if he couldn't believe what he was about to say

"She couldn't catch her breath. Rose was crying. I think she had a panic attack or started freaking out because she was sick. She just blacked out," Giani said, his voice cracking at the end. She must have been in bad condition when he found her.

"Have you heard anything?" I asked all of them. I sat down in the corner seat, looking off into space.

"Nothing ye-" Carlo is interrupted by one of the doctors walking out the double doors.

"Family of Rose Giordano's?" the doctor called out. All of us shot out of our seats, but not before I got up and basically ran to the doctor.

"Is she okay? Do you know what happened? Is it going to happen again? When can we see her?" I said, starting to rattle off questions left and right. All of these questions have been left unanswered, and I couldn't stand not knowing what was going on.

"I need to talk to you in my office. It's about Rose's medical records that you probably weren't informed of. Also, about future appointments that need to be made with our psychologist," The doctor said. Why the fuck didn't her social worker inform me about her medical history if it's something I should know?

"All of us are coming in," Gavino spoke up. All of the boys nodded along with them. They are all worried about their sister, and if this is something that can interfere with her health, they need to know if it ever happens when they are around.

"Okay, then we will take the conference room on the third floor where Rose has been moved to the pediatric wing. The doctor said before walking to the elevator motioning for us to follow. We follow after her getting into the spacious elevator, all of us still anxious for information.

We make it to the third floor, and all of us file out of the elevator, following the doctor down the hall to one of the conference rooms.

All of us sit around the table. I'm at the head of the table, and the doctor is on the other end. Once we have all settled, a man walks into the room with a stack of files in his hand.

"This is all of Rose's medical files after the age of seven couldn't find anything earlier," he said, setting the files in front of the doctor and walking out of the room. The doctor opened the top file and read over it.

"Rose first went to a child therapist when she was seven due to something that happened in her foster home. We don't know exactly know what happened, but she had run to a police station covered in bruises and had several broken bones," The doctor said, passing the file around the table.

"The police and therapist tried to ask her questions, but her mind blocked out traumatic memories making it almost impossible for her to remember anything," The doctor continued explaining.

"Almost?" Gino asked.

"Yes, almost," the doctor said, pausing in between her sentences. "We believe she remembered something and had a panic attack. A very intense panic attack that nearly damaged her lungs. However, Rose will be able to go back today after she talks to one of our doctors," the doctor said, continuing.

"Also, Rose was court-appointed therapy sessions after her second arrest. Rose did attend the appointments, and she has been prescribed some medication for sleep, anti-depressants, and so on, but her prescription was never picked up," She said.

The folder was passed to me, and I saw the documentations for when she was seven. She broke her leg and wrist. She had severely bruised ribs and a concussion.

Who the hell could do that, my little girl? Also, who thought they were going to get away with it. I looked through all of the pages and came across a picture.

It was of Rose. I think it was a school picture. She was smiling the brightest smile. Her eyes were full of life and looked similar to her mother's when we were in high school.

I was struck by how much she looked like her mother. We never knew what happened to her mother. I just came to the conclusion she ran with our daughter.

"Her body over-stressed essentially," the doctor said, snapping me out of my amazement.

All of us looked worse than when we walked in. I felt a pit of deep regret settle at the bottom of my stomach. My daughter had to go through essentially everything alone.

What doesn't make sense is that my wife left me because she wanted our daughter to be safe from the horrors of the mafia. Little did she know she was saving Rose from the wrong monster.