Broken Bonds

Chapter 8

Lorenzo Romano

Turning over to the cooler side of my bed, I opened my eyes a little and realised that I was back in my room. I groaned as the pounding in my head started. Fucking hangover. I slowly sat upright in my bed and glanced over to the nightstand, realising that there was a cup of honey water and pills sitting there. 

Leaning over to reach for the honey water, I realised that the water was still warm. It must have been made by either the servants or Missus Dai and was served just a moment ago. Chugging the pills down with the honey water, I finally got off my bed and noticed some faint bloodstains at the side of the bedsheets. Checking for any open injuries on myself, there were nothing. 

I didn't bring anyone home to fuck last night, did I?

Suddenly, some flashes of last night's memory came back. Someone tried to wake me up and there were some shoutings, most likely were from me. I could faintly remember someone was talking beside me but I could not remember a thing. 

Running my fingers through my messy bed hair, I groaned in frustration as I failed to remember what happened last night. Fuck it.

After a cold morning shower to get myself to sober up, I got dressed and headed downstairs for breakfast. It can be safe to say that everyone was shocked to see Alexander sitting at the head of the table having his breakfast. He stopped coming down for breakfast ever since he took over the mafia. And we all gradually stopped coming down as well. We would all have our breakfast at separate timings. 

Surprisingly, the rest of them were all at the table except for one. Avery. She wasn't at the table. Taking my seat on the left hand side of Xander, Eli followed suit and took the right hand seat, then Mateo sat beside me. Eli looked around briefly and asked,"Missus Dai, where is Avery?"

Missus Dai then replied,"Miss Avery had left about an hour ago." Eli then muttered a quick 'oh' then went back to his breakfast. None of us even asked where she went. 

We had our breakfast in silent and they all left the table once they were done. Just as I was about to pour a cup of water for myself, I noticed a few pieces of tissue paper covered in blood and cotton swabs which had yellow liquid and blood smeared on it as well. 

"Whose blood is this?" I asked, knowing Missus Dai was the only one in the kitchen. She looked at me, a wave of disappointment flashed through her eyes before she looked down onto the ground and answered,"Miss Avery, Sir. She was injured last night." With that, she turned around and left the kitchen without waiting for any response. Injured? Did I...hurt her?

Avery Romano

I limped slowly towards clinic, as I had promised Dr Rosaline that I would be here today. The pain in my foot was back after the pills had worn off its effects. Biting down on my lips hard, I continued making my way towards the clinic. 

Knocking on the door or Dr Rosaline's office, I heard her acknowledgement for me to enter hence I pushed open the door slightly and limped inside. Dr Rosaline stopped her frantic typing on her laptop and turned around. She smiled at the sight of me, but quickly frowned as she noticed my limping. She then immediately went up and pulled out a chair for me to sit down. 

"What happened to your leg?" She asked worriedly. 

"I accidentally broke a glass last night, and stepped on it because I couldn't see the broken pieces lying on the ground." I wasn't exactly lying, half of it was the truth. She never had any good impression of my brothers so if I had told her the truth she would probably detest them even more which I feel that it was unnecessary. 

"Did you clean the wound properly?" I took off my shoes for her to examine carefully. I simply shrugged my shoulders at her question because I knew there might still be some broken pieces left there. 

She then unwrapped the bandage and took a closer look at the wound, to which she furrowed her eyebrows deeply. Exhaling sharply, she looked at me and said,"I can faintly see some small pieces of glass etched on the side, and your wound might be infected which explains your heavy limping." 

She then stood up to get a first aid box at the corner of her office and helped me to clean my wound. It took her some time to completely get rid of all the glass shards on my foot and applied medication on it before bandaging my foot. 

After everything, she sat down right in front of me and looked at me expectantly, to which I simply blinked my eyes at her. 

"I'm waiting, whenever you're ready." She said gently and gave me a small smile. Inhaling deeply, I knew it was a topic that I could not escape without explaining.

"I've been having nightmares for the past one week. Every nightmare always ended up badly. I could vividly see and hear how my dad was shot. The blood that splattered everywhere. The ground, the bed, and my hands. They were..." Dr Rosaline held my hands in hers firmly and instructed gently,"Breathe, Avery. Take a deep breath, you're fine here. I'm here."

I did not notice the way my hands started trembling as I recalled the nightmares and how my breathing quicken and a few tears had already reached my chin. I nodded stiffly at her words. 

"I wanted the nightmares to disappear, so I took two more of the pills each night. Dr Rosaline, can you please increase the dosage of the pills?" She shook her head lightly then sighed,"Avery, it's already wrong of me to even prescribe pills to you without letting Mason know about it. I won't increase the dosage but I can seek alternative ways to help you." I was dejected by her answer but I nodded anyways.

Our session lasted for about 2 hours, which I had managed to persuade her to prescribe sleeping pills for me again. She had also made me promise her to not eat more than it was required. After the session, I was now on my way to my part time job, which happened to be in a hospital as I was shadowing doctors in the hospital. Not many hospitals will provide pay to people who are shadowing but I happened to stumble across this hospital which provides decent pay. 

I used the pay which I had earned as my monthly allowance, and I had even managed to save a bit each month. Alexander did give me a credit card to spend, but I refused to use it. It was not my money to begin with and I did not want to give him the satisfaction to know that I was still financially dependent on them. 

Although it was tough to be working a part time job while schooling, but it was all worth it as I was working hard for my dream. At least it was something that I truly love to do and it made me happy while working hard for it. 

As I stepped out of the changing room, I noticed a faint outline of a man which seemed like Vincenzo. He was nervously pacing up and down along the corridor outside the emergency area. Straightening my coat, I walked up behind him and tapped on his back gently. 

He turned back immediately and eyes slightly widened at the sight of me. 

"Avery? Why are you here? Are you sick?" He glanced around me to check if I was hurt, causing a wave of warmth to flood through my heart. I shook my head and smile a little but questioned him,"I'm not, I'm shadowing doctors here. Why are you here? Hurt?" I did the same as what he did to me. 

"No, but my younger sister is. She got into a fight in school and got injured." He sighed out loud as he looked back into the chaotic emergency area.

updated! apologies for late update as I was tired after my outing yesterday UUWISNWSB

went bowling with my friends and have absolutely no idea why I was obsessed with the 13kg ball 💀 and after that I could feel my muscle pulling in my whole arm WINjWJWN lesson learnt for the day: never ever be obsessed with heavy bowling balls because it might cause you an arm and a leg (not so much of a leg but yEs)

Happy reading! -31/8/2022