Menacingly✔️

Chapter Forty

Angela woke up with an aching body, she moved around and opened her eyes. After looking around the room and realising she was in bed with Adriano, she grew confused. She groaned at the pain of moving which made Adriano shoot up in bed and turn to look at her, concern laced in his expression.

"Are you okay? What's wrong?" he asked her as she moved around gingerly, trying to get up out of bed.

"I need the bathroom." She croaked out. Adriano rushed to her side of the bed to hold her arm gently and help her up out of bed. Angela noticed the room was dark and wondered how long she had been asleep.

After Adriano found her and Franco called for help, the family's doctor arrived and they brought her home for rest. She was badly bruised but she would just need a lot of time to heal. She had been for what felt like forever.

"What time is it?" she asked through gritted teeth, trying to bear the pain she was feeling all over her body.

Adriano reached his hand out and turned on her lamp on the bedside table before looking at the clock beside it.

"Just after twelve." He said gently to her, walking her to the bathroom. She walked in and closed the door over but didn't shut it. Once Angela was finished and was washing her hands, Adriano opened the door and walked in, the bright light burning his eyes for a moment. He found her looking in the mirror at herself, froze, the tap still running. She shook quietly but didn't have the energy to burst into tears.

Her face was worse than she had thought it ever would be. One eye was black with a dark bruise, her cheek and lips swollen. She had a cut on her bottom lip and the back of her head was beginning to pound. Adriano could hear her take in a breath sharply when her eyes travelled down to her neck, which was covered in bruised from Derek's hands. She moved her hands slowly to her neck to touch it, her hand hovering over the dark blue blotches upon her white skin.

"Angie..." his voice trailed off. He took a few steps towards her slowly and stood in front of her. He looked down at her, into her big grey pools of tears forming.

Angela shook her head and closed her eyes, unable to look at him for a minute. What happened with Derek had felt like a dream, but it was in fact a cruel reality. Her face was void of emotion when she opened her eyes again. Tears fell silently from her eyes and she noticed Adriano had never looked like he was in this much pain, not even when she had found he had been stabbed by Adamo.

Adriano gently lifted his hand and placed it on her other cheek as she tilted her head to look all the way up at him. He closed his eyes for a minute and when he opened them and saw her face again, a single tear fell from his cheek. He couldn't bear to see her like this, in this much pain and mental turmoil. She began crying louder, unable to speak.

"Shh, it's all over now." He carefully put his arms around her and held her close. "You don't never have to think about him again."

"D-did you kill him? Is he gone?" she asked, looking up into his eyes. He nodded slowly, his eyes didn't leave hers. "Okay." She whispered, trying to come to terms with the news. Angela's gaze dropped to his neck as she lifted her hand up and reached his shoulder.

"I shouldn't have done it in front of you. You shouldn't have had to witness something like that, I'm sorry Angela." His voice was hard and filled with punishment for himself only.

He gulped and looked away. He was feeling guilty, although Derek had gotten what he deserved, Angela shouldn't have been there when it happened. She knew what he done for a living, she knew he had killed before and the thought of that made her stomach flip.

But Angela didn't know how to feel, she was relieved that Derek was finally gone and didn't know how to take the news that Adriano had shot him. It was confusing and difficult for her to process it. Angela knew Adriano was beating himself up about what he had done but he was left with no choice but to shoot in front of her. If he didn't, she didn't know where she would be.