Stepbrother | ✔︎

44 | heliophilia

heliophilia [ hel•io•phil•ia ]
n. desire to stay in the sun; love of sunlight

- b e l l a -

"Bella, can you hear me?" I heard a lady-like voice question. My arm moved randomly, pulling at something that was held against me.

"It's okay. If you can hear me, I want you to squeeze my hand," I said before the feeling of the hand slipping into mine could be felt. Slowly, I squeeze the small hand into a grasp before slowly letting go.

"That's real good, Bella. I dimmed down the light in here a bit, so now I'm going to need you to open your eyes," she said. Slowly, my eyes peeled back only to be met with the lady's soft brown ones. She sent me a bright smile before nodding her head.

"Very good! Now look into this light. I know it may hurt, but it is really important. Follow it with your eyes without moving your head," she said. I watched the light shine into my eyes before she began to move it side-to-side. The pain from looking so long began to make me have a headache.

She turned off the light, a smile still on her face. Then, she reached over and handed me a cup of water with a straw in it. I sucked down the drink, relishing in the cool water that flowed down my throat.

"What is your name?" She asked.

"Orabella- not, Orabella. It's just Bella. Bella Martinez," I said. My voice sounded different, it was so hoarse that it scared me.

"Do you know what caused this incident?" She asked. My eyebrows came together as I tried to remember. I remembered setting a plan with Valentino, but I couldn't seem to remember ever going through with it. Suddenly, at the thought of Valentino, my mind raced towards Vincenzo.

"I don't know, but where's Zozo, did the baby die? Oh, my god, please tell me my baby is alive!" I began to cry. My eyes looked down at my belly to see there was no sign of my baby bump.

"Calm down. Please, send them in," the doctor said. A nurse got up from the seat before walking outside for a moment. Tears were still in my eyes as I looked towards the door. He walked in with a small baby in his arms as my eyebrows came together in confusion.

"You've been in a medically-induced coma for 11 months. We had to take out a section of your brain leaving your body to adapt to that. There could've been many different side effects to that. No one can be one-hundred percent of what those changes are except for you," the doctor said.

I wasn't paying any attention to her as my eyes were on Vincenzo. He smiled the biggest smile.

"So, the baby-" I asked, looking down at little baby dressed in a blue onesie. Vincenzo came up to me, placing the baby in my arms. The IV attaches to me didn't allow me to have any movement as I looked down at him.

"His name is Andrea, right?" I asked in a shaky voice as a tear began to fall from my eyes. A smile made its way onto my face as I looked at him. I couldn't believe that this handsome boy came out of me.

I could remember memories on repeat of everyone telling me about my baby boy, Andrea. I thought I was dreaming, but he's so real. I even remember them arguing about his name. Valentino was right, I do love Andrea only when the 'r' sound was rolled. Laughing at the memory, my vision became blurry as I looked down at him.