The Lost Twins

Chapter twenty-two

Matteo's pov

After a while of sitting around, they finally brought Ali back. She was still out cold, her skin was cold to the touch, she was pale and covered in bandages. The sight broke my heart, this was my baby sister and she was hurt. It was so hard to look at her and knowing her future may be full of struggle, knowing she might be paralyzed, scared me so badly. I wanted her to be okay and to be healed but that might take a very long time. The doctor told us that Ali  was very weak still so we should be careful with her when she woke up. 

"She's too pale," Antonio said, 

"I know but she'll get her color back when she's a little more awake," I said, 

"She might be paralyzed," Emilio whispered,

"I know," I said, 

"She doesn't deserve that," Luka said, 

"No, she doesn't but she'll recover," I said, 

"How do you know?" Antonio asked, 

"Ali will have physical therapy and she'll have love and support from us, of course," I said, 

"But, what if she never walks again?" Emilio asked,

"We'll deal with it, no matter what happens, we will get through it," I said, 

"Ali's strong, she'll be okay. You'll see," Pietro said.

We fell silent after that and we just watched the twins. Giovanni would recover, we were sure of that and he'll be fine soon enough but Alessandra's future was a mystery. Her spinal cord injury could leave her paralyzed for the rest of her life. She might never walk again and that thought drove me crazy. Ali didn't ask to be paralyzed, she didn't ask for any of this at all. Ali's so innocent and she got hurt because of an old feud that couldn't be put to rest. I wanted to go back to the base and torture Gianni for what he did to the twins but I couldn't pull myself from them. They had been gone for days and I was about to lose my mind. Now, that we have them back, it's so hard to leave them. I don't want them to wake up alone in the hospital when we should be there with them. 

I've always thought I was a strong man. When you grow up in the mafia, you have to be. No one can know you have a weakness and when they know what your weakness is, they use it against you. I thought if I was strong enough no one would ever know that Gio and Ali were my weakness. When they were babies, I wanted to keep them in the house all the time. I worried that if I took them out, someone would see us and take them from us. But, it didn't help in the end anyway because Mom took them and when we got the back, they were kidnapped. All I wanted was to be strong enough to protect them and I felt like I hadn't been because they were taken from us. I was mad at myself because they were taken and I couldn't protect them. I failed them and they suffered for it. I don't know if I'll ever forgive myself for that. I wish more than ever that I could turn the clock back and save them before they were taken. If I could, I could've prevented any of this from happening. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Sebastiano's pov

I could kill Gianni right now, he's possibly ruined Gio and Ali's lives forever. They're going to be scarred and traumatized from this incident for the rest of their lives. Not to mention, Ali might be permanently disabled because he caused her spinal cord injury which caused her paralysis. I can't stand to even think about that man. He has the nerve to call himself our cousin, like family could just do this to each other. I don't know how he could do this to his own cousins, his family. I can't stand him! He's no family of mine anymore. I'll kill him myself for what he did to the twins. I want him to suffer as much as he made  the twins suffer, as much as they're going to suffer for the rest of their lives.