CHAPTER 39
Amara’s POV
I nodded, offering a faint smile. “Thank you.”
As the door closed behind them, the room fell quiet again. Matteo returned to his seat beside the bed, his hand finding mine once
more.
“Have you been here the whole time?” I asked him.
He nodded, “I wasn‘ t going to leave you.”
His words hit me harder than I expected. Matteo Vitale, the man who rarely let anyone see a crack in his armor, looked exhausted. The dark circles under his eyes, the slight scruff on his jaw, he was not just here. He had stayed, barely having enough sleep.
“Why?” The question slipped out before I
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could stop it.
“Why wouldn’t I?” he countered, his voice was soft but firm. “You think I
would just walk away after what happened to you?”
I did not know how to respond to that. Matteo was not exactly the nurturing type. Yet here he was, sitting by my side, looking at me like I was the only thing that mattered.
And this was making me question what we truly were. The truth. Why did he want me? This was not just taking down Luca Moretti and the Obsidian Syndicate… Why did I feel like it was more than that?
The door opened again and a tray of food was served. I was not sure if I was ready to eat now, but the doctor said so.
“You need to eat,” he insisted as he reached for the tray and uncovered a bowl of soup.
“I’m not hungry,” I muttered, though
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my stomach betrayed me with a faint. growl.
“You need to regain your strength,” he replied, picking up the spoon. “I’ll feed you.”
I stared at him, half expecting him to smirk and tell me he was joking. But Matteo did not joke. Not about things like this.
“I can feed myself,” I retorted, though the weakness in my voice made it clear I could not.
“Let me do this,” he uttered simply, leaving no room for argument.
I sighed, too tired to protest.
He brought the spoon to my lips after blowing the heat a little until it was bearable. The warmth of the soup was comforting, and I found myself relaxing despite the awkwardness of the situation. I never thought that we would be… close like this. I thought everything was business, a transaction to meet a common goal.
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But how come did we end up like this?
However, I was not complaining either.
“You re surprisingly good at this,” I muttered after a few spoonfuls.
“Don’t sound so surprised,” he replied with a faint smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. And I could not help but chuckle, though it came out more as a wheeze. The exchange felt oddly normal, like a brief moment of calm in the storm
that had become my life.
As he continued to feed me, my mind drifted back to the events that had led me here. The gunshot, the pain, the fear, I remembered it all now. And I remembered Matteo. The way he had held me, protected me, the panic in his voice as he called my name, as though he was afraid I would slip
away.
“You saved me,” I said, meeting his gaze.
His hand paused mid–motion, the spoon hovering over the bowl. “Of course, I
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did.” he replied without hesitation.
“Why?” I pressed, needing to hear it.
He set the spoon down and leaned back slightly, his eyes never leaving mine as he answered simply. “Because I couldn’t lose you.”
The honesty in his words caught me off guard. Matteo was not one to wear his heart on his sleeve, yet here he was, baring it for me to see.
But even though I would say I was not sure what to do with it, my heart seemed to know what this was. Then the monitor showing my vitals began beeping rapidly as my pulse rate skyrocketed, causing a smirk to paint Matteo Vitale‘ s lips, with his gaze locked on mine while I cursed the monitor for revealing my racing heartbeat in front
of him.
