Chapter 21 – Alice
“Massimo!” Thea gasped, like a mother who had just seen her son get into an accident, but she didn’t even have time to take more than a few steps into the room before a shout from Massimo stopped her.
“Don’t come near me!” he growled, but even though he was trying to hide his face as he was struggling to stand up using only his arms, Alice could see the pain and humiliation in his expression “Neither of you! If you don’t want to be thrown out of this mansion right now, then you better stay where you are!” His voice sounded harsher and more menacing than usual, his limp legs making harrowing sounds over the broken glass, dragging the shards across the carpet and certainly forming some cuts in the fabric of his sweatshirt and on his skin.
“Massimo, please…” Josiah held his crying wife by the shoulders, although neither he, nor Thea, Joshua or Dr. Lewis were able to move, staring at each other with a lost look and a clear feeling of despair and confusion, just like Alice felt at the moment.
However, as she watched Massimo hold his wheelchair between his hands and struggle unsuccessfully to even try to straighten himself, his face contorting in pain with each movement, making it very clear that it would probably take him hours, if not much longer, to be able to move his body injured, weak and without motor preparation to deal with that limitation. Even so, the entire time he growled and growled, like a wild animal trying to push everyone away, every time one of his employees tried to move closer to him.
But, unfortunately, or perhaps lucky, Alice was more than used to grimaces and mistreatment from someone she should consider her family.
“What are you doing?” he growled the second she started walking towards him “I said leave. me alone!”
Just like a dog trying to look threatening, Massimo screamed and bared his teeth, acting as if he could actually throw that chair at her, if Alice dared to disobey him.
“Or what?” She faced him, finally standing in front of him, noticing how the humiliation in Massimo’s face became even more acute that she was literally looking down on him like that I’m not one of your employees, Massimo. You can’t threaten to fire me. And, even if you say you’re going to kick me and my daughter out of this house, then you’d be doing me a favor, because I don’t want Millicent to have to wake up every day to your screams. You see? All those people genuinely care about you!” Alice bent down until their eyes were at the same level as she pointed in the direction of Thea’s family and Dr. Lewis “They could have left a long time ago, because you’re kicking them out and treating them like trash, but they’re still here, waiting for you to calm down so they can take care of you. However, guess what? I’m not one of them! I am a nurse and it is my obligation to help everyone in need. Even rude and stubborn men like you. Now, come here.”
“I’m warning you, Alice…” Massimo tried to move his shoulders away from her, but she refused to let him escape “You don’t want to find out what I’m capable of…”
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Chapter 21- Alice
“What? You will hit me?” she challenged him and, as a hopeful part of her expected, Massimo instantly froze, offended “That’s what I thought. Do you have enough strength to help me sit you up?”
“You…” he started to growl, but, when he seemed to realize that even Alice’s thin arms were enough to help him regain his balance, Massimo ended up grinding his teeth, annoyed “Of course I have. If it weren’t for that damn bedside table, this wouldn’t have happened…”
“The same one you dropped on the floor? Who would have thought, right?” Alice snorted, making him just look at her with more hatred “Joshua, could you and your father help me? I don’t have enough strength to put him back to bed. Dr. Lewis, please start preparing his bandages.” She forced Massimo to rest his two hands on her arm, even the one that was bleeding and stained the sleeve of her white blouse.
“Let me take those dirty sheets off the bed first.” Thea asked, rushing to organize the bed, while Joshiah and Joshua held each of Massimo’s arms, helping her sit back down in the chair, where Dr. Lewis was already waiting to check not only Massimo’s hand, but also his full body.
“I wasn’t that hard, was it?” Alice crossed her arms over her chest, trying not to see that man as anything more than a difficult patient, as the doctor lifted the fabric of his pants to expose all the cuts that had been there, plus some of the stitches that had been left behind. shattered after all that commotion, as was to be expected.
“Do you really want to be expelled that much?” he accused, gripping the arm of the chair tightly as Dr. Lewis began to close his stitches once again. “Because, if being married to a man, like me is such a sacrifice, don’t worry. Apparently I’m going to die soon.”
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“Stop talking like that, Massimo!” his doctor lamented “It may take some time, but you will get back to being as healthy as you were before. That’s what your medicines, ointments and especially your supplements are for. In a year or so, things will be better again, if you stick with treatments and physical therapy. I wish I could tell you that this will happen in a few months, but I’d rather you know the truth, rather than lie to you and frustrate you further…”
“Shut up.” Massimo gritted his teeth.
“Maybe you should be more realistic with him, Dr. Lewis.” Alice remained where she was, not caring about her husband’s withering look “If he took the medicine, his wounds wouldn’t open up so easily. If he took his supplement and absorbed the nutrients as his body needs, he wouldn’t be so weak. And, if he went to physical therapy, he could reach his wheelchair much more easily.”
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