Chapter 22–Alice
Chapter 22 – Alice
“You shut up too!” Massimo raised his finger in her direction, angry as if she had stabbed him “Me and my treatments have nothing to do with you! You have no idea what I went through to end up this way and what I’m willing to do to get back to the way I was! I don’t give a fuck if you’re a nurse or not. You’re not even my wife to want to meddle in my affairs!”
“Believe me, when you’re in a hospital bed again, you’ll be sorry for this.” Alice countered, wishing that all the worry she felt for that man could just disappear, so her heart wouldn’t have to break a little more every time she looked at him “I just hope you can realize how wrong you are before your attitude push away everyone who still cares about you, Massimo.”
Unable to stand being there any longer, Alice just turned her back and left the room, leaving that stubborn idiot in the care of the people he was very lucky to still care about him, after being treated like that. God, she understood how he felt. She knew what he had been through since he was a child to be able to become such an influential figure in the Bianchi multinational. Losing the use of his legs would force him to reconstruct many of his plans, completely adapt his life and have to convince all of his father’s former partners again that he was still capable of taking Tommaso Bianchi’s place, even though he had a deficiency.
But… Could he really not realize that his life was more important than his legs?
“Mommy?” Millie called as Alice took her first step into the garden, jumping out of the little garden chair that Thea had placed there just for her “Did Mr. Bianchi fight with you?”
“He… Wasn’t very excited to be helped. But, you know what? Your great–grandfather taught me that a good nurse never denies help to someone in need… No matter how stubborn that person in need is.” Alice sighed, feeling some peace return as her little angel hugged her “Can you promise Mommy something? Whenever Mr. Bianchi starts to get angry and shout, like he happened today, we will both come here to the garden. Or, if it’s night, you’ll sleep with mommy.”
“Aren’t you going to take care of his boo boo anymore?” Millie furrowed her eyebrows “Is he no longer in pain?”
“I… I just think it will be better for us if we let Massimo… I mean, Mr Bianchi… Be looked after by his own doctor and his own friends. This way we will be calmer while we are here.” Alice caressed her daughter’s face “Sometimes, we need to let people want to be helped, before we help them. If one day he really needs my care, I can help him. But neither you nor I deserve to hear him scream all the time. So, could you help me?” she tried hard to smile “Let’s agree to just avoid him as much as we can. Let’s live in this beautiful house and pretend he’s not here to scare us. What do you think? Can you promise mommy that you won’t talk to Mr. Bianchi anymore?”
“But… If we don’t help him stop feeling pain, how will he stop screaming because of it?” Millie continued questioning, as if none of it made sense “Whenever I hurt myself, you say we have to give the medicine quickly so it doesn’t hurt so much. Why do we have to leave him hurt?”
+25 BONUS
Chapter 22- Alice
“Because… Because he doesn’t want my help… As a nurse.” Alice stuttered, a little surprised that a 4 year old girl was managing to refute her
“But you always say I can’t choose to take vaccines and medicine. Everybody does it.” Her daughter stared at her, as if she could see her soul “When I’m an adult, will I be able to stop taking it?”
“No, honey. Because you know how important this is. But not all adults know how important it is to take care of their own health.” She sighed, shrugging her shoulders “Apparently, Mr. Bianchi is one of those people. The way other people live their lives doesn’t concern me, even though I’m a nurse. Just as I cannot magically cure you of a cold, I cannot cure Mr. Bianchi of his anger so easily.”
“So… Will it be like when we lived with grandma?” Millie’s voice shook, her eyes becoming bright with tears.
“That…” Alice’s voice became locked inside her, as she realized what she was actually suggesting to her daughter..
A life where they would be in a house that didn’t belong to them, always afraid of being thrown out at any moment. There would always be fights, problems and a lot of fear. Waking up every day fearful of what the owner of the house’s mood would be like and whether they would be reprimanded and humiliated just for taking one step out of place. Always afraid of meeting the wrong person at every turn.
Just like it was when they were under the same roof as Kendra.
Hadn’t Alice agreed to that marriage just so that Millicent wouldn’t have to go through things like that anymore? So, what was she doing now?
“Mommy?” Millie touched her cheek “Are you sad?”
“No, honey…” Alice placed her hand over her daughter’s, admiring the beautiful face of the only person who gave her the strength to get up every day and keep trying, even when everything around her seemed determined to fall apart “You’re right. Mr. Bianchi is sick and we are living in his house, so we can’t just ignore him. It’s his choice whether he wants to be our friend or not…” she stroked Millie’s hair, not wanting her to be disappointed in receiving even more dislike from Massimo from now on “But, I choose to do the best with what I have. And that means trying to make our life here the best it can be, rather than just hiding.”
