He Chose Another Heir, Now He Wants Me Back novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: My Mother's Room

Teresa is awake and frail, Livia is warm and holds Nico, and the nurses call Livia Signora Bellandi. Teresa grips Serena: don't sign anything Ruggero puts in front of you.

The driver called me Signora twice more before we reached the hospital.

Alessio never corrected him, and I never asked.

I would not give either of them the satisfaction.

The private wing sat at the top of the hospital, behind two sets of glass doors and four Bellandi men.

Every nurse we passed stood straighter when Alessio walked by.

I walked half a step ahead of him so nobody could mistake us for a pair.

The door at the end of the corridor was open.

My mother lay in the bed with a rosary looped over the rail.

She had been a heavy, loud, laughing woman when I left.

Now her wrists were thin and her skin had gone grey and papery.

"Mama."

Her eyes opened, and for one second she didn't know me.

Then she did.

"Serena." Her voice was a thread. "You came."

I crossed the room and took her hand, and my knees folded until I was kneeling by the bed.

"I'm here. I'm not going anywhere."

"You cut your hair."

"Six years ago, Mama."

She tried to laugh and it turned into a cough.

A soft voice spoke behind me. "Please, don't make her talk too much."

Livia came in with a little boy on her hip and a paper cup of ice chips in her free hand.

She had the same pinned-up hair and the same cream cardigan she had worn as a girl, and her eyes were already full.

"Serena," she whispered. "Oh, Serena."

She set the cup down and put her arm around my neck, boy and all.

She smelled like hospital soap and the lemon cream Mama used to keep in the bathroom.

I held still and let her hold me.

Whatever she had done, she had also sat in this room for six years while I had not.

"I prayed every night," Livia said into my shoulder. "I told Mama you would come when you could."

"I came as soon as you wrote."

"I know. I know you did." She wiped her face with the back of her wrist. "Everything's going to be all right now. Alessio has been so good to us."

A nurse leaned in at the door. "Signora Bellandi, the afternoon labs are ready for you whenever you like."

Livia nodded at her.

The nurse looked at me, then at Livia again, and went out without a word.

I heard the title land and kept my face still.

"That's a lot of attention for a donor," I said.

"I'm the match." Livia said it gently. "The first blood work came back in March. The surgeons only need the second hospital to sign off."

"And you're sure you want to do this."

"She's my mother too, Serena."

A thin gold chain showed at her collar, and something small hung from it inside her blouse.

I didn't ask what it was.

The little boy leaned out of her arms to look at me.

He had dark curls and grey eyes, and a red jumper with one sleeve pushed up.

"Are you the lady from Papà's drawer?" he asked.

The room went quiet.

At the door Alessio stood with his shoulders square and his face blank.

"Nico," Livia said softly. "Not now, tesoro."

"But she is. I drew her."

He wriggled down, ran to the table, and came back with a sheet of paper.

It was a crayon drawing of a woman with long dark hair and a very big smile.

Under it, in careful capitals, he had written: SERENA.

"Papà has you in a photo," Nico told me. "He looks at it when he thinks I'm sleeping."

I took the paper because he was holding it up to me.

I could not make my hand say thank you.

"It's a nice drawing," I said at last.

"I know," said Nico, and climbed back into his mother's arms.

Livia gave me a small, embarrassed smile over his curls.

"Kids," she said. "They hear everything. Come, tesoro, juice. Let's let Mama rest."

She carried him out.

Alessio hesitated at the door, and then he followed them, and the door swung most of the way shut.

I stayed on my knees by the bed with the drawing in my hand.

"Mama, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I stayed away."

Her hand moved on the blanket and caught my wrist.

Her grip was weak, but she held on.

"Listen to me," she said. "Quickly. She's gone for the juice."

I leaned in.

Her eyes were clear and frightened.

"Don't sign anything Ruggero puts in front of you."

"Ruggero Bellandi?" I said. "Alessio's uncle? Why would I sign anything of his?"

I remembered him pouring the wine at my engagement dinner, courteous and smiling.

"Because you are the one name he still needs." Her fingers dug in. "He will be here before the night is over, and he will have a pen."

"Mama, how do you know that?"

She looked at the door Livia had gone through, and then she looked at me.

"Because I am dying," she said, "and nobody bothers to lower their voice around a dying woman."

Her hand dropped from mine as the door opened again.

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