Before I Forget His Name novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: His Name

The smell was stronger this time.

I grabbed his arm and said his name.

"Adriano."

He was awake before I finished it.

"Livia?"

My jaw locked, and my back arched off the mattress, and I heard the sheets tearing between my fingers.

He caught my head in his hands and turned me onto my side.

His voice was saying something fast and low, and I couldn't hold on to a word of it.

The last thing I saw was his face over mine, and his mouth shaping my name over and over.

Then there was nothing.

I came back in pieces.

First there was light, then a ceiling, then the beep of a monitor I knew very well.

My head felt packed with wet cotton, and my tongue was swollen.

A nurse leaned over me and said something in German, then in English.

"Welcome back, Miss Costanzo. Do you know where you are?"

"The hospital. In Zurich."

"Do you know what day it is?"

"No."

"That's fine. It's Saturday. You've been with us for four days."

I stayed in the ICU that afternoon and the next morning.

They asked me a great many questions, and I answered every one.

My name. My age. My mother's name and my father's, the street I grew up on, the pier where my father worked.

The oncologist wrote everything down and said the words I had been holding my breath for.

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