Chapter 3 - THE 2:17 CURSE
The doctors left the room,
carrying the evidence of my betrayal.
Vanessa retreated to her own wing,
claiming she was too upset to stay.
The room was left in shadows,
save for the blue light of the monitors.
Elena remained in the corner,
her presence a silent vigil.
Lily had gone back to the kitchen,
but her words stayed behind,
hanging in the air like smoke.
"Bitter almonds."
Cyanide.
A slow,
measured dose.
Just enough to mimic a failing heart.
Just enough to turn my blood to ice every night.
I looked at the clock.
2:15 a.m.
The dread began to settle in,
a heavy weight on my chest.
I reached for the blankets,
pulling the cashmere up to my chin.
"Elena,"
I whispered.
She was at my side in an instant.
"I'm here,
Dante."
"Tell me about the night you left,"
I said,
the cold beginning to numb my toes.
"Tell me why you didn't tell me."
She looked down at her hands,
the skin worn from years of hard work.
"You were rising so fast,"
she said softly.
"The bodies were piling up."
"The papers were calling you the King of the South Side."
"I didn't want my daughter to be a princess of a graveyard."
"I wanted her to have a life."
A shiver ripped through me,
my teeth beginning to chatter.
"I'm sorry,"
I managed to say.
"I would have...
I would have kept you safe."
"Safe?"
she asked,
a sad smile on her face.
"In a house like this?"
"Where your fiancée poisons your tea?"
The clock clicked.
2:17 a.m.
The ice arrived with the force of a tidal wave.
My muscles seized,
my breath hitching in my throat.
I felt my heart slow down,
each beat a painful thud against my ribs.
It was a cold that transcended physical sensation.
It was the cold of the grave reaching out to pull me in.
Elena grabbed my hand,
her warmth a stark contrast to my frozen skin.
"Stay with me,
Dante,"
she urged.
"Don't go to sleep."
I fought the darkness,
my vision blurring.
I saw Vanessa standing in the doorway,
her silhouette a dark blade against the hallway light.
She wasn't helping.
She was watching.
She was waiting for the final shiver.
"She's...
she's taking the business,"
I gasped out.
"The accounts...
the offshore...
she has the codes."
Vanessa smiled,
a thin,
ghostly line in the dark.
"You were always so smart,
Dante."
"But you're too slow now."
"The papers are already signed."
"The board thinks you're incapacitated."
"By morning,"
"I'll be the one holding the keys."
She turned and walked away,
the clicking of her heels a funeral march.
I felt the darkness closing in,
the ice finally reaching my heart.
But then,
I felt a small hand on my other side.
Lily had come back.
She held a warm towel against my cheek,
her eyes fierce.
"Fight it,"
she whispered.
"You have my chin,
remember?"
"And we don't give up."
I took a breath,
a ragged,
May you like
freezing lungful of air.
And I fought.
