Chapter 8 - THE FALL
The impact felt like being struck by a sledgehammer covered in fire.
I stumbled forward, slamming into the side of the car, completely covering Lucia.
Emily screamed.
Before Franco could fire again, David raised a small medical scalpel he had grabbed from the tray and threw it. It buried itself in Franco’s throat. The enforcer gurgled, dropping the rifle, and collapsed onto the pavement.
I slid down the side of the car, my knees giving out.
“Dominic!” Emily dropped to her knees beside me, her hands frantically pressing against my back.
Warm blood soaked through my shirt. The pain was blinding, white-hot, and suffocating.
I looked at my daughters.
Valentina and Mia were staring at me, tears streaming down their faces.
Lucia knelt beside me. She reached out with her small, trembling hands and touched my face.
“Daddy,” she sobbed. “Please don’t go to sleep. Please.”
She was speaking. My beautiful, brave girl was finally speaking.
“I’m… I’m not going anywhere, baby,” I choked out, tasting copper in my mouth.
Emily was sobbing, pressing her jacket against my wound. “David! Help him!”
David staggered over, his face grim. He pressed hard on the wound, causing a fresh wave of agony to rip through me.
“The bullet missed his spine, but it nicked an artery,” David said frantically. “I can’t stop the bleeding out here. He needs a real hospital. Now.”
“Get them… get them out of here,” I whispered, looking at Emily. “Take the flash drive. Go to the FBI. Make a deal.”
“We’re not leaving you!” Emily cried, her tears mixing with my blood on her hands. “You’re her father! You don’t get to die to make yourself a martyr, Dominic! You have to live for them!”
I looked into Emily’s eyes. Isabella’s eyes.
She was right. I had spent fourteen months wanting to die, wanting to join my wife. But looking at my three girls, holding onto my coat, I realized I couldn’t leave them.
“Help me up,” I gritted my teeth.
David and Emily hauled me to my feet. I screamed in pain, but I forced my legs to work. We piled into the Civic. Emily took the wheel.
“St. Jude’s Hospital,” David barked from the backseat, applying pressure to my wound. “It’s five miles away. Drive like hell.”
Emily slammed on the gas.
The world began to blur. The edges of my vision darkened.
I could hear the sirens wailing in the distance, responding to the warehouse fire.
I felt Lucia’s small hand gripping mine tight.
“Daddy, stay awake,” she chanted softly. “Daddy, stay awake.”
“I love you,” I whispered, my eyes drifting shut. “I love you all so much.”
“Dominic!” Emily screamed from the front seat. “Keep your eyes open!”
But the darkness was too heavy. The pain faded into a numb, freezing cold.
I let go of the breath I was holding, and everything went black.
---
Answer one: Silvio was dead. The threat was neutralized.
Open two: Would I survive the drive?
I drifted in a void.
I saw Isabella. She was standing in a sunlit garden, wearing that white dress she loved. She looked peaceful. Happy.
She smiled at me, holding her hand out.
I reached for it. I wanted the peace. I was so tired.
But as my fingers brushed hers, she shook her head.
“Not yet, Dom,” her voice whispered in my mind. “They still need you.”
She pushed my hand away.
Suddenly, blinding light pierced my eyes.
“Clear!” a voice shouted.
A massive jolt of electricity slammed into my chest, ripping me back from the void.
I gasped, my eyes flying open to see bright hospital lights and frantic doctors swarming around me.
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“We got a pulse!” a nurse yelled. “Get him to the OR!”
I was alive.
