Because Of Love

“Come on, wake up already!”

Talia attempted to move her head away from the incessant chanting in her ear. What the hell did Carrie want?

She tried to open her eyes, but they felt so heavy. She struggled until she finally got them to obey and quickly closed them again when she saw Carrie’s happy face looming above her.

“Here, open your mouth and drink.”

Talia didn’t argue. She felt like she had cotton stuffed in her mouth and down her throat. The cool liquid felt heavenly as she swallowed her first sip.

She opened her eyes again and looked at Carrie’s smiling face. “I’m having a nightmare,” she whispered hoarsely.

Carrie snorted. “No, we’ve been having a nightmare. It’s about damn time you woke up, you selfish bitch!”

Talia’s mouth fell open. “What did I do?”

“You were in a coma for a month, that’s what you did!”

“What?”

Talia was even more shocked by that revelation than the hostility. She looked around, as far as she could see beyond Carrie’s body straddling her, and then she stopped, dread filling her. She pressed her hand to her stomach. She was empty!

“My babies, where are my babies!”

Carrie’s face softened. “Calm down Talia.”

“Tell me!”

“Angelo, get her off her please,” Rafe’s commanding voice filled the room.

She then saw Angelo, who smiled at her and quickly lifted Carrie away, ignoring her protests.Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

Rafe stepped forward, sinking onto the chair at her bedside as he looked at her intently. He then took her hand and raised it to his lips pressing a lingering kiss to her knuckles.

“I thought you would never wake up, cara mia.”

Talia blinked a few times to make sure she was seeing straight. Never had she seen him so disheveled. Even when he was scruffy he never looked this tousled. His clothes looked like they’d been slept in for days. Half his face was covered with a beard and the other half covered by his long hair. He looked scruffy, and more like a hippy and less like a cutthroat tycoon. Yes, he looked very sexy but just not like Rafe.

“Rafe…what happened to you?”

He chuckled. “You, carissima, happened to me.”

Talia was confused by that. “Umm, sorry?”

He laughed, kissing her hand again. “You are forgiven. How do you feel? I should get the doctor.”

“Wait,” she cried out, stopping him when he moved to stand. “The babies, where are they? Please tell me they are alive.”

“Si, they are alive and well. They miss their madre.”

Talia sobbed with relief, her vision blurred with the tears. “They are all right? The tests…”

She watched a muscle twitch in his clenched jaw. He was angry. She just hoped the anger wasn’t because there was something wrong with the twins.

“Rafe, you’re scaring me.”

“Mi scusi, yes, the tests came back clean but we will have to wait and see how they grow. Just as a precaution,” he rushed to assure her, and she guessed it was because the fear she felt in her heart was written on her face.

“Can I see them?”

He snorted. “Once your mother stops hovering over them like a vulture!”

Carrie laughed. “He means once your mother stops being over-protective of them.”

Talia groaned. “My mother is here? I’ll be lucky if she lets me near them.”

“Say the word and I’ll have her deported.”

Talia laughed at the hope in Rafe’s tone. “No, that won’t be necessary.”

His face fell and he grumbled under his breath making her laugh harder. She hadn’t laughed so hard since the day he left her.

“So, by you amorous affection, I’m to take it that you believe me, that you are our sons’ father and I never cheated on you?”

He nodded, tears flooding his eyes. “Mi scusi, forgive me for doubting you. Thank you for them.”

“It’s all right. Everything is as it should be now. There is no use in dwelling on the past.”

“Don’t be so hasty to forgive, my dear, he hasn’t told you the whole truth yet.”

Talia turned to her mother’s voice. She stood by the door, pushing a long stroller. Talia felt giddily happy, like a kid on Christmas day anxious to open her gifts.

“My babies. I want my babies.”

Without a word, Rafe stood up and moved to where her mother stood. They stared at each other until her mother turned her head away. Rafe took the stroller from her and pushed it towards the bed.

Talia sat up in bed with brimming excitement.

Rafe smiled at her-his little boy smile-before he bent down cooing in Italian. There was a soft whine that resembled that of a cat that Rafe hushed with his soft words. He then stood, turning around to reveal a baby as large as his hand.

“Come meet your mommy, my little one,” he cooed, placing the baby in Talia’s waiting arms.

It felt like heaven holding her son in her arms. Her chest was ready to burst with joy knowing they had made it, against all odds. She remembered how hard she fought to keep the doctor’s from giving her a C-section. They’d called Rafe as reinforcements. He had readily permitted the procedure, ignoring her protests but that decision was taken out of both their hands when the boys decided to come into the world at that precise moment.

She looked at Rafe, her other son in his arms. He must have been so scared, she thought.

His entire family was at death’s door, and he had been powerless and helpless to come to their aid. She didn’t envy him the weeks he spent in absolute fear as he waited for them to get better.

“I’m sorry,” she managed through her constricted throat.

He shook his head as he sat close to her. Talia stroked the pink cheek of the baby he held.

“No, I’m sorry. Everything that has happened to you, to our sons, is all my fault.”

Talia heard her mother snort a retort, “Good of you to finally admit it.”

“Mother,” Talia pleaded.

“No! This man has been the cause of all your misfortune. It’s his fault you were drugged and raped,” her voice hitched at the last part and she went quiet.

In fact, the entire room went quiet, as everyone looked at Talia.

She knew what they expected-dismay, accusations, tears and screaming. But being in a coma seemed to have its advantage. All those puzzle pieces that had been floating around in her mind, the nightmares, the hospital and the secrets, they now all fit together. They made sense because she could remember.

She looked at Rafe. He looked tortured and seemed to have aged the few minutes her mother had been in the room.

Carefully cradling her son in one arm, she lifted the other and cupped his cheek in her hand. “Rafe look at me.” He didn’t. He turned to press a kiss in her palm. “Please look at me.” When he finally did, she smiled at him. “I wasn’t raped.”

The hope in his eyes was quickly extinguished by her mother’s outburst, “How would you know, you were unconscious.”

Talia sighed and turned to her mother. “When you left the hospital to go change your clothes, the doctor came in and explained why I was there. Remember, you refused to?”

Her mother huffed and turned her face away. Talia chortled at the antics then went on, for Rafe’s sake.

“He told me Carrie found my front door wide open and my home wrecked. He thought my home had been burglarized and because of the state my lingerie was in, he wanted to carry out a rape test. Apparently my mother refused to consent to one.”

“I noticed she likes to ignore issues until they are too late to fix,” Rafe whispered with a shadow of a smile.

Talia returned the smile. “No, not too late, until the time arrives when she can use it against you.”

“I heard that!” her mother huffed.

“Anyway, what I’m trying to say is the test came back negative. I wasn’t raped.”

Rafe let out a relieved sigh.

“And I finally met your brother Renaldo. Quite a character that one, and his friend…wow!” Talia hated to cloud his relief.

Rafe’s jaw clenched. “As of a month ago, I traded that family for a new one, my own. We’ll be leaving for Boston as soon as you are well enough.”

Talia wanted to ask the question that was bound to nag her every second of the day if she didn’t, but the look on Rafe’s face advised her against it. Once everything had calmed down, she would ask him, but for the time being, she wanted to enjoy her new family.