Chapter 3 Miracles Exist?
Serena's POV
I ran to the hospital immediately after the call. The doctors at the first hospital told me Mom had been moved to a private medical facility across town and gave me the address without much explanation.
I didn't wait for one, I just grabbed my bag and left immediately, my mind was already preparing for the worst.
When I got there and they directed me to her room I stopped in the doorway and just stared. This place was nothing like where she had been before. The room was clean and quiet with proper equipment and a bed that actually looked comfortable.
Her medication was laid out neatly on the side table and a nurse was adjusting something on the monitor while smiling and joking with her.
I turned to the doctor who had walked me in. "What is this?" I asked, "Who paid for this?"
He clasped his hands together.
"An anonymous benefactor covered all expenses not too long ago, including the surgery costs and the outstanding bills from the Moretti Medical Foundation." He said. That was my mom's foundation,the one she has been building for years and practically the only thing that's keeping her going.
I looked at him for a moment.
"Anonymous?" I asked confused.
"They requested full confidentiality," he said, "All I can tell you is that the person is extremely influential and that everything has been taken care of. Your mother is in good hands, Miss Moretti."
I didn't know what to say to that so I didn't say anything. I just walked past him into the room and the moment Mom opened her eyes and saw me standing there she started crying before I even reached her bed.
I sat beside her and held her and cried too and we stayed like that for a while, not really talking. Mom was just holding hard unto my hands.
Luca's burial was three days later, on the same morning Mom went into surgery.
I had asked Uncle Vincent to come and he did, showing up in a dark jacket with his hands in his pockets and his eyes somewhere else the entire time. There was no one else, and not evenpeople from the neighborhood who had watched Luca grow up.
Just the two of us standing in front of a grave while a priest said words that felt too short for someone who had given his whole life away quietly and without complaint.
Vincent didn't speak throughout. He stood beside me the whole time staring at the ground and when it was over and they had covered the grave he said,
"I have somewhere to be," and left without looking at me.
I watched him walk away and didn't call after him.
Then I turned back to the grave and stood there alone for a long time. I crouched down and pressed my hand flat against the soil.
"I don't know who did this to you," I said quietly, "But I'm going to find out. I promise you I'm going to find out and I'm not going to stop until I do." My voice didn't break. I had already used up whatever crying I had left at the hospital with Mom.
All I wanted now was revenge and so i stood back up and walked away.
The next two years did not get easier.
Mom survived the surgery but she needed constant care afterward and the bills kept coming regardless.
I picked up whatever work I could find: waitressing, admin shifts, delivery work on weekends and for a while I was managing it, barely until the tuition payment came due and I looked at my account compared to what Mom needed that month and made the decision.
I dropped out of college even though it was Luca's biggest dream to see me become a doctor. But how would I combine working several jobs with medical school? And even the cost was too much for me to bare.
I didn't tell Mom for three weeks because I knew exactly what her face would look like when I did. She cried when she found out but I told her it was temporary, that I would go back and I meant it when I said it.
The foundation started collapsing about eight months after that. A major sponsor pulled out suddenly with no real explanation, just a short email saying they were redirecting their charitable commitments, and within a few months the debts were piling up faster than anything I could do about them.
I tried everything; called investors, wrote appeals, sat in offices explaining our work to people who nodded politely and never called back. Nobody wanted to touch a small foundation with no credentials. Until someone mentioned the charity gala.
It was an high-profile annual event where they said wealthy investors and corporate elites came specifically to fund struggling institutions.
I got my name on the list after three attempts and marked the date.
I wore the only formal dress I owned, it was deep navy one Luca had given me years ago for my eighteenth birthday even though I was now 25, but I've not really grown much.
It was slightly tight across the shoulders now and the style was a little outdated but I fixed my hair carefully and kept my makeup simple.
Inside was a different world entirely because it was a really beautiful place with big people and I at some point felt out of place.
I was still waiting for my turn to present when i started hearing whispers moving from one cluster of people to the next, and everyone in the room stopped talking all of a sudden, even the security near the entrance straightened up and the organizers looked tense suddenly.
"Caspian Vale is here," someone beside me said to no one in particular and I turned toward the entrance slowly.
The doors opened and he walked in. He was tall, dark-haired, and dressed in all black. Some people bowed as he walked past them and it was only then that I realized that i had heard that name twice now. Once from Luca's dying voicemail and once from a news broadcast in a hospital corridor, and now he was here in the same room as me.
I was still thinking about all of this when he looked straight at me all of a sudden. At first,I thought maybe it was a mistake and so I looked away but when I looked back at him, he was still staring.
Then he started walking toward me and I sood completely still because I didn't know whether to step back or hold my ground.
