V A L E R I E
My heart broke the moment I walked into the hospital room, seeing the love of my life hooked up to machines, tubes snaking around his body like lifelines and shackles all at once.
Giovanni looked so small in that bed, so fragile compared to the strong, stubborn man who never backed down from anything life threw at him. His chest rose and fell with the help of the ventilator, each mechanical breath sounding too loud in the quiet room, as if reminding me that without it, he wouldn’t be breathing at all.
His face was pale, bruised, a deep purple shadow blooming beneath one eye, and there was dried blood in his hair that they hadn’t been able to fully wash away yet. I stood frozen in the doorway, my body refusing to move, my mind screaming that if I stepped any closer, this
