Chapter 3 - THE TURNING POINT
The silence that followed Vanessa's removal felt heavier than the sickness.
Dr. Harris immediately rushed to my side, snapping open his medical bag. "Dante, we need to pump your stomach, flush your system immediately. The digitalis accumulation is at a lethal threshold—if we don't start chelation therapy tonight—"
"Do it," I whispered, closing my eyes as a wave of nausea rolled through my chest.
Elena stood by the bed, still holding Maya’s hand. The little girl looked up at her mother with wide, frightened eyes, sensing the storm that had just swept through the room.
"You should go down to the kitchen, Elena," I murmured, my strength fading fast. "Marco will see that you and Maya are protected. No one will ever touch you in this house again."
Elena hesitated. She looked at me, her gaze searching my face for the boy she had known ten years ago on the South Side.
"I didn't come here for your money, Dante," she whispered softly. "And I didn't come here for revenge. I came because I couldn't watch from the outside anymore while someone destroyed the only man I ever—" She stopped herself, biting her lip.
"The only man you ever what?" I asked, forcing my eyes open.
"Nothing," she said, turning toward the door. "Get well, Dante. Maya needs to see that her father isn't as invincible as the legends say."
The door closed.
Dr. Harris and his team went to work, injecting antidotes, hooking up intravenous drips, and monitoring my vitals as the lethal compound was systematically drained and neutralized from my bloodstream.
For the next forty-eight hours, I lived in a twilight world of fever dreams and burning veins. I relived the South Side, the smoky pool halls, the cold winter nights, and the bright, fierce laugh of a young woman named Elena who had walked out of my life before I even knew how to hold onto her.
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By the third morning, the 2:17 a.m. freeze didn't come.
When I opened my eyes, sunlight was streaming through the high arched windows of the master suite, warming the heavy Persian rugs. The chill in my bones was gone. My skin felt normal. My heart beat with a steady, rhythmic thud that I hadn't felt in months.
