The Billionaire’s Prodigal Wife
Chapter 45

Mackenna woke to the familiar sounds of beeping and monitors, and she g*****d. As she tried to lift her hand to her head, she felt weighted down and m****d with frustration.

“My love, if you had wanted me to come home, all you had to do was ask. There was no need to plunge yourself headfirst into a table,” Alessandro’s soft words were whispered near her ear.

She couldn’t help it and she started to cry at his gentle teasing. Why was he here? Her eyelids flickered as she tried to focus but everything was fuzzy.

“Hey Mac,” Savannah’s voice was professional, “you’re going to be pretty groggy. You did a number on your arm, and you lost a lot of b***d. You have nearly fifty stitches in your arm and a solid concussion. You hit the metal frame of the table pretty hard.”

“Oh, the area rug,” she whispered a small smile on her lips, “had to hide the gravy stain.”

Savannah burst into laughter at her friend’s words. “Yeah, I think you’re going to be fine. I’ll talk to the plastic surgeon who stitched you up to see if we can take you home as soon the anesthetic wears off.”

“Should she leave the hospital?” Alessandro’s voice interrupted. “You said she lost a lot of b***d.”

“She did but her roommate is a trauma doctor,” Savannah mocked him, “and we don’t like to admit anyone unless its absolutely necessary. Generally, people heal much better at home than in hospital.”

Mackenna eyed Savannah across the room. “How long have I been out?”

“Couple of hours,” Savannah shrugged carelessly, “Doctor Wright from plastics had the anesthetists give you something to keep you out until he stitched up your arm. You had a huge piece of glass embedded in your wrist and it hit your artery so we couldn’t move it until we were ready, so he had the neurosurgeon Doctor Shea right beside him.” She pointed at her. “I know you hated the rug but spilling your b***d all over it was a bit much. Also, you had the entire hospital outside your operating room.”

She tried to lift her hands but they both felt heavy. She glanced down and saw her left arm was wrapped from the fingers to the shoulder and her right arm sported an IV. “I’m such a pain in the a*s.” She looked to Alessandro very aware she’d been avoiding meeting his face. “How did you get here so fast?”

He chuckled, “my love, I was just getting to the apartment complex when the ambulance arrived.”

“Why didn’t you call?” She tried not to sound whiny, but she had no control over her tone, or at least it was the excuse she provided herself.

“I didn’t think you would want me to after what my grandfather did.” He answered truthfully. “I should have called but I was terrified of your response and,” he saw her eyes flitting from closed to open as if struggling to stay awake. “We can talk more about it after, okay? When you’re not so groggy.”

She stared at him still surprised he was there and not a hallucination. “How did you get the bruise on your face?”

“Dulce landed a right hook,” Savannah grinned at Mackenna’s gasp. “Since you said you forgive her, I’m pretty sure she’d fight a lion to the death for you.”

“But why did she hit you?”

“Because I didn’t call you back,” he smiled softly. “I didn’t get your message right away.”

“You didn’t?”

“No,” he rubbed his jaw, “I had no idea you called. Since the video release I’ve easily had a hundred or two hundred calls and voice mails a day, so my phone was set to go straight to message. I’ve slowly been making my way through them. I heard it at three o’clock this morning.”

“And so, you came,” she whispered suddenly bashful, unable to hold his gaze

“I did,” he reached out and stroked her cheek gently. “I wanted to hear it in person instead of in a message.”

“And there’s my cue,” Savannah tossed out. “Mac, I’m going to go talk to Doctor Wright about your post-op care and then see about getting you released.”

She rested her head on the pillow and closed her eyes. Alessandro was here and he’d only heard her message today and he’d come straight to her after hearing it. She felt his lips press against her forehead and she felt a tear escape the corner of her eye. “I feel like all I do is cry lately. I was so proud of myself not crying most of the week but here I am, crying again.”

“I’m sorry Mackenna. It breaks my heart to know how much pain and suffering my family has caused you.”

“Why?” She opened her eyes suddenly and looked at him. “What did I do to make him hate me so much he would plot to kill our child?”

Alessandro sighed deeply and took a seat on the edge of her bed, holding her fingers lightly between his. “I wish I could simply say he was a sick man but there is so much more to it. Dulce told me she told you everything.”

“Yes, and while I still think she should have come to you right away with what was happening because I know you would have taken care of everything, I also understand she was scared,” she shook her head. “I cannot imagine knowing someone was pointing a gun at my child, threatening their life for five years. No wonder she went crazy when the nurse saw her k**s, Savannah.”

“I agree with you. She should have come to me. Had she come to me years ago, we would not be where we are now. I admit I am not as forgiving as you are in the moment. I also was not happy to see her standing with you at the ambulance. I could have throttled her, but she landed the first punch. The press will have a field day.”

“She came to me to apologize but,” she gave him a crooked smile, “also to tell me she will stay away from you and begged me to go to you.”

“Hm,” he pondered it for a minute, “no, I’m still pissed off. I need to time to process. Mackenna, I knew of Dulce’s child. There have been so many secrets we have shared because we were both going through heartaches of our own and not once in all the times, we chatted did she ever insinuate someone was forcing her to do anything against her will. She should have told me.”

Mackenna nodded understanding his thought process.

“As for you,” he rubbed his temple, “my grandfather felt you were a distraction. He had been after me for years to be with someone in the industry who would help me build the company bigger and better than ever. When I met you, even though my work got better he thought you were a poor distraction. He felt I married beneath my station,” he grimaced, “he said those exact words to me last weekend when I confronted him. He said he didn’t want our bloodline tainted with common b***d.”

Mackenna felt sick and knew it had nothing to do with her head injury. “He hated me because I wasn’t wealthy, a model or even pretty.”

“You are beautiful, the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Even laying there with a goose egg on your forehead, you hold more appeal to me than any woman I’ve ever met. He’s ugly. He’s so ugly inside and out he’s a stain on the Giordano name. My parents are horrified. My mother is desperate to come to Phoenix and apologize in person and my father is so ashamed of Salvatore he doesn’t even know where to start to make reparations to you.” He squeezed her fingers tightly. “Mackenna, my family has always adored you, with the exception of him and please know, had we known of how sick he was, we would have protected you so much better.”

She grimaced, “he’s in jail now though, right?”

“Yes, but not for long. He made bail this morning, my mother messaged me when you were in surgery. He’s fighting the charges and saying it’s a set-up.”

“I may be sick,” she closed her eyes and leaned back against the pillow. “Poor Dulce, her rapist goes free?”

“Mackenna, as much as I would love to see him rot the rest of his days in prison, he is a sneaky conniving and nasty individual. I have already given extra protection to Dulce and her family until the matter with him is settled.”

“How do you settle a matter with him?” Mackenna’s brow scrunched up at the thought.

“Do not ask questions you do not want to know the answers to,” Alessandro spoke quietly, his voice deadly and eerily calm.

Her eyes flew open and met his noting the warm golden color of his eyes were cold and bitter as he contemplated his grandfather. “Alessandro, he’s your grandfather, you wouldn’t,” she let her words trail away.

“He took what was mine, what was ours,” he put his free hand on her tummy possessively, “and he will pay for it.”

Mackenna didn’t know what to say, never seeing this side of her husband before. She knew he could be a ruthless businessman, but he was insinuating something so much more sinister than she was accustomed.

“Enough talk of this unpleasantness,” he brushed her hair off her forehead. “I want to talk about the message I heard at three in the morning while sitting in my office in Giordano House. Would you care to elaborate?”

She blushed as his eyes warmed up considerably and bore into hers. “I only wanted to know you were okay.” She lowered her gaze to the hand holding her fingers tightly. “I was horrible to Savannah and Nuncio. I yelled at her and flipped her off.”

Alessandro’s head pulled back in surprise. “What did she do to deserve this?”

“I had a rough time after learning of your grandfather and I was cranky,” she struggled for the right words, “and they cut me more slack than I deserved. Monday morning, I spent time with two vastly different families wading through complicated health matters and billing matters. I get teased at work frequently for doing too much but it kills me to know someone is so worried about paying a bill they can’t be focused on their sick family. Anyway, Savannah told me I had more compassion for strangers than I did my own husband.”

“Ah,” he owed Savannah a hug of gratitude.

“She pointed out it wasn’t just my family and my baby impacted by Salvatore’s actions but also yours and I was being selfish. I moped the rest of the day and then when I got home, I knew I was being an a*s. I had to apologize to everyone, but you were the first call I made.” She looked back to him then. “I’m so sorry Alessandro. I’ve been so wrapped up in my own hurt and my own pain I didn’t care about anyone else and I’m sorry.”

“You have been through so much Mackenna. Once I learned of Dulce’s treatment of you, I knew and understood why you left me. When we found you were pregnant, I said a thousand prayers of gratitude because it gave me a second chance, I knew I didn’t deserve. Salvatore ripped it away from us. I know I am bossy and demanding and given everything the Giordano family has put you through, I have no right to demand your love.”

“Yet, here we are with me still loving you as much as I did the day we married.” She finally admitted to him her love and was rewarded with a wide smile and tears in his eyes. “I do love you Alessandro. I’ve never stopped. I should have known the day I filed the papers and had a meltdown in my grandfather’s arms how I felt but I was so angry and so bitter.”

“And very rightly so,” he traced the path of her tears with his thumb. “You have every reason to hate me and to never want anything to do with the Giordano name but to hear you say you still love me makes me the happiest man in the world.”

He leaned forward and kissed her lips very gently before standing upright. “Well, now all we have left to do is to get you discharged from here and take you home.”

Mackenna nodded at his words. Home. Milan. He of course would want her to return to Milan, where his company was. She would have to give up her life here in Phoenix and return to his estate. She closed her eyes as she felt sadness about leaving her friends behind, but she would follow him anywhere and deep down she knew it.

“Are you okay?” Alessandro asked watching her closely.

“I’m suddenly exhausted and I have a bad headache coming on,” she wasn’t lying she noted as the throbbing in her brain increased.

A knock on the door interrupted them as a nurse stepped in. “Did I hear you say you have a headache?”

“Yes, it’s nothing,” she shook her head not wanting the nurse to make her stay any longer than she needed to.

The nurse, Beth, if Mackenna remembered her rightly, shook a needle in her hand. “It’s expected. Doctor Wright asked us to give you this into your IV before your discharge.” She shook her other hand with papers. “This is your discharge instructions,” she passed them to Alessandro, “hubby can read them over and make sure you follow them to the letter. No driving, no operating heavy machinery, no flying and heavy exertion like cardio for at least ten days. You’ll see Doctor Wright in ten days, and he’ll check your sutures. Also, no getting your arm wet. I’d suggest baths keeping your arm out or replaceing a way to shower with a handheld unit, so the bandages stay dry.” It meant she had at least ten days before he whisked her back to Milan.

“Not a problem,” Alessandro assured the woman.

“Doctor Kirkland also said she’d kick your a*s if she caught you doing anything with your arm, so I know she’ll keep an eye on you.”

As the woman put the medication into her IV Mackenna instantly started to feel woozy. “Wow, it’s a bit much.”

“You’ll enjoy it in a minute,” Beth winked back before speaking to Alessandro. “He gave her a pretty potent dose just to keep her comfortable on the drive back home. She’ll be higher than a kite for at least two hours. There’s a prescription in the stack of papers for a painkiller. She should take one every twelve hours for two days and then she can take over the counter painkillers.”

She was so fuzzy in her thoughts as she heard the words the nurse was saying but all she could think of was him going back to Milan without her. “Alessandro,” Mackenna reached for his hand. “You’ll stay with me, right?”

“An army couldn’t keep me away,” he promised.