Sold To The Mafia Don

Chapter 235 - 45 ~ Mira

The first thing I felt was pressure.

Not pain. Not even fear.

Just... weight.

It felt like I’d been underwater too long and someone finally let me float to the surface.

Then the beeping reached me.

It was slow, steady and too close to my ear.

A hospital.

I knew that sound anywhere.

My throat felt dry, impossibly tight, and when I breathed, it scraped.

My body ached in places I didn’t know could ache. My skin felt heavier than my bones.

But something warm held my hand.

I didn’t open my eyes yet. I didn’t have the strength.

But I squeezed the warmth.

And whoever held me froze in that second. .

I heard a sharp inhale. It sounded familiar. It sounded like something soft and broken at the edges at the same time.

"Mira?"

My chest tightened.

Jace.

It was him. The love of my life.

His voice was so low it almost sounded like a prayer he didn’t know how to say out loud.

I tried again, my fingers curling faintly around his.

That was all it took.

The chair beside the bed scraped back, and suddenly his warmth was everywhere—his palms cupping my cheek, his forehead pressed to mine, his breath unsteady like he’d been drowning and I had just pulled him out.

"Mira. Baby... please open your eyes."

His voice cracked.

God.

I forced my lashes apart.

The light hit first. It was way too bright, too sharp—but then his outline came into view.

Messy hair. Red eyes. Unshaven jaw, clothes rumpled like he’d been wearing them for days.

And the expression.

I had never seen him look so undone.

"Hey..." My voice came out barely a whisper, but his whole body tensed like I’d screamed.

"Mira."

He closed his eyes like the word hurt him.

His hands shook against my face. "I’m here. I’m right here."

"What... what happened?" My throat pulsed painfully with every word.

The memory came slowly, like pieces floating into place.

The event.

People.

Lights.

Then a shove before I tripped on my feet.

A sharp gasp escaped me as the scene hit me all over again. I felt empty. That was when I remembered.

"Our baby—"

"She’s alive," Jace said quickly, brushing a trembling hand down my arm. "She’s small. Early. But she’s fighting. Just like you."

Relief hit me too hard and too fast, tears burning at the corners of my eyes.

"Can I... see her?"

"You will. As soon as the doctor clears you." He whispered, pressing the button to signal one of the health care personnels.

He kissed my knuckles, holding them against his cheek.

"You scared me, Mira. You—"

He stopped. Then he swallowed hard and looked away like he wasn’t allowed to break.

"Jace." My fingers moved toward his jaw, even though the effort exhausted me. "Come here."

He leaned in immediately, pressing his lips to my palm.

Then to my wrist.

Then to the inside of my hand like each point anchored him back into this moment.

"You were unconscious for almost a week," he whispered. "A week, Mira."

His voice sounded hollow, like each syllable was scraped out.

"I thought—"

He stopped again, breath shaking.

"I thought I lost you."

My heart twisted.

Everything in me wanted to pull him into me, to hold him, to wipe the shadows from his eyes... but my body refused to move more than an inch.

"I’m here," I said softly. "I’m... still here."

He lowered his forehead to my arm, breathing unevenly.

I felt the dampness of tears.

The man who never cried.

The man who stood unshaken in front of guns and blood and chaos—

He was falling apart over me.

"I’m sorry," he whispered into my skin. "I’m so fucking sorry. I shouldn’t have let you go to that event. I shouldn’t have agreed. I shouldn’t have left your side. I—"

"Stop."

My voice was weak but firm enough to make him look up.

"This wasn’t your fault, Jace." I told him.

His jaw clenched. "Someone touched you. Someone shoved you hard enough to nearly kill you. I wasn’t there to—"

"Jace, it’s in the past," I said simply.

He blinked, looking like the logic physically hurt him.

"They meant to hurt me," I continued.

"We both know that. But you didn’t cause this and I need you to stop blaming yourself for it."

"You don’t understand." His eyes darkened. Something violent flickered behind them. "I should have prevented it. I should have protected you—"

"You always protect me," I whispered. "Sometimes too much."

He flinched at that.

"So don’t blame yourself for the one thing you couldn’t predict."

He looked at me like he wanted to argue, but the fight drained out of him as quickly as it rose.

Instead, he took my hand again and held it like he was afraid I might vanish if he blinked.

"You’re pale," he murmured, brushing hair from my forehead. "Your blood pressure was unstable. They said—"

"I’m okay."

The words were soft but steady.

"And our daughter... how is she?"

Something shifted in his expression.

Something raw and reverent.

"She’s tiny," he whispered. "So tiny, Mira. But she’s breathing. She has this little sound she makes when the nurse touches her foot, and her fingers curl around mine..."

His voice broke again.

"She’s perfect."

Tears slid down my temples.

I tried moving again, desperate now to sit up, to go to her, but my body protested.

Jace carefully adjusted the bed for me, lifting my upper body without making me strain. His hands hovered the entire time, terrified of hurting me.

"You shouldn’t move too much," he said quickly. "Your stitches—"

"What stitches?"

My breath hitched.

He hesitated.

Pain flickered through his features.

"They had to operate," he said quietly. "Emergency. Your placenta tore during the fall. You were losing a lot of blood."

My vision blurred again.

"Did I almost—?"

"Yes."

The word was barely audible.

"But you didn’t."

He moved closer, cupping my cheek gently.

"You fought. You’re here. And I’m not letting anything touch you again. Ever."

I believed him.

I always did.

But something else burned in the silence that followed.

A question I didn’t want to ask.

"Jace... what did you do?"

He stilled.

My heart dropped.

"What did you do after I fell?" I whispered.

He leaned back slightly. "Don’t think about that right now."

"Jace."

His jaw flexed.

His silence was an answer.

And I felt a chill crawl down my spine.

Before I could push further, a small knock sounded at the door.

Roberto stepped inside with a nurse, both looking relieved to see me awake.

Jace didn’t move from my side.

The nurse checked my vitals. Roberto squeezed my shoulder gently, eyes soft.

"You gave us all a scare," he murmured. "Glad to have you back."

I nodded faintly, still watching Jace.

Still needing answers.

But my body was trembling, exhaustion creeping back in.

The nurse adjusted my oxygen and whispered, "You need rest."

Jace stood, smoothing my blanket gently.

"I’ll be right outside," he said.

I caught his wrist, holding him in place.

"Don’t disappear."

He bent down, brushing his lips against my forehead in a way that made my chest ache.

"I won’t."

And yet...

As I drifted back toward sleep, I noticed the darkness lingering in his eyes.

The kind that meant something irreversible had already begun.

And the world outside this hospital room would soon feel it.