When Giulia woke up, the first thing she felt was the sharp, unmistakable scent of antiseptic as it hit her nostrils, jolting her senses into overdrive.
For a tense, dreadful moment, she thought that she was back in that damp underground room she had barely managed to escape, and she started to struggle.
She could even hear Christie's voice echoing in her ears, feel her hands reaching for her. Giulia thrashed against the bed, desperate to escape a memory that was already six years old but still plagued her nightmares constantly.
'I have to escape. I can't let them keep me.' Almost unconsciously, she lifted her body, struggling to get off.
Then, a woman's soft voice broke through, and Giulia felt warm hands gently pushing her back.
"Hey, hey, hey, You're alright. You took a nasty fall, and now you are in the hospital," a comforting southern accent broke through the haze of her fear.
Her eyes snapped open and immediately landed on her wrist. Only after seeing the raised skin of a scar, since healed, did her heartbeat slowly return to normal.
The room tilted when she tried to focus. Her tongue felt thick, clumsy. But she could tell that, indeed, she was in a hospital. Far away, where Christie and John would never think to look for her.
The woman with the soothing voice, who was a nurse, brought a cup with a straw, which she placed in Giulia's mouth.
She drank greedily. The cool water soothed the cottony dryness in her mouth, and she immediately felt a little better.
"What happened?" she asked huskily. "How did I get here?"
"Don't you remember?" The nurse asked with pity in her eyes. "You tripped at work, and you fell hard."
Images of the most mortifying memory replayed haphazardly in her head, causing her to cringe as she remembered her graceless fall right at the set for the soon-to-be-launched game's promotional photoshoot.
It was bad enough that the fall happened in a room in front of the country's newest, shiniest model and her entourage of vapid dolls, but it also happened in front of her boss.
The infuriatingly perfect Beau Orsini.
One of Lumia City's youngest executives who had built a very successful company and had a face like an angel but a temper that belonged only in hell.
Beau Orsini, with his cold eyes and colder efficiency, never missed an opportunity to turn up his nose at her drab clothes and unimpressive looks. It was obvious to her that he was classist and thought too highly of himself.
Beau's obvious distaste for her didn't bother her.
Why would it?
She had much more important things like survival to worry about than looking pretty for the boss.
As it was, about half of the female staff were already competing on that front anyway. There was no more space for an extra admirer.
"Just a moment, dear, the doctor will soon be here." The nurse intruded on Giulia's thoughts, then stepped out.
Shortly after, the nurse returned. This time she was not alone.
A man in a lab coat and horn-rimmed glasses came in after the nurse and shut the door behind him.
"It's good to see you back with the living, Miss Cabot." The man said with a kind smile. "For a moment we feared that we would lose you."
The color drained from Giulia's face. Almost died? Her hands trembled beneath the thin hospital sheet.
I'm still so young. How can I die now? I haven't even had cute babies and an adorable family. I dare not die.
The doctor's horn-rimmed glasses slipped down his nose as he studied her. "Don't worry if your memory feels scrambled. Head injuries are like shaken snow globes, everything settles eventually. Just don't shake yourself up trying to see clearly."
"Just remember to take your drugs and rest, and everything will be fine."
She tried to nod, then winced as lightning seemed to strike her brain.
"I will prescribe stronger painkillers for you." The doctor nodded as he noticed her pain and scribbled some more on the board. "And I will leave you in the capable hands of Nurse Anderson."
"Dr, when can I leave?" Giulia asked impatiently before he could leave. The thought of being in an unfamiliar environment made her palms feel clammy.
"As soon as someone who can help you get home comes, then you can leave." The doctor explained kindly.
Giulia's heart sank at the realization that she had no one she could count on. She briefly thought about calling Finn, her boyfriend, then shook her head.
She was determined to have a clean break with him. Asking him for help would put her in his debt, and she wanted no ties to him.
"You're lucky." The nurse's words broke into her thoughts. "Your boyfriend was by your side since he brought you in this morning. He will soon be back to take you home."
Giulia's brow furrowed.
Finn?
How had he even known she'd been brought here?
She distinctly remembered Beau standing over her after the fall.
Had Finn come later?
'Why is he acting so kind now?' she frowned in irritation.
For days now, a usually attentive Finn had barely answered her calls. Every conversation somehow circled back to the same argument. He accused her of not caring enough for him because she would not put aside her stance of no sex before marriage.
She had told him right from the start when they started dating, and he had seemed agreeable to her conditions until recently, when he had started to pressure her, telling her to prove her love to him by letting him come over and spend the night.
It had been disappointing for Giulia that despite how intelligent she was, she had fallen for Finn's scam. He acted like a gentleman, but he was actually nothing but a fuckboy.
They had been dating for only a month, and he was already putting that kind of pressure on her. It made her determined to break up with him.
Now, Giulia felt that Finn's kind actions were most likely a trap, an act of behaving kindly and trying to fool her as he did before when he convinced her to date him.
"Where is my boyfriend then?" Giulia rasped after a moment, thinking of how to escape before he came back.
"He only stepped out for a moment to get coffee," the nurse explained. "He refused to move even an inch until the doctor confirmed you were stable."
Giulia watched as the nurse injected a clear fluid into her IV line. Almost instantly, a warm, heavy blanket of calmness washed over her, and she felt like she was floating on a fluffy, warm cloud.
With a sheepish smile, she complained to the nurse, "As you have trapped me here on this bed. How will I leave now?"
Just then, the heavy door creaked open, and the nurse beamed. "Your boyfriend looks very strong. I am sure he can carry you no problem."
A tall, broad-shouldered silhouette filled the doorway. Even through the haze of painkillers, he looked magnificent to Giulia, and her sheepish smile widened.
Unfocused eyes roamed over the sharp jawline, the intense eyes, the expensive coat, and she felt a reluctant attraction. "You're right, Nurse," Giulia giggled, the medication stripping away her filter. "My boyfriend really is gorgeous, even if he is annoying sometimes."
"Boyfriend?"
The man in the doorway tilted his head, and he stared at the giggling woman with an unreadable expression. Then he took a step closer, allowing Giulia to get a better look.
As Giulia's blurry vision finally settled, the handsome face came into sharp focus: the razor-sharp jawline, the piercing dark eyes, the tailored suit.
Her stomach did a slow, dizzying flip. Oh no.
This wasn't Finn.
It was his younger brother, Beau. Her boss.