Chapter 40: Enraged!
Isadora got up the second she was done eating, even as she took in deep breaths, waiting for her parents to arrive. She had sent Ettore off to pick them up and bring them to the estate she was in before they would all go ahead to the hospital where Elisa was being treated.
But scarcely had she begun waiting, even as she typed away on her phone informing Isadora of what happened, when she heard Maria, her stepmother’s voice, from outside even before she made it all the way in.
"What does she mean that my daughter is injured! Can you see what your daughter has done!" She half-yelled, even as Isadora was tempted to have pity on her father, who had to endure Maria’s presence at such close proximity.
Without wasting any time, Isadora stepped out and greeted them, not surprised by the sudden influx and bombardment of questions that were instantly tossed in her direction.
"Dora! What happened? Elisa was fine when she left home yesterday!" Her father asked, even as Maria, who had been on the verge of speaking, had to pause, even though she didn’t stop glaring at Isadora, almost like she had been the one to physically injure Elisa.
Not wanting to waste any time and give them enough time to stomach the disaster that happened, Dora, with an extremely sad look on her face, began to tell them exactly what happened, what Elisa said and did.
She had just mentioned how her body was tossed out and how she discovered that her limbs had been cut off when Maria looked like she had been suddenly possessed, leaping at her with her nails poised, prepared to slap her as she raised her hands against her.
Dora understood her pain, but that didn’t mean that she was going to stand by and allow herself to become a punching bag. The last thing she needed was for Dante to see her as someone that could not even protect herself.
But most importantly was the movie that was being shot and the fact that her face couldn’t be injured until her character was dead.
Maria’s hand had just descended with force when Dora raised her hand and hit it away with just as much force, even as Maria gasped with tears in her eyes.
"You dare!" She screamed at her. "How dare you!" Almost like the fact that she protected herself was a taboo. "After all you’ve done!" She continued to scream at her, even as Dora simply stared back without showing any expression but the neutral one that was plastered on her face.
Her father wasn’t calm either, as he seemed to have grown older just a little, looking at her almost like he expected her to suddenly inform him that she had merely been joking. She didn’t.
"Two toes and two fingers were cut off! She is being treated!" She told them, even as her father looked even more sober, looking at the floor and moving closer to comfort Maria by patting her on the shoulder but not much closer, just in case she became manic and attacked him.
Her expression was grievous, like she was looking for someone to murder, and that person was Dora, who was doing her best to maintain a semblance of calm even though inwardly she felt none of that as she continued to speak.
"We can’t leave the guards at any time! I already texted Rossi, but I just wanted to remind you to make sure that you are—" but she didn’t get to finish before Maria rained insults on her.
"You fucking idiot! It’s all because of you! This would never have happened if you had just—"
"Maria..." Luca, her father, tried to intervene, but Maria just continued to go off with intense rage in both her expressions and her voice as she glared heavily at Dora, who simply took it, aware of how she herself would feel if it was her own daughter that it happened to.
"It’s your fault! You fucking deserve to die! I wish Luca never—" Speaking in the heat of the moment about something that Dora struggled to fathom and wanted to hear more of, when suddenly she saw her father leap at her, covering her mouth tightly and preventing her from speaking, no matter how hard she tried to push him off.
Her father said nothing, merely making eye contact with her for a full moment before finally she slowly settled down, even if her rage didn’t.
Dora found the entire thing to be confusing, even as she wondered what Maria could possibly want to say about her father, which was clearly important, seeing as how her dad went to great lengths to prevent her from speaking.
After Maria seemed to no longer want to continue ranting and yelling at her, Isadora stepped outside, getting in the car with Ettore, allowing them to take a different car since the last thing she wanted was to have to be in close proximity with Maria, who looked like she was one sentence away from clawing out her eyes.
It didn’t take long for them to get to the hospital, where they were instantly led to Elisa’s VIP room — not that the luxury and space of it mattered — even as her personal doctor followed them in and began to speak quietly since it appeared that Elisa was asleep.
"She woke up but was very frantic and a bit manic, so we had to put her to sleep to calm her down!" The female doctor said, and Dora sighed, aware that she would be in the same condition if she was the one, even as Maria moved closer to her, staring at Elisa’s fingers with tears sliding down her face.
"There were no signs of assault, thankfully! We checked!" The doctor continued, even as Dora herself breathed out a breath of relief that she didn’t know she had been holding, as she looked around the room, finding it difficult to fix her eyes on Elisa without noticing how pale and fragile she suddenly looked.
The bandages on her hands were heavy, but the blanket over her covered the bandages Dora knew were sure to be on her legs too.
