My eyes meet Mia’s, which are practically glowing in happiness, even though her weakened body doesn’t show the same light. “It’s nice to meet you, Ivy.”
I give a little wave. “Nice to meet you, too, Mia. I’m going to help you with some… um, stuff,” I say, not really sure what they’ve told her about me or what I’m allowed to tell Mia.
“You’re the one with the golden blood?”
With wide eyes, my head spins to Tony. “Matteo likes to tell her stories of a fair maiden who will come save her, she has golden blood, and, well, Mia loves a good fairy tale.”
“Uncle Matty tells the best ones.” Mia shines with such excitement as Matteo winks at her.
“So, are you her? The fair maiden?” Mia asks, bouncing up and down on the edge of her bed, excitedly.
“Mia, don’t waste your energy, principessa,” Tony warns.
She instantly stops bouncing as her big doe eyes stare up at mine.
She’s so freaking adorable, I can’t deny her. “Yes. I’m the maiden Uncle Matty told you about.” I shift my eyes to Matteo, and he grimaces—pretty sure nobody else calls him Matty.
Oh well, he can deal with it.
“I’m gonna try to make you feel better, Mia.”
Her face lights up as if I’ve just told her I’m the fricking Tooth Fairy, or like all her Christmases have come at once. “Thank you, Ivy. Can you stay and play dress-ups?”
My eyes shift to Dash. “Only if Dash can play, too.”
Matteo snorts out a laugh as Dash cracks his fingers with his cocky smirk. “I dunno, I mean, really? I’ve never played dress-ups before and not sure I want to start now.”
Matteo purses his lips like he’s unimpressed by Dash’s less-than-enthusiastic attitude.
“Oh! Can I put makeup on you?” Mia gushes.
Matteo glares at Dash, almost snarling at him. “Dash, I’m sure you don’t want to let the little principessa down, now do you?”
Dash rolls his shoulders, his eyes meeting mine pleadingly.
I grimace as Tony grips my bicep. “Ivy, I need you to come with me. We have a technician in a room across the hall who’s ready to start,” Tony states.
Taking in a deep breath, I bob my head. “Okay, yep. Sure.”
“It will take some time. Dash will stay in here with Mia. There’s no need for him to come, we are literally across the hall. I need Mia occupied, and I need your full attention,” Tony talks directly to me.
I turn to Dash, who’s preoccupied with having an Elsa costume held up to his torso. “Dash, I’m gonna be across the hall getting this done.”
“Right, I’ll come with.” He’s desperate.
“No, you stay here. Entertain Mia. Get made up all pretty, but make sure you keep it all on to show me when I’m done.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want you out of my sight. The VP would kill me if anything happened to you.”
“I’m going to ensure Ivy is well cared for, Dash. Thank you for playing with Mia, I appreciate it.”
Dash somberly slams his ass down on a tiny little plastic pink chair as Mia pulls out her children’s kit of makeup. Matteo steps in beside him, leaning against the wall with his arms folded over his huge chest with a slight upturn of his lips—I can tell Matteo’s going to enjoy this.
The DeLucas lead me out of Mia’s room and across the hall.
“Without your blood…” Amalia’s eyes flood with tears, “… I just don’t know what will happen to Mia or how much longer she will have.”
Exhaling, I reach for her hand, squeezing it. “Everything’s going to be just fine.”
Amalia quickly wipes a stray tear from her eye. Her tough Mafia queen exterior falls firmly back in place as Tony opens the door to the room. Laughter from Mia’s room echoes across the hall, making me smile as I take in the sterility of the room I’m walking into—it’s like doctor’s surgery in here. A patient bed sits in the middle of a linoleum floor, the color scheme a stark white, with medical equipment lining the walls at every turn. A bench with surgical tools and instruments sits off to one side as a couple of people stand out of the way dressed in scrubs with gloves and surgical masks covering their faces.
“Mr. DeLuca, we’re ready to go whenever you are?” the female suggests.
Tony nods, ushering me inside. I have to admit, seeing all this medical shit is making me second- guess my decision.
Amalia comes into my line of sight, but her kind eyes soothe me somehow. “This must look daunting, Ivy. But I swear, it’s only because we want everything to be as sterile and as precise as possible. We have the best team working on this, so nothing will go wrong.”
Inhaling quickly, my breathing has become fast and shallow, while my muscles clench in nerves. “Okay. What do I need to do?”
The nurse—doctor? I have no idea what she is, comes over carrying a clipboard. “Ivy, I’m Larah. I have just a couple of questions to ask before we get underway. Okay?”
“Sure.”
“Have you had any aspirin in the last forty-eight hours?”
I shake my head. “No.”
She ticks something on her clipboard. “Excellent.”
“Did Mr. DeLuca have you drink fluid on the way up here?”
“Yes, I was told to drink half a gallon of water before I arrived. It’s why we had to stop to pee so much.”
Larah chuckles, but ticks whatever the hell she’s ticking off on her paperwork. “Now, I have to ask the following questions, Ivy, so bear with me…”
I nod my head.
“Do you have high or low blood pressure?”
“Not that I’m aware.”
“Do you have, or have you, come into contact with HIV, Hepatitis, or viruses of the like?”
I widen my eyes. “No. God, no!”
“I know these questions are invasive, Ivy, but you’re doing great. Almost there…” She smiles. “Are you, or is there a chance you could be pregnant?”
Heat flushes over my face as I sink in on myself. I’ve never been ashamed of my virtue, but for some reason hearing it out loud in this setting is making me realize how much I’ve been missing out on. There’s no real reason I haven’t had sex, I just haven’t found the right guy to give myself over to. I haven’t found anyone worthy enough to give them my body. Maybe by doing that, I’m holding myself back from experiencing life, from experiencing all the things a twenty-one-year-old should be experiencing.
“Ivy?”
I snap my head back to the woman. “Shit, sorry! I got distracted. No. No chance I could be pregnant.”
Tony inhales deeply like this fills him with immense pleasure, even though he already knows this fact.
The woman’s kind eyes meet mine. “Then, we’re good to go. The process we’re about to do is called a red blood cell extraction. Basically, red blood cells carry oxygen from the lungs to every part of the body. A substance in the red blood cells called hemoglobin does this.” I follow along understanding what she’s saying from the small amount of medical training I had before I was taken from Cuba. “The red blood cell transfusions are used for anemia in people who have low numbers of red blood cells. This entire process takes around an hour or so. You may experience some mild side effects like chills or tingling. So, please inform me right away if you feel anything like that?”