Chapter three

Isabella POV

 He is stabilized when we get to the hospital, I sit in the waiting room of the hospital, tears streaks dried on my face, covered in blood and mud, the note in my hand, I stare down at it for what I believe is minutes but hours go by and I’m still confused, Debts? “how much money will require for debtors to go this far? And my family owes money to someone? An organization?” It seems like the most far-fetched idea, “what did Daddy involve himself in?”

 I’m pulled out of my thoughts by the Doctor and my driver walking towards me.

 “How is he?” I stand up, anxiety running through my veins.

 “He will be fine, he had a few injuries on his wrist, his legs, and his face, and a bit of bleeding in his eyes but it will tamper down soon, we put him on fluids and pain medications, are you the only family member he has,” the doctor says looking at me with concern on his face.

 “Her mother will be here soon Doctor,” the driver says

 “Thank you,” I say gratefully to the Driver, I don’t know what I would have done if I were on my own, I even forgot to call my mother, she would have been so devastated, I fold the paper, squeezing it in the palm of my hands, “When is he going to wake up?” I turn back to the doctor

 “He should be up soon, he is currently in room 108, if there's an issue, you can meet the nurse,” he smiles down at me, trying to get me to be less worried.

 I nod, “Thank you doctor, and please I would like to transfer him to a VVIP room please, he needs the best of care”

 He nods, “you can fill out a form, I’ll instruct the nurses to transfer him as soon as he’s awake”. he says and quickly leaves us to attend to other patients.

 I quickly fill out the form and find his room, seeing him in this position fills my eyes with more tears, wrapped in a blue hospital gown, bandages wrapped around his body, his eyes closed, machines attached to him reading out his vitals and a drip hanging from a drip stand attached to him, I take a sit on the couch next to his bed, still in confusion, I can only ask questions when he’s awake.

 My mother shows up a few minutes later, and she immediately pulls me into a hug, “he’s fine,” I whisper into her ears as she cries into my shoulders.

 “I told him, I warned him” she whispers taking a seat next to him, rubbing on his fingers lovingly.

 “Warned him about what Mom? I saw this from his jacket,” I hand her the note, “what does it mean? No, I can read I know what it means, but who does he owe? Are they dangerous people? Why are we owing people in the first place? What's going on?” I throw questions after questions at her.

 “Only your father can answer you my dear,” she shakes her head in disappointment, sighing, “But recently, he went back to his old ways again” she says bowing her head down in shame, “And we spoke about it, he said he was going to stop but he had a very big deal that would double our family fortune, or so as he said, I guess it didn’t go as planned” she wheezes, tears dropping from her eyes.

 “Is this what he wanted to speak to me about? He was gambling again?” my lips shaking as the words left my lips, “My God, I thought he fixed this? What happened? When did he relapse? Why didn’t you say anything, mum? We would have stopped this!” I turn away in anger, taking a seat on the table, the sound of beeping from the machines is the only sound accompanying my anger.

 “Isabella,” I hear his voice, his eyes slightly open, his eyes still a dark red color.

 I can't help myself “Daddy” I immediately head to his side, “What happened who did this to you? We need to report this to the police” I frown.

 “NO,” he says sternly, barely sitting up, “water,” he says to my mom and she immediately attends to him, handing him a cup of water.

 He sighs, looking around the room, “I was attacked on my way to work, kidnapped and driven off to some warehouse he explains, I was beaten,” he wince, “and given an offer”, he turns to me, tears? Pity in his eyes? I don’t know.

 “what offer?” I frown

 “My dear daughter, my darling daughter, he cries I’m so sorry, I went back into my gambling ways, I lost a lot of money, the company, he choked on his tears, the house, everything, we are going to lose everything, we are broke,” he lays his head on the pillow staring up at the ceiling.

 “We still have some savings daddy, we can get out of this,” I say trying to be sympathetic, I can castigate him later about the gambling, “we can fix this alright,” I look up at my mother, tears in her eyes, her lips in her mouth, it looks like they aged by a few decades, “we have mom’s boutique, I have personal savings, my trust fund account also, we can fix this, how much is the money? 10 million? 20?”

 He bites his wounded lips, wincing and turning to me, “My baby girl, it’s a lot of money, it runs into hundreds of millions of dollars” he cries.

 My heart sinks in my chest, being in charge of our finances in the company I can already guess we will not be able to afford to pay off that sort of loan, even if we were to sell the company and the house, we would not be able to come up with the money.

 “Okay Daddy calm down, who do we owe? Maybe I can speak to them? Come to some sort of an agreement?”

 He turns to me, “We owe a few organizations, but the biggest amount was taken from the Deluca empire, and they ask for only one thing and all our debts will be paid, everything will be fixed, we can go back to how it was before, I’ll go for therapy again”, he promises, squeezing my fingers in his hands.

 I cut him off my heart pounding in my chest “What was the offer, Daddy?”

 He breathes in, slightly wheezing, a guilty look on his face, pursing his lips he turns to my mom and then me “To clear the debts he wants to marry you my Isa, I’m so sorry he chokes, crying into his palms, “He wants to marry you, Isabella, Dominic DeLuca has requested for your hand in marriage.”