Chapter 268: Who Did This To You?
Chapter 268: Who Did This To You?
Camilla
If I was lucky, the medicine would knock me out soon and I could continue to avoid the world around me for just a little bit longer, not even flinching by the time Domenico switched out the cloth for a pair of freshly cleaned tweezers thanks to Adriano.
My head was feeling a little less dizzy as I raised the mug to my lips to drain the last bit of liquid from the cup, moving to place it down beside me just as I felt the feeling of hair brush against my inner thigh. We had fallen into a pattern of Adriano making sure I stayed upright, Domenico lightly working on me with the steadiness of a professional and Gregorio looking at me like he knew what I did and the real reason why I took these jobs.
Typically the mind reading was left to Domenico but right now it felt like Gregorio was staring into the deepest parts of me I haven't been able to suppress since I left a year ago, leaving me unsettled in a way that I couldn't explain. When my head tipped down to find Domenico between my thighs, I was almost grateful for the excuse to look away from the other two around me.
"I need to get the splinter out before I do anything else." Domenico explained over the silence as he angled his head up, tweezers in his right hand.
He rested them against my hip as though he was waiting for me to tell him to stop and honestly, I couldn't blame him for thinking that. The medicine made me feel more compliant, though and I was already growing tired after ten minutes of consuming it in the first place.
"Okay," I nodded quietly as I gave him the go-ahead he was waiting for, starting to feel a little cooler with my leggings tossed somewhere on the floor and my t-shirt rolled up most of the way.
However, with the majority of my blood wiped away now, I could see the scratches weren't as bad as I initially thought they were. Sure, my skin would probably feel on fire the second I tried to take a hot shower but it seemed unlikely I would need stitches. That was a bright side I planned to fold onto. Even so, no one was relaxed as Domenico began to extract the severed ends of the branch I had run into, the only thing I could think about being the admission that I had scared them.
Although I didn't acknowledge it, I listened when Adriano told me my absence felt like losing me all over again, wishing I could find a way to explain why I had needed to go, not as an excuse but something to help explain it wasn't their fault I had left. Everything, and I mean everything was on me and I felt it every time Domenico plucked another splinter from my body. By the time he had dug out the last sliver he could find, the pain had numbed to a level that was more than bearable, thanks to whatever concoction Gregorio had whipped for me. My body sagged into a state of relief when I saw Domenico put the tweezers down, rising to his full height but still remaining between my thighs.
While Gregorio and Adriano remained with us, each leaning against the counter on either side of me so that I was cornered in, Domenico was still the one who called my attention to him, shivers breaking out along my body when his hands both brushed against my side. Looking down, I saw that his fingers were hooking under the scrunched up mess of my shirt just below my bra, not going any farther but letting me know his intentions all the same. With a stiff movement, I raised both my arms above my head, letting him peel the fabric off my body and wincing both at the feeling of dried blood as well as the slight stretch that ached across my stomach. This was undoubtedly going to be a pain for the next multiple days even with Domenico's skilled attempts to minimize it for me.
Seeing that, he encouraged me to lower my hands back to my sides, not understanding why he took the shirt off in the first place before I felt another warm cloth brushing against my skin. This time, Gregorio's hand as he slowly began to wipe all of the blood that had smeared across my collarbone from where my shirt had been bunched up. Everywhere he touched felt tingly, Adriano handing Domenico something I didn't notice at the same time until he screwed the cap of it off
While Gregorio cleaned me up, the man still in front of me applied an antibiotic ointment thoughtfully over where I had hurt myself, the two sets of hands moving over my body with attentive care. Soon this would be like nothing ever happened but when my gaze eventually and stupidly traveled over to Adriano, I frowned at the sight of my blood on his shirt and across one of the knuckles on his right hand. The stance he held tole me he had no plans of letting this go and it wasn't long before I felt him creeping into my head when all I wanted was to become detached from the world around me
With all of us quiet, it was easy for me to do so as I tried to think about anything but them even as Gregorio had managed to clear all of the blood from my body and Domenico straightened from applying the ointment that would hopefully kill off any infection and chance of scarring. All there was left to do was wrap my body in bandages so we could all go back to pretending like everything was okay, even though things were far from that. I could see Domenico wanting to say something, words holding on his tongue like he didn't know where to start with me. I made sure not to look him in the eye but he was getting under my skin in a way that preceded so much more than just physically.
I watched as his lips parted in front of me, needing to speak just as another sound cut through the silence hovering in the air, the sound of a sharp ringing coming from Adriano's phone instead of everything he wanted to say. We all looked to the man to my right just as Adriano's jaw tightened harshly, digging the device out of his pocket as his eyes flashed down to the caller on the screen. He let a little bit of his frustration show as his one hand drew up to drag through his hair irritably, the hand that had spots of my blood still from when he carried me over here.
My heart pounded at the sight but he didn't seem to either notice or care as he took a couple of steps away from the counter until it was clear he was leaving to answer the call. Whoever it was, he didn't seem thrilled to speak to them, however it must have been important enough to draw him away. Moving around the corner and out of sight, it was now just Gregorio and Domenico, I felt in the too warm kitchen of their house, my eyes caught on where Adriano had left until I felt a touch on the outer side of my thighs.
Looking down in almost a trance, I saw that down-tuned shape of Domenico's lips in my periphery as his tattooed hands smoothed up and down my legs, clearly having noticed the slight tremble within them I had failed to. Gregorio did too as he shifted towards me until his arm was flushed against mine, it was a show of comfort even though I brought all of this down on myself and that was what confused me most.
I have spent so much time on my own it made moments like these feel foreign to me now, my mind processing their unspoken words and my heart not knowing what to do with it.
"Who did this to you, Camilla?" Domenico's soothing voice washed over me in both concern and anger, like the mere sight of my injuries had him plagued with the urge to write it.
He had already done so much for me, though, all of them have but very few of my wounds were physical. The truly damaged part of me, the one born of misery, took its place inside of my chest like a black hole and I let it. I let it consume every fucking part of me I wasn't strong enough to hold because while it took the good, it also destroyed the bad I have spent my entire life trying to carry.
"I did" I whispered as tears welled in my eyes and heaviness swelled in my heart but Gregorio made a sound like he didn't believe me. Like he knew it was so much more.
I suppose the truth was very rarely pretty, though and when it was, it never stayed that way for long.
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