ABSOLUTE INSANITY: A forbidden bond-Chapter 106: Little troublemaker

Chapter 106: Little troublemaker
Chapter 106
KATYA’S POV
For a moment after Romeo and Antonio passed me, I couldn’t move.
The hallway buzzed in the distance — nurses, guards, clipped voices — but around me, everything felt muted. Like I was underwater, still staring at the space where he’d been.
Romeo.
Alive. Awake. Breathing.
And looking at me like I was something stuck under his boot.
A shiver ran down my spine. Even pale and weak and strapped into a wheelchair, he still looked like he could kill me with one hand — or want to. And the worst part?
Some ugly part of me whispered he should’ve stayed asleep.
I didn’t want him awake. I didn’t want that hatred. I didn’t want the way his eyes made me feel like dirt.
And I certainly didn’t want the way everything in my life — especially Nonna — suddenly felt... threatened.
I didn’t realize someone else was in the doorway until a soft voice broke through the haze.
"Mia cara!"
The sound cracked through the tension like sunlight. My head snapped toward it before my mind even processed the words.
Nonna.
She was in the room, waving from her chair, her smile warm and soft, like none of the awful things twisting my stomach existed.
"Nonna?" My voice cracked.
She laughed gently. "Come here, bambina. I was wondering when you’d stop lurking like a frightened cat."
My knees nearly buckled with relief. Her arms opened, steady and welcoming, and before I even thought about it, I stepped into them.
Her embrace wrapped around me like a blanket, and only then did I realize how badly I was shaking. She held me tighter, stroking my hair as the panic unraveled inside me.
"Shh... breathe, bambina," she murmured. "Tell me what you were searching for."
My throat squeezed tight, but once the words started, they wouldn’t stop.
"I—I was looking for you," I whispered, then the whisper cracked into something breathless. "I checked the sitting room, and the garden, and finally your room, your hallway—everywhere—and you weren’t there and no one would tell me anything and I thought—"
My breath hitched.
"I thought something happened to you," I rushed out, my words tumbling over each other. "Or—or maybe I did something wrong, or I annoyed you, or you didn’t want me around anymore and I—"
The words came out in a rush.
"Bambina." Nonna’s hands came up to cradle my face gently, stopping the flood of panicked words at once. "No. No, no, no. Breathe. Look at me."
I blinked hard, breath shaking as I met her warm, steady gaze. "You could never do anything," she said softly, firmly, "to make me not want you near me. Never, do you understand?"
My lips parted, but she shushed me with a thumb brushing my cheek. I swallowed as the knot didn’t ease.
My thoughts spiraling everywhere. What happens now that that devil is awake?
Would he tell her to stop keeping me around? Would he demand I get killed?
He already hated me — I saw it in his eyes. Disgust. Loathing. Like I was a pest he couldn’t wait to crush.
"You are good, mia cara. Kind. And you have never been a burden to me—not even once."
My throat tightened painfully because in the back of my mind, a darker thought curled around.
But your grandson won’t think so.
Nonna kept brushing my cheeks gently. "You are dear to me. You hear? Dear."
And if he told her to choose...
I already knew who she’d choose.
As she should.
As anyone would.
The fear clawed up my spine again.
Nonna sighed softly, thumb brushing under my eyes. "And Mia cara, I wasn’t avoiding you, okay? il mio piccolo combinaguai -
My little troublemaker
- has finally woke up this morning."
A cold weight settled in my stomach as I nodded, but my voice wouldn’t come.
Romeo awake meant everything changed.
Romeo awake meant the fragile little place I carved for myself here...could disappear in an instant.
Nonna kept talking softly, unaware of the storm inside my head.
"We waited so long for this day," she murmured. "I didn’t have a moment to breathe, much less come find you."
I pressed my lips together. I could hear the pure joy in nonna’s voice at her child’s recovery and sadly I couldn’t share it with her.
Come on, how could I when it’s that bastard, the devil child. I still don’t know how a pure hearted person could be related to that demon.
Nonna’s hands cupped my cheeks again, pulling me out of the spiral. "You matter to me, Katya," she said firmly. "You hear? You matter."
My breath stuttered but I nodded anyway. I would try keeping my distance. See this is what I was fearing about. abandonment.
Nonna’s thumb brushed the side of my cheek once more before she let out a small breath and straightened slightly in her chair.
"Now, mia cara... be a dear and wheel me out of this hospital wing, sì?"
"Wh—what? Now?" I stepped out from her hug.
"Of course now." She gave a soft huff, already facing the door back. "I need to follow those men before Romeo bites someone with that temper of his." A weak laugh escaped her — but I froze.
Go see Romeo.
Meaning: I had to go toward Romeo.
As in: the same hallway they wheeled him up some minutes ago.
Panic struck so fast my breath caught.
"Nonna, I— I can help, but I actually— um— I have to clean thus room. Two guards told me earlier and I— I should finish it before someone gets mad, so maybe I can—"
"Nonsense," she cut in, patting my hand like she was brushing away a fly. "Someone else will clean it."
"But—"
"No buts." She lifted her chin with that gentle-but-final Nonna authority. "You stay with me. I need your help more."
My stomach dropped. "But Nonna, I really—"
"Mia cara," she interrupted again, eyes soft but unwavering, "you are helping me today. The room can wait. Work can wait. this? this is more important."
Important. Your devilspawn grandson wants me dead.
Nonna reached out her hand, patient and trusting. "Now, help me, sì? Before I start rolling myself up the hall like a madwoman."
Despite everything inside me screaming run, I nodded stiffly.
"Of course, Nonna."
††
Expect another Chapter in a few hours