Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 65112 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65112 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
“The baby,” I rasp.
“It has a strong heartbeat,” Sebastian says immediately. “She checked twice.”
The doctor smiles at me gently.
“Your baby sounds good, Valentina. I’d like to check your blood pressure again in a few minutes, but everything I’m seeing is reassuring.”
“Gia?” I ask.
Sebastian’s hand tightens around mine. “She’s okay.”
“Don’t lie to me.” My voice comes out ragged.
“I’m not.” He smiles. “She’s got a concussion, a bruised cheek, and a split lip. She’s going to be okay. Nico’s with her.”
I close my eyes, which is a mistake. Gia is on the porch again. Adrian’s arm is around me. The cloth is over my mouth. Then the basement floods back and the gun too, with the split second when I was sure the shot went through me because my body was too terrified to understand anything else.
My eyes fly open. Sebastian is already moving closer.
“I’m here,” he says softly.
“I thought he shot me.”
“I know.”
“I thought the baby…” My hand presses harder against my stomach.
“He didn’t,” Sebastian says. “You’re both alive.”
Adrian isn’t. I remember that too.
The doctor checks my blood pressure again. She tells me I need rest, fluids, small meals when I can manage them, and no unnecessary stress, which almost makes me laugh. Sebastian listens to every word like there will be a test later.
After the doctor leaves, I try to sit up. The room tilts hard enough that I grab the sheet and shut my eyes.
Sebastian’s hand goes to my shoulder. “Don’t.”
I want to argue. Nothing comes out, which worries him more than anything I could have said. He helps me ease back against the pillows.
The next two days happen in pieces. I wake up to Sebastian on the phone near the window, speaking low enough that I can’t make out the words. I wake up to his hand around mine. I wake up with my face wet and no memory of crying. I wake up from a dream where Gia is still on the porch and I can’t get the door open no matter how hard I pull.
Sometimes I know where I am right away. Sometimes I don’t. Those times are the worst. My body comes up fighting, and Sebastian has to say my name until I can hear him over whatever nightmare still has its hands in my hair. He keeps his hands where I can see them until I reach for him first. He just sits close enough for me to find him and says, “You’re at my house. You’re in my room. Adrian is dead.”
Over and over. I hate needing the reminder.
Gia calls on the second day. Sebastian hands me the phone and stays sitting on the edge of the bed like he’s pretending not to listen.
“You look terrible,” Gia says the second the video connects.
She looks terrible too. Her cheek is bruised, a small bandage near her hairline. Her hair is clean but pulled back messily, and she’s wearing sunglasses indoors.
“I was kidnapped,” I say.
“I’m concussed,” she shoots back.
“I’m pregnant. I win.”
She narrows her eyes at me through the sunglasses. “Do not try to make me laugh. It hurts my head.”
My throat tightens, and she sees it immediately.
“No,” she says. “Absolutely not.”
“I called you.”
“And I came because I love you. What happened was not your fault.”
“You got hurt because of me.”
“No, I got hurt because Adrian is a psycho.”
“Gia.”
“Val.” Her voice sharpens. “You are not taking responsibility for the actions of a man who ambushed me from behind. I will fight you, and I have doctor’s orders to rest, so don’t make me waste energy.”
I press my lips together because if I answer too fast, I’ll cry.
She softens just a little. “I’m okay.”
“I thought he’d killed you.”
“I know.” She swallows, and for the first time, she looks as shaken as I feel. “I was scared he’d kill you.”
I cry, ugly and immediate, and she cries too, which makes both of us laugh. Sebastian takes the phone when my hand starts shaking too hard to hold it.
“Rest,” he tells Gia.
“Don’t boss me around, Dracula.”
He almost smiles. “Goodbye, Gia.”
He ends the call before she can insult him again.
On the third day, I finally shower. Sebastian sits outside the bathroom door because I ask him to without actually asking. I leave the door cracked, and he pretends not to notice. The shower is quick and not especially graceful, and I have to sit on the closed toilet for ten minutes afterward in a towel, trying not to pass out.
“You alive in there?” Sebastian asks from the other side of the door.
I laugh once, but it turns into a sob so fast I don’t have time to stop it.
The door opens a few inches. “Valentina?”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re a bad liar.”
He comes in slowly and crouches in front of me. He doesn’t touch me right away. Just looks at me sitting there in a towel, wet hair dripping down my back, whatever dignity I have left somewhere near the shower drain.