Soon, I would be home...
“Anastasia?” Rachel had noticed me still clinging to the doorway, I didn’t know if it was in case I needed an easy exit or if I just needed the physical structure to hold me upright.
“Sorry, would you mind giving us a minute?” I asked our parents and watched as they slowly, reluctantly, left the room.
Ambrose rolled his eyes as I finally moved closer to his bedside. “What? Are you going to gloat, because I’d rather not hear it.”
What a weird thing to say, I thought. Gloat?
I didn’t understand what that even meant. Did he mean gloat that he was the one in the hospital bed and not me? That his attempt to kill me hadn’t gone as planned. To me, this situation wasn’t exactly something for me to gloat over.
“I don’t understand why you did it?” I said as a question more than a statement.
He coughed a laugh. “Not so smart after all.”
“I managed to outsmart you. Now tell me why,” I demanded as our eyes locked for the longest time. Finally, his resolve seemed to crack as he blinked and gritted his teeth, his goading smirk had long disappeared now. Thank god for that small mercy, I would’ve hated to slap a man in a hospital bed.
“You were right, I was pissed when Mom and Dad told me that you would be replacing Dad when he retired.”
“That’s it? You know if you had fought his decision and proved that you were the smarter choice? You know, instead of acting like a brat, I’m sure he might’ve changed his mind.” I didn’t know if I was trying to lighten the mood for him or for me. This was all so fucked up, I was having a harder time processing it than I would have thought. I didn’t like the idea of showing my vulnerability.
Ambrose grimaced. “There’s more, you should take a seat… I don’t care anymore.”
I sat on the more comfortable looking chair out of the two, it was still plastic but it at least was covered by a blanket. I wasn’t sure what exactly I was asking him to do… I just wanted the truth, “tell me.”
“I was out with the guys when I was approached by a woman. She said that her employer had a business proposition for me that would be very lucrative. All I had to do was meet them at the right time and place, and then she left. My buddies thought she was just giving me her number.” He took a sip of water from the cup on the tray, and I topped it up for him.
He opened his mouth and closed it again. That anaesthesia cotton-mouth side effect was the worst, I knew that.
“When I got there, it was Marco and Cassio. They spoke to me about how they didn’t feel that the alliance would be as strong if Marco married you because they didn’t trust you. They asked if I’d be willing to help them with that. And I… I said yes, obviously.”
He shrugged, and I stayed silent. My heart was pounding in my throat. I felt sick, fevery. “They gave me a gun, and a million dollars in cash, with the promise of another million when I completed the job,” he finished, like it was nothing. Maybe it was nothing.
“They lied to you,” I said as I kept my eyes down. They hadn’t told him that they wanted me out of the way so that they could take a shot at the Varela territory. I felt sorry for him, he had been played for a fool. If I wasn’t standing in the way of Cassio getting whatever he wanted, it would be Kaleb or Ambrose with the target on their backs.
I didn’t look at Ambrose, I couldn’t look at what a disgrace to the Varela name he was. So I got to my feet and walked out the door to find Rachel and Kaleb in the corridor. They both looked up at me expectantly. I just shook my head.
“All yours,” I said numbly as I pushed past them.
I walked through corridor after corridor to find the damn exit. I needed air. I didn’t even know how I was going to begin processing any of this. I had no idea what any of this meant, other than that I was most certainly not getting fucking married to that bastard.
Suddenly as I paced outside, a familiar form appeared in front of me.
“Nikolai, what are you doing here?” Kaleb and Rachel were going to freak if they saw us together - if they saw him here full stop. I put my hands against his chest to stop him walking straight into me.
“Finch was watching the house when the ambulance arrived. I came as soon as I heard, we didn’t know what it was. I was panicking when you didn’t answer your phone. What happened?” His arms tightened around me.
I felt his heart race under my palm. He was scared, he thought he’d lost me. I leant into him to offer him the comfort he needed. I didn’t know what to say, but I knew, right then, we needed each other.
Minutes passed by before he finally released me from his suffocating grip. “I’m fine.”
“What happened, Ana?” Nikolai stressed again.
I couldn’t tell him right now, even though I barely knew what had just happened myself. “Nikolai, I’ll explain everything to you but you can’t be here. If they see you—”
“Anastasia, I don’t care if they see me. This is over.” He pulls back, holding my shoulders in his strong hands.
“What?” I whispered. I held my breath as my carefully constructed world began to shatter.
“I won’t go along with this plan of yours any
