I blew out a relieved breath and then scooted up beside him in bed, sitting next to him, both of us with our heads propped up against the pillows. He smelled fresh and clean, like aftershave and soap, and it made me enjoy the simple pleasure of being alive and well.
“Do you remember anything that happened?” my father asked, staring up at his intricately painted ceiling beside me, as if we were gazing at stars.
“You mean, after I got sick?” I asked.
“Mmm-hmm,” he said, sounding slightly mischievous.
“Nothing. Just the strangest dreams.”
“Well,” he said, sounding rather tickled. “Your fellow Vasile is very devoted, let me tell you.”
I froze for an instant, with my eyes stuck open. “You mean, I didn’t dream that part?”
From the corner of my eye, I saw my father shake his head.
“I’ll tell you. It was enough to make an old man’s heart melt. He stayed by your side every single day. As soon as he learned you were sick, he barged in here like something out of a Shakespearean love story. Would not leave. Vanke tried to swat him away with a dishtowel. ‘Brute!’ she said. ‘Leave the poor girl alone!’ But he wouldn’t go. He would not. Even your mother tried to get him out, and you know how angry she can get, what with the pointing and glaring. But it didn’t matter. Your Vasile wouldn’t budge.”
Your Vasile.
I wished so much he’d stop saying it that way. Vasile was nothing of the sort. I was grateful that he’d sent the doctor to help us, but I felt that I had grieved for him so much and so hard that I could hardly find the strength to feel anything more. And anyway, it was all over. He was gone, that much was clear. His guilt had been absolved, it seemed.
“Apparently the devotion didn’t last for long. I don’t see him anywhere now.”
“That was the last act of the tragedy, my girl,” my father turned to face me a new sadness in his eyes. “Once it was clear you’d survive, he packed up his things. Came in here and told me himself. ‘She wants me gone from her life,’ he said. ‘I won’t dishonor her by disobeying her wishes. I won’t make mine be the first face she sees when she wakes up. I will always protect her. I will always protect you all.’” My father frowned and pressed his hand to his own heart.
My heart ached at the thought of Vasile even thinking that, let alone saying it. It sounded just like him, too. I could hear him saying the words as surely as if he’d just said them to me himself.
I closed my eyes tight, trying to will away the ache in my chest. But instead, I saw very vivid flashes of what I thought had been nothing but crazed dreams. Dreams that I hadn’t dared let myself think were actually real.
“Did he… did he even sleep there, by my beside?” I asked, turning to face my dad.
“Oh yes,” my father said, with a sigh, as he smiled at me. “For days and days. If it wasn’t for the doctor he had sent to care for me, you would surely have been dead.”
I blinked away a sudden rush of tears, trying to sweep them aside before my father noticed. But there was no point in trying to hide how I felt. Death and I had faced one another, but I had emerged victorious. It was foolish to try to kid myself about the way things were and how I really felt.
I loved him, with my whole heart, and I desperately did not want to let him go.
Chapter 25 Vasile
It had been a week since I’d left her bedside, but it felt like a fucking lifetime. Now I sat in my father’s study, as he paced around, talking business. But I was only halfway listening.
My mind was on Valeria—worrying about her, thinking about her, hoping to hell that she was getting stronger and stronger every day. Since the second I’d left her, my mind had been with her. Always was; always would be.
Our family doctor I’d paid to attend them all kept me up to date, letting me know that she was doing much better. Knowing that wasn’t enough. I couldn’t love her from afar. And I wasn’t afraid to take her again, if I had to. But for the time being, she needed to have the time to heal without me. I wouldn’t let my own selfish needs threaten her recovery.
“Christ almighty, son,” my father said, crossing his arms heavily as he stared at me. “She’s alright. You know that. And if she’s not, we’ll be the first to know it. In the meantime, we have business to attend to. Are you with me or aren’t you?”
I ran my hand down my jaw and leaned back in the chair in front of the fire. “Alright, alright. Sorry,” I muttered.
But it was a halfhearted bullshit apology and we both knew it. I might be sorry for pissing him off, but I’d never apologize for loving her. Never.
Still though, he kept on pacing and talking, walking me through the details now that I was officially and totally taking charge. In the years since I’d been gone, my dad had already begun to move out of the worst parts of our business and made it clear he was behind me in making sure we continued to move in that direction. I let my eyes drift over the stacks of papers scattered over the floor. Petre’s signature caught my eye on a few of the documents. Even his goddamned signature was sinister—so neat and small that it looked dishonest.
But as for Petre himself, he was no longer much of a threat. After his arrest for attempted murder that day at the cathedral, he’d been locked up in jail, an experience so fucking awful that even he was rattled by it.
Exactly what he fucking deserved—to have the tables flipped
