Chapter 39
Mikhail
Too many hours later, the car stops in front of the house with a screech. Grunting, I push my weight into the door and get out, not bothering to close it behind me.
Pain shoots through my shoulder with every step, the blood merely contained by duct-tape and sheer stubbornness.
Icy wind hits my face, and I bare my teeth, my fingers clenching nervously at my sides.
The need to hold Cecilia in my arms, to inhale her scent and know she’s still breathing, is the only force coursing through me right now.
Inside, the lights are on everywhere. I walk past everyone waiting in the living room of my wing and head straight for the staircase. Wolf sees me first, immediately standing up to greet me.
“What the fuck happened?” he rasps, keeping up with my pace.
When he steps in front of me, I push him aside.
“Where is she? Where is my wife?”
“She’s u-upstairs,” Victoria mumbles, her voice croaky, probably from crying. She looks like she’s just been through hell, which only tells me Cecilia must have gone through worse. More pain stabs my chest, and I know it’s not just from the bullet still inside me.
“We were just finishing up a riding lesson when Alaska got spooked and pulled on the reins. Cecilia’s ring stabbed her finger, and when she saw the blood…I—I don’t know. She got down on her knees and...”
Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
I continue my trail, knowing they’re all behind me. “The doctor. Why is he here?” I ask.
“She was spiraling so bad, we wanted him to see her. Calm her down with a pill or something,” Wolf says.
“Did she take any?”
“No. She locked herself in there. I threatened to break the door, but then she answered calmly, saying she wanted to be alone.”
I shake my head, jumping two stairs at once. They don’t know what I know. She must have remembered. She must have seen that blood on her finger and pieced things together. The incident at breakfast the other day must have been an early trigger.
The fact that she’s alone in there doesn’t sit right with me. A lot of fucking things can happen when the demons of your past come knocking. But I don’t let my mind go there. I can’t allow anything to slow me down.
“Leave. I want to be alone with her,” I say to no one in particular. “Keep the doctor downstairs in case she needs him.”
Wolf curses under his breath, pulling Victoria back. When I reach our bedroom door, I push on the handle, but it’s locked. I don’t waste any time convincing her to open. Pain explodes up my arm as I throw myself into the door, the impact knocking the air from my lungs.
I step back, gritting my teeth.
Again.
And again.
Until it springs open.
But the image staring back at me isn’t the Cecilia I remember. What I’m seeing can only be described as horrifying.
Forget whatever past I have with Wolfgang. Forget whatever the fuck my mother did to me, to us, all those years.
For the first time in my life, I learn the true meaning of the word terrified.
Because the woman I love, my wife, my Cecilia, stands on the window frame against the wind, keeping herself balanced with a mere hand on the wall.