Epilogue – Artur
The familiar sound of the EKG beeping steadily filled the air as I finally came to. The voices around me were echoing in my head, my vision still a bit blurry.
The beeping EKG, the smell of antiseptic solution in the air, and the choice of window blinds told me where I was. A hospital.
I blinked a few times and rubbed my heavy eyes just before my vision and hearing cleared.
“How’s he still alive?” a feminine voice caught my attention from across the room. “His car was a complete wreck.”
“His will to survive is like none I’ve ever seen,” a masculine voice added.
When I looked in their direction, I realized the man was a doctor, and she was a nurse. I guess they were the ones who nursed me back to life.
Then I heard another voice, a familiar one. “He has every reason to survive. His wife just put to bed.”
It was Konstantin. He found me.
“Who did you say who are again?” the doctor asked him.
“He’s my brother,” I answered.
“Oh, my God!” the nurse yelped at the sound of my voice, almost jumping out of her skin.
I hopped off the bed, ignoring the pain in my shoulder and my back.
“Thank you, Doc. I’ll take it from here now.” Konstantin tapped his chest and walked over to me. “You’re a hard man to kill,” he said to me, his lips curled into a faint grin.
“Yeah, well, you said it yourself. I have every reason to survive.”
He slipped into my arms and embraced me for the first time. “I’m glad you’re not dead, Boss.”
“Me too.”
He stepped back and cleared his throat. “Rocco’s men were behind the attack. But as we speak, they’re all dead. All of them.”
I locked my jaw as I recalled how those assholes tried to kill me last night. “Take me to my family.”
He nodded.
It turned out that someone had found me at the crash site and rushed me to the hospital. Konstantin had gifted the good Samaritan some money in exchange for his silence. He paid off the doctor and the nurse as well, closing that chapter of my life.
They were right. I wasn’t supposed to have survived that crash. Yet I did. The only injuries on me were the flesh wounds I sustained during the fall and a broken shoulder. Which the doctor had fixed.
My guardian angel must be working overtime. Or maybe it just wasn’t my time to die yet. Not now that my best years were just beginning.
We drove straight to the hospital where my wife had been admitted. Throughout the drive, my heart was pounding in my chest—not out of fear, but anticipation.
By the time we reached the hospital, I ran into Hilda in the corridor. She hugged me, expressing joy at seeing me alive, and then pointed me toward my wife’s ward.
I found my way there and entered the room. She was standing by the window, looking out at the garden outside, her hair flowing down her back.
“Thinking about a particular someone?” I teased, strolling inside.
At the sound of my voice, she turned around, her eyes wide with excitement. She rushed into my arms, sobbing. “Don’t ever scare me like that again.”
“I won’t.” I held her close. “I promise.”
“I thought I lost you.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Celine,” I replied softly. “Not any time soon.”
She let go and met my gaze, wiping her tears. “You better not. Because who’s gonna help me raise him if you’re gone?”
“Him?” I raised my brows in surprise.
“I should’ve bet you it was gonna be a boy.” Her eyes crinkled at the corners, her voice smooth and gentle.
“Where is he?”
Before she’d respond, the cry of a baby from a corner filled the air, as though he answered me.
My expression softened as I approached the baby crib. The moment I saw that tiny human being, my heart melted.
I towered over the crib, holding my baby’s gaze and wondering what I ever did to deserve such a blessing. The infant was making a noise that sounded like a blend of laughter and crying.
When I reached out and held his tiny hand, his fingers curled around mine. My chest tightened, my throat burned, and I glanced back at my lovely wife.
“He has your eyes,” I said to her.
She nodded, stepping closer. “But he looks more like his father. Handsome.”
I pulled her to myself. “You think I’m handsome?” My lips curled into a smile.
“I don’t think…” she replied. “I know.”
I tucked her hair behind her ear, my eyes locked to hers. “I love you, Celine.”
A radiant grin lit up her face, and she threw her arms around my neck. “It took you forever to finally say the words, huh?”
“I promise, henceforth, you’ll hear them every day until death do us part.”
She stared into my soul, her eyes crinkling at the corners. “Somehow, I don’t doubt that.”
I leaned in and planted a kiss on her forehead while caressing her skin.
“I love you too, Artur,” she admitted. “Always and forever.” She melted into me, her heart pounding against my chest as the world faded into the background.
At this point, I was the luckiest man in the world. Because even after all the horrible things I’d done in the past, love still found me.
*****
THE END