Chapter 26 — Nial
One minute, she was fine, engrossed in our kiss. The next, she was stumbling backward, her hand on her forehead.
“What’s the matter—are you okay?” I asked, concerned.
“Yeah, I’m just a little dizzy; that’s all,” she answered, her voice weak and faint.
Her knees bucked, her eyes rolled backward, and her body dropped.
“Kiera!” I called, closing the distance between us in a single stride. With quick reflexes, I caught her before she hit the ground.
Her arms fell out, her breathing was shallow, and she barely had a pulse. My eyes widened in terror as her weight settled against me, slack and unresponsive.
Fuck.
Panic set in.
“Kiera!” I shook her body, my worried eyes roaming over her. “Keira!”
No answer.
“Shit!” I slid one arm beneath her knees, the other around her back, and then lifted her against my chest.
A cold, vicious spike of alarm tore through me as I made it out of the bedroom. I raced through the hallway with urgent steps, my shoes echoing against the floor.
“Boris!” I called out mid-stride. “Boris!”
He appeared at the end of the hall, his expression shifting ever so slightly as he realized this was an emergency.
“Get the car, now!” I bellowed.
He dematerialized immediately.
Doors opened on both sides of the hall, and some of the maids stuck their heads out, wondering what was going on.
“What’s happening?” Polina asked, stepping out of her room.
“I don’t know—I’m taking her to the hospital,” I answered without slowing down.
“I’m coming with you.” She began rushing up behind me. “Olga, get my sweater—hurry!”
By the time I got outside, the car was ready, and Boris was at the wheel, honking. Two other cars had their engines running—the security detail he’d mobilized.
Polina hurried to help open the back door for me, and together, we slid Kiera into the backseat. I got inside with her, placing her head on my lap. Polina stepped into the front passenger seat, whispering prayers in Russian.
“Boris, drive!” I barked.
He revved the engine and rolled the vehicle out of the compound.
This was a critical moment, and time was of the essence. Every second was important because none of us had any idea what the actual fuck was going on.
“Stay with me, Kiera,” I said softly as I caressed her face.
Boris drove faster than he ever had, our car shooting through the city. It still didn’t seem enough for me. I wanted him to drive faster.
A man of my caliber wasn’t scared of anything because I’d seen it all. Gunfire. Death. Explosions. Ambush. But none of those ever made me panic. Yet here I was, scared half to death over this situation.
Maybe the reason for my fear was because I had no control whatsoever. And that made me feel helpless.
“Faster, Boris!”
The tires squealed as he took a sharp, reckless turn, the car swerving without warning. Ahead, the traffic light just turned red, but Boris had no intention of slowing down. He slammed the accelerator, speeding past the queue of waiting vehicles.
“Hold on for me, Kiera,” I whispered, stroking her hair. “We’re almost there.”
We turned down another street, and the hospital came into view. The lights shone bright in the distance like a beacon of hope. Boris sped into the emergency entrance and brought the car to a quick halt, making the tires screech.
Polina was the first to get out. She grabbed the handle of the backseat door and yanked it open. I stepped out, carrying my wife in my arms as I raced toward the E.R.
Boris pushed the doors open, and I rushed into the corridor, yelling, “Help!”
The lady behind the counter rose to her feet, calling out and signaling her colleagues.
“I need a doctor, now!”
Orderlies raced forward in the blink of an eye, throwing questions at me as they took her from my arms. A lot was going on in my head, so I couldn’t catch all they were asking about.
“Uhh….” I rubbed my forehead, watching them transfer her onto a stretcher. “One minute she was fine; the next, she passed out.”
They clasped an oxygen mask on her face as they rolled the stretcher along the lit hallway, their footsteps rapid and urgent.
One of them said something about her pulse being weak, and that scared the shit out of me. I rushed them, terrified of what might happen to her.
“You have to save my wife—she’s pregnant,” I said to the woman who’d been calling the shots since we arrived.
“Name, please.”
“It’s Kiera. Kiera Tarasov.”
“All right, Kiera, if you can hear me, I’m gonna need you to squeeze my hand,” the woman said, looking down at my wife’s pale face.
No response.
Fuck.
They rushed into a ward and closed the door behind them. When I tried to go in, one of the nurses stepped in my way.
“Sir, you’re not allowed in there,” she said politely, her voice laced with urgency.
“That’s my wife!” I barked.
“Boss.” Boris grabbed my shoulder and pulled me aside. “Get a hold of yourself.”
“I need to be in there, Boris,” I said, attempting to move past him, but he wouldn’t budge. “I need to know what’s going on.”
“And you will.” He looked right at me, as if reminding me of who I was. “Calm down.”
“Fuck.” I combed my hair backward, sinking into the steel behind me.
My feet tapped rapidly against the floor, my heart racing in my chest. The mere thought of losing her or the baby was making me go insane.
“I’ll go fetch you some coffee,” Polina said to me.
“Make it two,” Boris replied, rubbing his forehead. “I’ll need one as well.”
She nodded and walked away.
“I can’t lose her, Boris,” I said, elbows on my knees as I cracked my knuckles absently.
“You won’t.” He sat beside me, his gaze fixed on the ward in front of us. “She’s a fighter, that one. You and I know that for sure.”
Blood on my hands seemed more familiar than this fear tearing through my chest. I used to think that I was too cold to feel anything, that nothing in this world would ever scare me.
I was wrong.
The same man who’d stood in places that reeked of death, who’d watched men beg and break without ever feeling a flicker of emotion, was tonight weighed down by fear. The same fear he was known to inflict on others.
How ironic.
“Here you go.” Polina appeared out of nowhere, handing me a steaming cup of coffee.
I accepted it without a word.
She handed Boris his as well, then asked, “Anything?”
He shook his head. “Not yet.”
This waiting was worse than any violence I’d ever been involved in. And it was killing me softly.
My fingers clenched around the hot cup of coffee in my hand, ignoring the searing pain biting into my flesh.
Finally, the doors opened, and a doctor stepped out, holding a notepad in his hand. “Mr. Tarasov.”
“Yes.” I rose to my feet, meeting his gaze. “How’s my wife? How’s our baby?”
“She experienced what’s called a threatened miscarriage, most likely triggered by severe stress or physical exhaustion.”
I stepped forward, my face twisting into a frown. “Doctor, how’s my wife and unborn child?”
“They’re both stable.”
I breathed a sigh of relief, my fingers rubbing my forehead.
“That’s good news, right?” Polina asked him.
“Of course,” the doctor replied. “We don’t see any signs of immediate loss. But she needs strict rest and close monitoring henceforth.”
I folded my arms across my chest, paying closer attention to the instructions.
Strict rest.
Close monitoring.
Got it.
“Lack of sleep and any kind of physical strain at all can escalate the situation,” he continued. “For now, the margin for error is reasonably small. If you abide by my instructions, there will be no further complications, and she should carry the pregnancy safely.”
I glanced back at the ward and saw that she was already awake. “Can I go see her now?”
The doctor traced my gaze. “Sure.”
I left him with Boris and Polina and began walking toward the woman who’d almost made me lose my sanity.
“Nial,” she called weakly.
“Shhhh.” I closed the distance between us in a few strides. Sitting on the edge of the bed, I took her hand. “Don’t stress. You don’t need that right now.”
“What happened?” she whispered, her other hand resting on her belly. “Nial, our baby.” She tried to sit up, eyes wide with panic.
I gently held her down, curling my lips into a faint grin. “Our baby’s fine.”
Our baby.
I liked the sound of that.
“Oh, thank God.” Relief washed over her face as she rubbed her lower abdomen. “I thought that….” Her voice trailed off into silence, as if she couldn’t bring herself to say the next words.
I reached out, a hand on her cheek. “You’re both fine, and that’s all that matters right now.”
A lone tear trickled down her cheek, and I wiped it with my thumb.
“Thank you,” she whispered, her eyes locked to mine.
“For what?”
She sniffled. “For responding as quickly as you did.”
My lips curled into a faint grin. “This wasn’t how I envisioned we’d spend our wedding night.”
“Me neither.” She hesitated for a moment, a teasing grin tugging at her mouth. “But at least it wasn’t boring. In my book, this passes as an adventure.”
I let out a quiet chuckle. “Right?”
“Right.” She laughed lightly. “We definitely needed the adrenaline, if you ask me.”
The tension in the air dissolved into something lighter, something positive that transformed our dilemma from bad to laughable.
Her contagious smile rekindled my hope, a reminder of how close I had come to never seeing it again.
In my mind, I swore that from that moment on, no harm would ever touch her. Not while I still had breath in my lungs.