Chapter 40
AURELIA
White ceiling tiles come into focus slowly.
I blink. Try to remember where I am. Why everything hurts. Why there’s a steady beeping sound somewhere to my left.
Then it comes back. The warehouse. The torture. Viktor’s voice asking the same question over and over. The pipe hitting my ribs.
I try to sit up and pain explodes through my chest. Ribs. Broken ribs.
A hand on my shoulder, gentle but firm, stopping me. “Don’t move. You’ll tear the stitches.”
Cassian’s face appears above me. Exhausted. Unshaven. Eyes bloodshot like he hasn’t slept in days.
“Where am I?”
“Medical facility. Julian’s people. You’re safe.”
Safe. The word takes a moment to sink in.
I’m not in the basement anymore. Not tied to a chair. Not waiting for the next session to start. I’m out. Cassian got me out.
“The boys?”
“At the estate with Nadia. They’re fine. Safe. I’ve had people watching them constantly.”
Relief floods through me so intense it makes tears burn behind my eyes. “How long have I been here?”
“Three days. You’ve been in and out mostly. Pain medication keeps you sedated.”
Three days. I lost three days.
I look around the room properly now. Private. Medical equipment everywhere. IV in my arm. Bandages on my wrists where the ropes cut into skin. I can feel more bandages on my face, my ribs, my shoulder.
Cassian’s sitting in a chair beside the bed. He’s still wearing the same clothes from the warehouse, covered in dried blood. Some of it is probably mine.
“You haven’t left.”
“No.”
“You should sleep.”
“I’m fine.”
He’s lying. I can see the exhaustion in every line of his face. But I don’t push. Just reach for his hand and he takes it immediately. His grip is warm. Solid. Real.
Proof I’m not still in that basement dreaming of rescue.
A doctor comes in an hour later. Checks my vitals, asks about pain levels, adjusts my medication. She’s in her forties, professional, gentle when she examines the worst injuries.
“Broken ribs are healing well. We had to set your shoulder but it should recover fully with physical therapy. The cuts on your face won’t scar if you keep them clean.” She makes notes on her tablet. “You were very lucky.”
Lucky feels like the wrong word for what happened to me.
But I’m alive. That’s more than I had any right to expect.
Julian visits that afternoon. Brings Nadia with him. They both look like they haven’t slept either.
Nadia hugs me carefully. “We were so worried.”
“I’m okay.”
“You’re not. But you will be.”
Julian stands at the foot of my bed. His face is harder than usual. Colder. “The Petrovs who did this to you won’t be a problem anymore.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means they’ll be dead. All of them. We’re going to hit every Petrov operation in the city. Dismantle their entire organization.”
The information should probably bother me more than it does. All those deaths because of what happened to me. But I can’t find it in myself to care. They tortured me for hours. Tried to break me. Threatened my children.
“Good,” I say.
Julian nods once. Satisfied.
Nadia changes the subject. Tells me about the boys. How they’ve been asking when I’m coming home. How Finn’s been sleeping with his stuffed bear he hasn’t touched in months. How Liam keeps checking my room to see if I’m back yet.
“They want to visit,” she says carefully. “But only if you’re ready. I can keep putting them off if you need more time.”
I want to see them. Want to hold them and prove to myself they’re safe. But I also don’t want them seeing me like this. Broken and bandaged and barely able to move.
“Are the bruises bad?” I ask. “On my face?”
Nadia glances at Cassian. He’s the one who answers.
“They’ve faded some. The swelling’s mostly gone. You look hurt, but not…” He trails off.
“Not gruesome?”
“Not as bad as you did three days ago.”
That’s probably the best I’m going to get. “Then yes. I want to see them. But prepare them first. Make sure they understand I’m hurt but healing.”
Nadia nods. “I’ll bring them tomorrow. Give you one more day to rest.”
They leave and I’m alone with Cassian again.
He’s been quiet since Julian mentioned eliminating the Petrovs. Just sitting in his chair, holding my hand, watching me like he’s afraid I’ll disappear if he looks away.
“You should go home,” I tell him. “Shower. Sleep in an actual bed.”
“I’m fine here.”
“Cassian—”
“I’m not leaving you alone.”
“I’m not alone. There are nurses. Doctors. Security outside.”
“It’s not the same.”
“What are you afraid of?”
He’s quiet for a long moment. Then: “That you’ll have a nightmare and I won’t be here. That you’ll wake up scared and alone. That you’ll need me and I’ll be somewhere else.”
The honesty in his voice breaks something open in my chest.
“I have nightmares whether you’re here or not,” I say quietly. “Every time I close my eyes, I’m back in that basement. I hear Viktor’s voice. Feel the pipe hitting me. It doesn’t stop just because you’re sitting in that chair.”
“Then let me be here anyway. Even if I can’t stop them, at least you won’t wake up alone.”
I squeeze his hand. “Okay.”
The next day Nadia brings the boys. I hear them before I see them. Finn is in the hallway asking if Mam is awake. Liam is quieter, probably nervous about what he’s going to see.
Nadia opens the door and they both freeze in the doorway.
I know what they see—their mother in a hospital bed, face bruised, bandages everywhere, hooked up to machines. It’s not as bad as it was three days ago but it’s still bad enough.
“Hi, babies,” I say, trying to smile even though it pulls at the cut on my lip.
Finn’s eyes are huge. “You’re hurt.”
“I am. But I’m getting better.”
“Who hurt you?”
“Bad people. But they can’t hurt me anymore. Your da made sure of that.”
Both boys look at Cassian. He’s standing now, moving to give them space to approach me.
Liam comes closer first. Careful, like he’s afraid I might break if he gets too close. “Does it hurt?”
“A little. But the doctors are giving me medicine to help.”
“When are you coming home?”
“Soon. A few more days, maybe.”
Finn climbs onto the chair Cassian vacated. Stares at my face. At the bruises and bandages and stitches above my eyebrow. “You look like you got in a fight.”
“I did, kind of.”
“Did you win?”
The question makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time. “Yes, baby. I won.”
Liam’s hand finds mine. He holds it gently, like he’s worried about hurting me. “We missed you.”
“I missed you too. So much.”
They stay for twenty minutes. They tell me about what they’ve been doing with Nadia, about the fort they built in the playroom, about the new book Nadia’s been reading them at bedtime. Normal things. Regular kid things. Exactly what I need to hear.
When Nadia says it’s time to go, Finn hugs me carefully. Liam does the same. Both of them gentle in a way they’ve never been before.
“I love you, Mam,” Finn says into my shoulder.
“I love you too. Both of you. More than anything.”
They leave with Nadia and I’m crying before the door even closes.
Cassian’s back in his chair immediately. “You okay?”
“They were so careful with me. Like I’m made of glass.”
“It scared them. Seeing you hurt.”
“I know. I hate that they had to see me like this.”
“They just needed to know you’re alive. That you’re healing. Now they know.”
He’s correct. The visit was short but necessary. Now the boys can go home knowing their mother is coming back.
Days pass. The pain gets more manageable. I can sit up without wanting to scream. Can eat solid food again. Can walk to the bathroom without assistance.
The nightmares don’t stop, but they get less frequent. Less vivid.
Cassian stays through all of it. Sleeping in that chair. Eating only when Declan brings food. Refusing to leave even when I tell him to.
One evening, a week after the rescue, I’m more lucid than I’ve been. The pain medication has worn off enough that my head is clear for the first time in days.
Cassian’s in his usual spot, reading something on his phone. He looks up when he notices I’m watching him. “You should be sleeping.”
“Can’t. Too many thoughts.”
He sets down his phone. “Want to talk about them?”
“I kept thinking about you. When they were hurting me. About the boys. About the family we’re building. That’s what kept me going.”
“You didn’t break. Didn’t tell them my name.”
“I couldn’t. They would have killed you. Made the boys orphans.” I look at him directly. “I love you. I realized it in that basement. Realized I’d rather die than let them take you from our family.”
His face changes, the exhaustion and worry falling away to reveal raw emotion underneath. “I love you too,” he says. “I told you that on the phone before the Petrovs took you. But you were unconscious when I said it at the warehouse. This is the first time you’re awake to hear it.”
“I heard you on the phone. Before everything happened. I just didn’t get a chance to say it back.”
He moves from the chair to sit on the edge of the bed. Takes my hand in both of his. “I meant it. Every word. I love you, Aurelia. I’ve loved you since that night on the plane six years ago. Since before I knew your real name. Since before I knew about the boys.”
“I love you too. Even when I was angry at you. Even when I told you to turn yourself over to the Petrovs. I loved you and I was terrified of losing you.”
He leans down and kisses me. Gentle. Careful not to hurt my split lip. Just his mouth on mine and his hand in my hair and six years of everything we’ve been through leading to this moment.
When he pulls back, I’m crying again.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “For everything. For hiding the boys. For lying. For all of it.”
“I know. And I forgive you. All of it. We start over from here.”
“Together?”
“Together. You, me, and the boys. That’s our family.”
I squeeze his hand and let myself believe it. That we survived this. That we’re going to be okay. That the family we’re building is strong enough to withstand whatever comes next.
“I love you,” I say again, because I can. Because he’s here and I’m alive and we have a future now.
“I love you too,” he says, and kisses me again.