38. Nikola
NIKOLA
B eep. Beep.
A hospital smell—bleach and disinfectant—invaded my nostrils.
I attempted to peel open my eyelids, but they were too heavy and refused to cooperate. Next, I tried to move my mouth.
“S-Skye?” I tried to ask, but even my lips couldn’t move.
Maybe this was all a dream.
Beep. Beep.
No, it couldn’t be. I focused on the sound, and slowly other hushed voices came into focus.
My father’s voice. “He’ll be okay, malyshka .”
“You can’t know for certain.” My mother sounded distressed, and regret hit me. I didn’t like to worry her.
Beep. Beep.
“Yes, I can. You’re a doctor. You hear his heartbeat. Strong and steady.”
Skye. I needed to know if she was okay, but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t talk. Damn it, what was going on? Did someone drug me?
“How is he?” Another voice. It sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it.
Beep.
“He’ll live.” It had to be a friend, otherwise Dad wouldn’t allow him near me. “How is Skye?”
“Safe and alive, thanks to Nikola.” Relief flooded me, and recognition. Dante Leone was here too. Now I knew it was bad. “And his knees?”
“One shattered. The other?—”
Beep. Beep.
What did they just say? What about my knees?
“It’s too early to tell.” Uncle Alexei’s voice filtered in. Jesus Christ—I had to be missing a family reunion. “Sasha and I got the shooter.”
“Good, put her in the basement.”
Her?
Beep. Beep .
Then… silence.
Skye
This couldn’t be happening.
One minute, Papa and Nikola were talking. The next, I was slammed against the ground, Nikola’s body on top of mine. There was so much blood, although he was only grazed in the arm. But his legs… knees. She shot him in both knees, almost as if she was aiming for them.
Oh my gosh.
Nausea clogged my throat and I had to push the memory out of my mind.
Instead, I focused on the flashing lines on the screens of the machines keeping him alive.
The doctors said he’d be okay. He was alive .
That was the only thing that mattered right now.
Isabella was arguing with the doctors, but I tuned it all out. Branka and Sasha were here too, their anger completely forgotten. Mama was clutching Papa’s hand, the realization that she could have lost him rendering her completely immobile.
And I… I was unraveling, piece by piece, as I stared at Nikola’s lean, powerful body lying motionless on the stark white hospital sheets.
His skin, usually vibrant and warm, looked pale and drawn, his chest rising and falling in shallow, uneven breaths.
The sight of him like this—so vulnerable, so broken—gnawed at me, threatening to consume the fragile grip I had on my own composure.
I had never seen him like this—never imagined him as anything other than unbreakable—and that terrified me more than the gunshots, more than the blood. My fingers dug into the cold windowsill, trembling as I fought the urge to crumble to the floor.
Just hang in there , I pleaded silently, swallowing the sob clawing at my throat. Please, Nikola. Just hang in there.
Papa came to rest his hand on my shoulder, and I turned my tearstained face to him.
“He’ll live,” he vowed, his fingers trembling slightly as did his lips. “I can’t promise you that his legs will be intact, but he’ll be alive.”
My eyes flicked to Vasili and Isabella who stood with the doctor, the argument still ongoing. “ Why is she still mad at the doctor ?”
“She wants them to do reconstructive knee surgery, but the surgeon thinks it’s too soon.” My brows furrowed, and Papa explained. “He might never be able to use his left leg again.”
Whether he walked or not didn’t matter, as long as he woke up. I could endure anything, help him through anything , but only if we were together.
“ I’m sorry .” Emotions knotted in my throat and choked me as I stared at my papa. “ This is all my fault .”
“What kind of nonsense is that?” he demanded. But that was just it. Papa would never lay the blame at my feet. He always took my side, and if only I’d kept my promise, none of this would be happening. “Now tell me what is going on in your head, princess.”
But I couldn’t find the strength to say those words. Instead, a sob tore through me, and Papa pulled me close to his chest. I cried and cried, staining his three-piece suit, letting out all my tears until none remained. Until I felt like an empty shell with only a throbbing, dull pain left behind.
He took my chin between his fingers and forced me to meet his eyes. “Tell me why you are blaming yourself.”
I hiccupped, and then signed with my red-stained fingers.
“ I promised you I would always tell you when something is bothering me, and I didn’t.
” His dark eyebrows scrunched, not following my jumbled thoughts.
“ Remember when I first came to live with you? You made me promise to always be honest. ” Recognition flickered in his eyes.
“ I found that marriage contract on your desk while you were in Rome two weeks ago. Instead of telling you I wouldn’t stand for it, I just went ahead and made my own plans . ”
Papa cupped my face, his killer hands gentle. That was the thing with men like Papa. He could be ruthless, but never to the ones he loved. Never to me.
“And you know what?” I shook my head with a hiccup.
“I’m proud that you did.” Surprise washed over me, mixed with disbelief.
“It shows me you’re strong enough to stand up to any man, including Nikola.
Now, it’s my turn to confess my mistakes.
Nikola suggested, more than once, that I let you marry him. ”
I blinked. “ But you refused. ”
“Yes, I refused. I was blind, princess, and if anyone is to blame for this clusterfuck, it’s your papa.”
I shook my head. “ No .”
“Yes, I am. I’ve noticed for a long time that you had a little crush on him.
” My cheeks heated. “But I didn’t give my daughter enough credit.
I should have known it was more than just a crush.
You’re a strong, independent woman like your mama.
You see, I was scared Nikola would hurt you, but I see now…
My daughter would never allow any man to push her around. ”
“ I love you so much, Papa, and I promise you… Nikola treats me better than I could’ve ever hoped for myself.
” My eyes darted to the window, seeing his reflection, his body still in the same position, but his heartbeat strong and steady on the monitor.
“ He’s always stood up for me, just like you do for Mama. ”
“Then you have my approval,” he stated slowly. “It’s hard for me to see you love someone more than your papa, because to me, you’ll always be my little girl, and my job is to protect you. But I can see he makes you happy, and as long as he continues to do so, he has my approval.”
I slapped my palm to my mouth, the mixture of emotions—happiness to have my papa’s approval and sadness that it was while Nikola lay unconscious—making a mess out of me.
“But if he hurts you, Skye, he’s a dead man,” he added, only half joking.
“ He won’t, Papa. Nikola would never hurt me. ”
Papa nodded. “I already told Marchetti the contract is off. Apparently Amadeo gave him as much grief as you did me. You just beat him to the punch with your… tape.”
I shifted uncomfortably. It wasn’t ideal to talk about something like that with your papa, but there was no going back, and ultimately, I brought it on myself.
Mama appeared carrying a tray of coffees for all of us, her hands trembling as she set it down. I shook my head and Papa drank mine before discarding the paper cup and taking his own.
“ This is a nightmare ,” she signed, her face a teary mess. “ How could Grandma do this? After all these years .”
“The woman is pazza, Nix . We should have ended her the moment we learned what she’d done to separate us twenty years ago.”
I shook my head, fury unlike any I’d ever felt before burning in my chest and needing to lash out. But I didn’t know how, so the only thing I could find the words for was, “ I didn’t even know that your grandma was alive. ”
Mama sighed. “ We parted on bad terms a long time ago, and I made your aunt Reina promise never to tell me anything about her. Honestly, I thought she died. She’s in her eighties .”
“ And just out of the blue, the old woman decided to shoot someone ?”
“ Not someone. Your papa. Maybe she was trying to hurt you too—my daughter .”
“The boy shouldn’t have put himself in front of me and Skye,” Papa grumbled, his expression harsh, his fingers clenching and unclenching. “I was her target.”
My gaze flitted to him, his lips set in a grim line.
“ How can you say that ?” Mama signed, her cheeks wet and her nose dripping. Papa reached for a handkerchief and dabbed it dry. “ If something happened to you ? — ”
Papa’s expression softened. “I’m here. Everything will be okay, and the boy will live. I promise you, Skye.”
I tapped my hand on my chest, the tightness in my lungs suffocating me. I almost lost Nikola and my papa, all because of a relative I didn’t even know existed.
“ How could she do that ?” My gaze flitted to the blood staining my papa’s shirt. Nikola’s blood. “ Why would she do that ?”
Papa shook his head. “I never thought she’d hold on to her grudge for this long. She didn’t want your mama to be with me.”
The explanation didn’t make sense, and Mama’s cold expression confirmed it.
“ That’s not all of it. She’s the reason Papa forgot about me. She had him tortured while I was giving birth to you, so he wouldn’t come after me. She’s the reason we were deprived of the first five years of your life, Skye. That woman has no scruples. ”
A memory probed through a fog, causing my heart to climb up my throat as my own darkness morphed into a nightmare I’d been trying to forget since I was five.
I couldn’t hear my screams, but I imagined them bouncing against the bare white walls. They were lonely, cold and unloved, just like me.
My knees at my chest and my back pressed against the wall, I felt my sobs and tasted my tears. I went to wipe them with my right hand, but a handcuff kept my wrist captive.
“ Why are you doing this? ” I asked, using my free hand.
The woman was my foster parent, but all she did was keep me chained to the cold radiator in this bare room. She didn’t want me, that much was clear, but she’d taken me into her home anyway.
“ Why? ” I asked again.
I wished for a big family, warm hugs and affection that would keep me cocooned in safety. But I knew the chances of getting that were slim. The woman had told me so herself.
“Nobody wants a deaf handicap,” she spat when she brought me here.
I wasn’t a handicap. Couldn’t she see that I was a normal girl? I just used my hands instead of my mouth to speak, but I could do anything that any other girl could do.
The door opened and the tall figure wearing a golden robe appeared. She would be pretty if not for the cold eyes and disgusted curl to her lips when she looked at me. I watched her warily as she made her way over, strutting like a queen.
Her silver-white hair was wrapped in an elegant chignon, accenting her big diamond hoop earrings. She reminded me of rich, old ladies that I’d sometimes see in the old movies.
“Someone’s adopting you,” she spoke slowly, intended for me to understand her. “You speak a word of this, and I’ll ensure your adoption is null and void.”
My brows furrowed, not understanding her. She acted like she owned me, had power over me, but it was clear she hated having me in her home. She’d shoved me into this room the moment we arrived and kept me handcuffed so I couldn’t even move.
“ I want to go now ,” I signed with my free hand, my body stiff and achy,
“Such a disgrace on a family,” the woman muttered, oblivious to what I’d said. The woman couldn’t understand ASL.
I never used my voice. One of the kids I used to play with once told me my voice was broken and ugly and I never used it again. But today something urged me to make a stance. I wanted this woman to know I’d never think of her again. She wouldn’t define me.
“ I’m not your family ,” I signed again, and then because I wanted to make it clear, I pushed the words out, “No… Family.”
The slap across my face whipped my head to the side and stole the breath from my lungs. My eyes stung with tears while the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth.
I turned my head back to look at the old woman defiantly, but her next words shocked me even more.
“Defiance doesn’t suit you, little Phoenix.”
Then she laughed and turned on her heel, carrying a mocking expression on her face.
I stared after her with a frozen and shattered heart, wondering if I was meant to be a little Phoenix, not Skye.
A tremor started in my hands as the memory lifted like a fog. The woman called me little Phoenix. Could Mama’s grandmother be the very same woman who?—
“ She deserves whatever torture the Nikolaevs will put her through ,” Mama signed, cutting off my thoughts as her eyes darted to the Nikolaev family. “ She keeps hurting people, and it’s time she got hers .”
“ Are they going to find her ?” I asked.
“They already did,” Papa chimed in. “It didn’t take long for Alexei to locate her. She’s in their… basement now.”
Suddenly I knew exactly how to unleash my rage.
But first, I’d be here for Nikola when he woke up.