Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Riley
That red light above the operating room door had been on for god knows how long.
My ears buzzed like someone had stuffed a hive of bees inside. Dried blood still caked under my nails, no matter how hard I scrubbed.
I'd never felt anything like this before. Knowing he was fighting for his life and I couldn't do a damn thing about it... I never wanted to feel that helpless again. I couldn't stop seeing Matvey as they wheeled him in.
He was covered in blood. That crisp white shirt soaked crimson, a nurse pressing down on the wound, but blood still gushing out. That bullet was meant for me... He took it for me.
"He's going to wake up, right?" My voice floated down the empty hallway.
"He'll be fine." A rough voice came from beside me.
I looked up. Anton leaned against the wall, his massive frame slightly hunched.
"Ms. Quinn, you don't really know the Pakhan." His gaze fixed on that red light. "I've been with him over a decade. Seen him crawl out of situations a hundred times worse than this."
"Once, he took three bullets. When they got him to the hospital, doctors said he was done. But he made it."
"Man always survives. This time won't be any different."
I knew he was trying to comfort me. But I could hear the fear buried in his voice too.
A bullet through the back, piercing the left chest, almost directly over the heart... Facing an injury like that, no one could help but be afraid. Especially when it happened to someone you cared about most.
Time crawled. The hallway was terrifyingly quiet, that red light stubbornly glowing like an eye that refused to close. After what felt like forever, the operating room door finally opened. I practically launched from my chair, stumbling forward. I almost lost my balance—Anton caught my arm.
"Doctor!" I grabbed the man who'd just removed his mask. "How is he? Is he—"
"Surgery was successful." The doctor's voice was exhausted, but those words made my knees buckle.
Successful. The surgery was successful.
"Bullet was too close to the heart. He's lucky." The doctor glanced at me. "He lost a lot of blood. Some backed up into his lungs, but we've taken care of it."
"Now, it's up to him."
"When will he wake up?" I pressed.
The doctor paused, shook his head.
"Hard to say." He chose his words carefully. "Could be a day. Could be a week, a month, maybe longer. Depends on how he recovers. What he needs most now is rest."
He patted my shoulder and left.
A month... maybe longer. Could he not wake up at all? The thought sat on my chest like a stone.
Anton and I walked into the room.
Matvey lay in the hospital bed, eyes closed, face so pale he almost melted into the pillow. Tubes snaked from his body to machines beeping in steady rhythms.
His chest was wrapped in thick bandages, rising and falling faintly with the ventilator.
I'd never seen him like this. Matvey, who always radiated that suffocating pressure, now lay there so fragile he might shatter at a touch. My heart twisted. Everything blurred.
"Matvey..." I sat by his bed and pressed his hand to my cheek. "Wake up soon. I have so much to tell you."
For the next three days, I barely slept.
I learned to help clean him, using warm towels, carefully avoiding his wound. I'd seen and touched every inch of his body before. But looking at him covered in scars, I still felt the pain. He'd always lived in danger I couldn't imagine.
"You bastard," I whispered. "Wake up."
He never answered, of course. Only the green line on the monitor, rising and falling steadily. That was what kept me going through those three days.
On the third morning, I'd fallen asleep with my head on his hand. After who knows how long, something brushed my wrist.
I jerked awake. When I looked up, Matvey's soft gaze met mine.
"Matvey!" Tears spilled instantly. "You're awake... you're finally awake!"
"Don't cry." His voice was terribly hoarse. "I'm okay now."
Seeing him like this, my nose stung with a mix of heartache and lingering fear. I instinctively reached for the call button to get a doctor, but he grabbed my wrist, stopping me.
"Riley, I need to tell you something." He looked at me. "I know you still haven't truly forgiven me."
I didn't understand why he was bringing this up now.
"You don't trust me. That's why you didn't tell me you were pregnant on your own." He paused, his smile bitter. "I came clean to you before. Now I want to explain it all again."
"Victor reported my smuggling route. We were about to get intercepted. That's when Veronica showed up. She said if I helped her reclaim her inheritance, she could restore my channels."
"I had no choice but to pretend to agree, play along with her act."
"As for why I didn't tell you... The whole time, I just wanted you completely away from all of it."
He spoke slowly, breath uneven. I already believed him. Believed everything he said, believed that behind all that distance was this tangled mess I'd never seen clearly. I knew I should let it go. He'd proven with his life how much he loved me.
But that corner of my heart still ached, blocked by words I couldn't swallow.
"I understand your situation, Matvey," I spoke softly. "I know you kept things from me to protect me. But what happened? I still got kidnapped by Veronica. Still had a knife to my throat."
"From the moment you bought me at that auction, I could never walk away from your world unscathed."
"I didn't want you to get hurt."
"But I got hurt anyway, didn't I?" I tilted my neck slightly, letting him see the scabbed-over cut. "You took that bullet for me. I'll never forget that. But that's exactly why you should trust me, instead of shutting me out of everything."
"I know I'm ordinary. I'm not capable of much.
But I'm not a porcelain doll, Matvey." I stared into his eyes, asking word by word, "How fragile do you think I am?
So fragile I don't even deserve the truth?
So fragile I can only be hidden away like some object you protect, never standing beside you, never facing things with you? "
Once the words were out, I froze. Those misunderstandings and grievances weren't even the point—this was the real thorn buried in my heart.
He'd never treated me as someone equal, someone who could stand with him.
"It's not like that, I..." Matvey's expression faltered. He tried to sit up.
The movement must have pulled his chest wound—he sucked in a sharp breath.
"Don't move!" I panicked, quickly pressing him back against the pillow. "Are you crazy? Your wound hasn't healed!"
He panted heavily, a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead, but his eyes locked on mine, churning with emotions I'd never seen before.
"I was wrong." He grabbed my hand on his shoulder, as if afraid I'd vanish the next second. "Riley, I thought hiding you away was protecting you. But I never thought about it, never asked you—if you even wanted that kind of protection."
"Asshole, Matvey!" He had no idea how long I'd waited to hear this. "You should've thought of this ages ago."
He should have treated me as someone who could face everything with him.
"I love you, Riley." His voice was low but deadly serious. "Give this asshole another chance to start over, okay? I'll make it up to you. Everything I owe you, I'll pay back. Bit by bit."
I could see his tension, his jaw tight. I felt the same. My pulse raced at an unbelievable speed—like falling in love all over again.
"We'll see how you do." I turned away so he couldn't see my smile already creeping up.
Honestly? I was already looking forward to what he'd do next.