17. Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Seventeen
Anastasia
T he gunshots are still going off as Adrien carries me out of his office.
“This way,” he murmurs, bringing me down the hallway and into a back bedroom. Carefully, he opens the window and helps me outside.
“My mom and sisters?” I ask, holding my bleeding arm.
“If they’re hiding, they need to stay that way. We just have to hope that Mikhail, Nico, and Liam can take care of Remy for me.”
“No. We have to save my family. Please.”
Adrien looks like he wants to object but after a moment, he nods and hurries back through the window. I stay hunkered down outside. My arm is throbbing in pain and the blood oozing out of my wound is not helping matters. I feel weak already.
Adrien returns within a few minutes, along with my mom and sisters. They all rush to my side and help me up.
“Our husbands?” Irina asks Adrien.
The gunshots are still loud throughout the house. That means that at least one of my sisters’ husbands is alive. Someone is still fighting.
“I have to get Ana to the hospital,” Adrien says. Ana. He called me Ana. “I need to get you all to safety. It’s what your husbands would want.”
Adrien picks me back up into his arms and we sneak around the side of the house to his car. Remy has a guard stationed out front. Mom holds her hand out for Adrien’s gun. He gives her a questioning look but hands the gun over anyway.
She aims the gun at the guard and kills him in a heartbeat, freeing up space to get to Adrien’s car.
Adrien settles me into the backseat before getting in front and driving away from the house as fast as he can.
All my sisters are huddled into the backseat with me.
Mom rides up front. She gives Adrien a look I just don’t understand: both parts impressed but also wary.
“Stay with us,” Natalya says, clamping her hand over my bleeding arm.
“I’m trying,” I say but I can feel myself growing weaker.
Adrien’s eyes meet mine through the rearview mirror and I hold his gaze for as long as I can before he has to look back at the road.
He gets me to the hospital in record time. I’m whisked away into a room for doctors and nurses to tend to my arm. The last sight I see is Adrien looking at me with concern – like he’s truly worried he’s going to lose me – before the door shuts and I can’t see him anymore.
The doctor is able to get the bullet out of my arm without me having to go into surgery. A scan shows that I don’t have any internal bleeding. They’re able to stitch me back up, give me blood to replenish the amount I lost and put me on pain medicine.
I’m told that I’ll be spending the night just to be on the safe side.
My sisters look relieved when they come visit me in my room but I can see the tension in their shoulders.
They’re still worried about what’s going to happen to their husbands and I can’t blame them.
I almost feel bad that I’m the only one with a husband who is alive and unhurt.
Adrien and I don’t love each other like my sisters and their husbands do. It’s not fair.
Adrien comes into the room, putting his phone away. “That was Nico. They managed to kill a lot of Remy’s men but Remy escaped. They’re all fine. Mikhail, Liam, and Nico. They’re all alive.”
Each of my sisters look so relieved at the idea. I wonder if I will ever look like that when it comes to Adrien. If he had died today, what would I be feeling? Relieved I never have to see him again? Or sad that I’ll never see him again?
The fact that I don’t know scares me.
“We’ll give you two a moment,” Mom says, ushering my sisters out of the room so Adrien and I can have some alone time.
He stands by my bed, awkwardly patting his sides and not knowing what to do. My confident husband looking unsure. It’s cute.
“I’m glad you’re not dead,” he says after a beat. “I’m… I was worried that you wouldn’t make it.” In one quick motion, he slumps onto the chair beside the bed. “I was so worried I’d lose you.” There’s desperation and pain in his voice.
“You were?”
“I was. I know I said I don’t believe in love but I’m not completely heartless. I…” He stares down at his lap for a long moment before speaking. “I lost my mother when I was young. I saw her dead body. She had been murdered.”
I inhale sharply. “Adrien…”
“It’s the reason I never wanted to love someone.
It had hurt so much losing her that when I got older, I kept my distance from women.
I would sleep with them but then I’d move on.
It was just easier. But today… I thought I would lose you and it made me realize that I can pretend all day long that I don’t have feelings for you but…
I do. I care for you, Ana. And I’m scared. ”
“I’m scared too,” I admit. “I’m scared to give you my heart and watch you step all over it.
But I survived today. Why don’t we start anew?
Give each other a real chance? Because when I saw Remy had a gun to your head, I didn’t hesitate to push him to the side.
I don’t want to lose you, Adrien. I want us to try. Will you try with me? For once?”
He looks into my eyes for a long moment before he takes my hand in his. “I want to try too. I may be scared but I want all of you, Ana. And knowing I could have lost you today made me realize all of that. So, let’s start brand new.”
I lean forward and press my lips to his. For the first time since marrying Adrien, I’m excited to actually kiss him because it means we have hope for the future.