26. Mikhail
Mikhail
My eyes fly open, and everything’s dark. Fire shoots through my arm and stomach, burning from the inside out as if something’s shredding through nerve endings one by one. I try to reach for my face, but my hands snag on something. Wires. Tubes.
They’re stuck everywhere, wrapped around my arms and chest. Machines beep too loud all around me, mechanical whirring that doesn’t make sense, sounds I can’t process through whatever drug is fogging my brain.
I blink until my vision steadies enough to see shapes. Two people in white coats lean over me, their mouths moving, talking to each other or maybe to me. Their words sound muffled and far away, meaningless noise that doesn’t reach me through the fog.
Where’s Danya?
The thought cuts through everything else, and panic floods my system before my brain catches up.
Lurching upright, I ignore the way my arm and stomach scream in protest and start ripping at everything attached to me. Every line stuck in my chest, every tube threaded into my arms, I tear them free without hesitation. Alarms start blaring, and hands grab at me, but I shove them off.
“Mr, Avrorin, stop! You lost a lot of blood.”
My blood sprays across white sheets, but I don’t feel anything.
Monitors shriek all around me, alarms blaring so loud they should hurt, but they’re just background noise competing with the panic in my head.
The doctors are yelling at me now, hands reaching to stop me, but I’m already swinging my legs off the bed.
My bare feet hit cold tile, and my legs shake so badly I almost go down.
I catch myself on the nearest doctor, close my hand around his throat, and slam him backward into the wall. His head cracks against it hard enough that I feel the impact through my palm. Plaster crumbles and rains down on him.
“Daniil Avrorin. Where the fuck is he? Is he dead?” The words come out like gravel, like I’m choking on them.
“He’s—he’s alive, sir. Right next door in the ICU. Please, you need to lie back down, you’ve lost so much blood. We extracted two bullets from your shoulder, and you were stabbed—”
I release him, and he drops. Agony rips through my shoulder, and I glance down to see bright red blood spreading rapidly through the bandages.
I wrap my hand around the IV still stuck in my arm and rip it straight out. Blood spurts from the hole, splashing the floor, running hot down my forearm. I press my palm over it and force myself forward, pushing through the pain that’s trying to drag me back down.
They’re screaming after me, but I ignore them completely, lurching into the hallway.
I look desperately in both directions, disoriented, trying to figure out where the hell I am and which way to go.
Then Yulian emerges from the room directly next to mine, and his face goes white when he sees me standing there covered in blood.
“Mik, what are you—”
Rushing toward him, I slam my elbow into his ribs hard enough to knock him sideways. He stumbles back, and I push past him into the room.
Then I see Daniil, and everything stops.
I feel like I’m floating as I move closer, don’t know how my legs are working or what’s keeping me upright. He’s so pale, his lips and face and arms completely washed out.
Tubes run everywhere, wires connecting him to machines that beep and click with sounds I don’t understand. My hands find the rail, and I grip it, my legs about to give out beneath me.
Something shatters inside me, and the sound that tears out is broken, doesn’t sound like it came from me at all.
My knees buckle, and I grip the rail harder, using it to stay standing while my whole body shakes.
I can’t stop sobbing, can’t breathe through the tightness choking my throat, can’t see anything except him lying there so still and colorless.
Someone moves behind me. Hands rest on my back, arms wrapping around my shoulders.
“Breathe,” Yulian says, voice low and steady. “Just breathe. I’ve got you.”
My legs give out completely, and I drop the rest of the way, knees cracking against the floor.
He sinks down with me, his arms still around me while I turn into him and press my face against his shoulder, shaking uncontrollably.
Everything hurts, feels like someone’s got their fist wrapped around my heart and won’t let go.
Through blurred vision I see doctors lingering anxiously in the doorway. Yulian gestures them away with one hand, and they retreat, pulling the door closed behind them.
“He lost too much blood during the shooting. They pulled six bullets out of him and put him in a medically induced coma. The doctors are watching him, but they said it’s just a waiting game now. His body has to heal on its own.”
I can’t lose him like this. The words echo in my head, but they don’t feel real. My brain feels sluggish, like I’m trying to process everything through thick fog. Six bullets. A coma.
He has to wake up. I need him to wake up because I can’t do this without him.
“What happened with the plan? Why was Mateo there and why were you talking to him like that?” I manage to ask.
Yulian goes completely still against me. “I don’t have answers for you right now. I’ll tell you about it later. And he wasn’t lying when he said Daniil is Adrian Nozares. I found out myself the same day as the event.”
Nothing about this makes any sense.
“I went digging through Father’s private files trying to understand what was happening. I need you to keep quiet about what you heard for now. I will explain everything to you. I promise, just not right now,” he says, then clears his throat.
I have too many questions, but the blood loss turns everything gray and hazy.
I’ve lost track of how long we’ve been sitting here on the floor, but we’ve shifted closer to the wall. A nurse or doctor comes in every fifteen minutes to check on Daniil.
The door bursts open, and I jerk my head up so fast pain shoots through my neck. My mother bursts into the room, and Alexei and Lev enter after her, both looking tense.
Pushing up to my feet, I ignore the pain radiating from my stomach wounds. “What happened!”
She freezes. “The Nozares family attacked us. They were trying to sabotage the event, prevent it from being successful. We don’t know how they got past our security or how they brought so many men there without us knowing.”
“It was set up,” Alexei says from where he’s leaning against the wall. “They must have gotten insider information.”
She nods and rubs her shaky hands against her temples. “Your father is dead.”
Alexei shoots me a look that says keep your mouth shut.
Yulian clears his throat from the corner. “Mikhail knows about Daniil being Adrian Nozares.”
She blinks in surprise, her face going pale. “What?”
“Why would you keep that from him?” I snap, my voice rising. “From us?”
“We had to. We—”
Alexei cuts her off. “How long have you known?”
“Roman killed his family,” she says, and her voice breaks slightly. “I didn’t know until it was done. He brought Daniil home covered in bruises and said we were keeping him.”
“And you just went along with it?” I shout.
“What was I supposed to do, Mikhail?” she snaps back, her eyes flashing. “Give him back to Santiago? Let that monster have him?”
“You could have told him the truth,” Alexei says coldly.
“When?” Mother’s voice rises. “When he was five? Ten? Fifteen? When was the right time to tell a child that Roman killed his entire family and that we kidnapped him?”
“Any time would have been better than never,” I say.
“Don’t lecture me about what I should have done,” she fires back. “You have no idea what it was like. Roman wouldn’t allow it. He forbade all of us from ever speaking about it.”
“Well, the bastard is dead now, so speak,” Alexei says flatly.
“The family needs leadership. The business needs—” Lev starts.
“Fuck the business,” I snap.
“Mikhail,” Lev says, his voice strained. “We need to be realistic. Someone has to take over. The operations can’t just stop.”
“Then you do it,” I say. “You’ve wanted it your whole life.”
Lev’s jaw tightens. “That’s not fair.”
“None of this is fair,” Alexei says.
“I didn’t want it like this,” Lev says.
“Well, congrats, you can take over because no one else wants it,” Yulian says from the corner.
Lev rounds on him. “And where the hell were you during all of this? You disappeared the second the shooting started.”
“I was handling things,” Yulian says.
“You’re lying,” Alexei says.
“Back off.”
“Or what? Why can’t any of you speak about anything truthfully? You are all cowards,” Lev screams.
“Oh, that’s rich coming from you,” Yulian fires back. “Mr. Perfect who’s been scrambling for Father’s approval his entire life. How’s that working out for you now that he’s dead?”
Lev’s face goes red. “Fuck you, Yulian.”
“Fuck you too. All of you are pathetic.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Alexei asks.
“It means you’re all liars,” Yulian says. “Every single one of you.”
“Shut up,” Lev says.
“Why? Can’t handle the truth?”
“Stop it!” Mother shouts. “All of you, just stop.”
But no one stops.
Lev is shouting at Yulian about keeping secrets while Alexei shouts at Mother about the lies.
The entire room fills with overlapping voices, everyone talking over each other, and then Yulian grabs Lev by his shirt and shoves him hard into the wall.
Lev lunges back immediately, his fist connecting with Yulian’s jaw.
Alexei curses and grabs both of them, trying to pull them apart, but Yulian shoves him off and goes after Lev again.
“Stop it, you animals!” our mother screams, but no one listens.
Lev gets another hit in, and Yulian’s head snaps to the side, blood appearing at the corner of his mouth. He spits it out and tackles Lev, both of them crashing into the chairs near the window. Alexei wraps his hands around Yulian’s waist and hauls him backward while Lev scrambles to his feet.
“Enough,” Mother screams, stepping between them, but Alexei pulls her back before she gets caught in the middle.
Suddenly the alarms start going off, loud and urgent, cutting through the shouting.
No, no, no—
I spin around fast, and everything is flashing red, machines beeping wildly and erratically, the numbers on the monitors jumping and dropping in ways that can’t be good.
Nothing looks stable. Then the room floods with medical staff rushing in, surrounding the bed, blocking my view of Daniil completely.
Someone’s hand clamps down hard on my shoulder, pushing me back toward the door. “You need to get out! Out! Now!”
They shove us out of the room and into the hallway.
“I need all of you to leave right now, and I don’t want any of you coming back here again,” I bark at them.
Alexei hauls them both down the hallway and they start bickering again immediately, their voices echoing off the walls as they disappear around the corner.
Mother hesitates, glancing back at the closed door where they’re working on Daniil, then turns to me. She steps forward and wraps her arms around me, burying her face against me.
The room spins, and I sway on my feet, gripping her shoulders to keep from going down.
“You need to see a doctor right now.” She pulls back and looks at my shirt, her expression shifting.
“I’m staying here.”
“No, you’re not.” Her hands tighten on my arms. “Daniil is going to be okay. They’re taking care of him. But you’re bleeding through your bandages, and you can barely stand. You need to let them look at you while they work on him.”
Before I can argue, everything tilts again.
“Please.” Her voice softens. “I’ll stay right here. I will not leave this hallway. The second there’s news, I’ll come find you. But you have to go now.”
My knees buckle slightly, and she steadies me. I nod because I don’t have the strength to argue anymore. She guides me toward the nurses’ station, and I let her.