Chapter 53
Chapter Fifty-Three
Ivan
The bright fluorescent lights above my head were blinding. I hated hospitals. All the beeping and the happy as fuck nurses that never left you alone. I hated it all. But what I hated the most was that I hadn’t seen Poppy, not once, since I opened my eyes.
The hospital had me on so many drugs, I didn’t actually know how badly I was hurt.
No one would tell me, besides the fact that Donovan Madden possibly left me for dead.
It wasn’t until I’d woken up that I was able to confirm that for all of them.
Dimitri wanted to go after him immediately.
Alexei wanted a slow, drawn-out approach.
Me? I just wanted to know that Poppy was okay.
My mother insisted she was doing great, preparing for her wedding.
Marta, her assistant, came by the penthouse regularly and made sure Poppy was eating and exercising.
She wanted to make sure Poppy was in tip-top shape for the wedding.
I hated it, but there was nothing I could do from a hospital bed with more caretakers than I knew what to do with.
“If you let me go after Donovan, she doesn’t have to marry him,” Dimitri reminded me for the hundredth time from the leather seat in the corner of the room. “I’ll snag him, make him beg for mercy, drag it out horribly, and then dump him.” He shrugged.
“Do you want a war on your hands? They will know it was retaliation. Just wait for me to get better. I’ll be able to take care of all of it once I’m out of here.”
Dimitri’s eyes cut down to my bandaged hands. He wasn’t going to say it, but I knew. Donovan had smashed my fingers. There was a chance I could never pull a trigger again. And then what? How could I possibly take him out when I needed to be steady-handed?
Dimitri leaned forward, elbows on his knees, his expression dropping into something rarely seen on his face—fear. “Ivan… we don’t even know if you’ll fully heal. You can’t hunt someone you can’t even shoot.”
I stared at the ceiling, my throat tight. “I don’t need a gun to kill Donovan Madden.”
He shook his head. “Donovan is a beast in the ring. You would do better killing him from a distance, even without a steady hand. We can’t risk this again. Next time you won’t be so lucky. Next time, there won't be a next time, and I just need you to be careful.”
“We all need to be careful then,” I barked out.
He nodded. “Listen, everything will be okay. I think the grannies are coming to visit soon. Just hang tight.” He squeezed the end of my calf before he left, and I threw myself back onto the pillows piled up high behind me. I hated this.
Dimitri had been right. It wasn’t even a few hours later when the grannies showed up with a folder under Nana’s arm and a bag of food in Grandmother’s perfectly manicured hands.
“Hospital food is such a drag,” Grandmother began.
“We figured you needed a pick-me-up,” Nana finished for her as they placed their things on the small round table in the middle of the room.
The food smelled heavily, but I knew what was in the folder—to some degree— which made it impossible to take my eyes off of it.
The grannies looked me up and down… assessing me. I hated being prone to the bed and appearing weak, useless. “Here’s your new assignment. After this, you’re done.”
Grandmother pursed her lips for a moment. “Then you can go back to your isolation and loneliness.”
“Back to your hand,” Nana said with a completely straight face.
This couldn’t be happening.
I stared down at the folder between us on the table and then lifted my gaze to them.
“This is a joke, right?” I was in the hospital for goodness' sake. What the fuck could I do with an assignment? Nana picked up the folder and brought it to me. She opened it up to the first page, and I saw it in her eyes. They didn’t want to give me this assignment, but it was the only thing left to do if we were to protect Poppy. She didn’t need to say it.
DONOVAN MADDEN
I mean, it couldn’t have been better. I wanted nothing more than to take him out, but the date and time wouldn’t work for me…
In any universe. I would never make it happen.
There was no amount of money or coercion that could convince me to take him out on his wedding day to Poppy.
Plus, that was a month away. Would I be recovered enough to scale wherever the wedding was and be able to pull the trigger without accidentally killing someone else?
“We understand that isn’t the best thing for such a joyous occasion, but I’m sure you already know that his security isn’t up to par, and it will be even more lax at his wedding.” Nana leaned forward to pat my knee affectionately.
“No, I won’t do it.” I closed the folder and pushed it back to the two of them.
Grandmother pushed the folder back. “Is there a better time?”
“A time when Poppy isn’t present. She’s been through enough. Jane has been through enough. I will not subject them to this.” I shook my head. “Absolutely not.”
They looked at each other with unreadable expressions, then looked back at me. “When would you suggest then?”
“You’ve been watching him for some time, we know. We asked you to gather intel on his security protocol months ago. You know they are pretty much actors standing in place of real guards, so if this is the case, when would you strike?”
I scrubbed my bandaged hands down my face. I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t want to put Poppy through this again. I wasn’t sure if I could even do this. She already hated me enough. If I took out Donovan right in front of her…
Her tear-streaked face flashed through my mind, and I winced. She didn’t love him, but did she want him to die?
“Why?”
They smiled at me in unison, and I decided then and there that there was nothing more frightening.
Nana leaned back in the chair Dimitri had occupied earlier while Grandmother tapped her cane on the ground, almost in agitation.
My shins almost ached at the memory of getting whacked by the stupid piece of wood.
“This is chess, my boy. This is a long game of many players.”
“You just took out the brothers; maybe this is too soon?” I muttered, mostly to myself.
Their smiles only widened. Nana tapped the table with her pointer finger.
“This is chess, and there are many players and possible outcomes. We needed you to get close to Poppy, so in turn, you could get close to Donovan and sniff out the holes in his security operation. Little did we, or anyone else, know that it was all a ruse.”
Grandmother tapped her cane on the ground once more. “We never anticipated you to fall in love with her.”
I rolled my lips as Nana continued, “Though she is such a catch, we aren’t entirely surprised.
We worked closely—for weeks— with the Fairchild brothers to put the idea of an arranged marriage into their heads.
It just happened to work out perfectly that Donovan was going broke and would need a wife with billions coming her way. ”
Broke? That didn’t seem to make any sense at all.“How did you know she would come into the billions?” Something wasn’t quite adding up.
Grandmother rolled her eyes as if it were obvious. “Benson is such a wonderful hacker.”
I blinked. “The letters?”
Nana waved her hand, proud of herself. “We thought they were a beautiful extra touch to add some flair and drama to the mix. All it did was show everyone’s true colors.”
“Wait,” I held up my hands. “What about Jane’s letter?”
Grandmother rolled her eyes and hooked a thumb toward Nana.
“She just couldn’t help herself. Jane isn’t illegitimate, though we know Mr. Fairchild always wondered.
We orchestrated some doubts because Mrs. Fairchild was having an affair when she got pregnant with Jane…
But isn’t it funny that Poppy is the only illegitimate one? ”
“Yes, when we ran some paternity tests, we were certainly shocked to find that out.”
I deadpanned. “You ran paternity tests on each of them?”
Nana waved her hand, this time dismissively. “We did say this was chess. We needed to be sure of everything before our plan went into motion. We thought for sure it was Jane, after all. But I guess that explains why her name is Poppy and the others start with a J.”
All I could do was blink at them. “And Donovan being broke?”
“He’s made some poor decisions, and his family is quite fed up with him. If he can’t figure it out, he will be cut off. He’s trying to make it all happen for himself. Marrying a billionaire in a deal that will set him up for life. The deal, of course, was too good to be true.”
Nana nodded, proud of herself. “He had no idea he was signing a prenup or that he would never see any of Poppy or Jane’s money.”
I frowned. “Why would he see Jane’s money?”
They frowned in unison. “She didn’t tell you?”
There it was, the reason for everything. “Jane was collateral. If Poppy didn’t do what they said… Jane would marry Donovan.”
My stomach dropped. It all made more sense now. I didn’t know why I hadn’t figured it out before. I tilted my head back on the pillows and stared up at the foam-tiled ceiling. I was so stupid. Of course.