16. Aria
ARIA
I’m in Daniel’s room, helping him pick out clothes for the day, when something explodes.
The sound is deafening; a roar that shakes the entire house. The windows shatter inward, glass flying everywhere.
“Daniel!” I scream, throwing myself over him and covering his small body with mine as debris rains down around us.
Something hits my back and pain lances through me. Daniel is screaming beneath me, his cries muffled against my chest.
The explosion echoes and fades and then there’s just screaming. There’s guards shouting and alarms blaring. It’s chaos.
“Are you hurt?” I pull back, checking Daniel frantically. There’s some blood on his cheek from a small cut from flying glass but otherwise he seems okay. “Daniel, are you hurt?”
“What happened?” He’s sobbing, clinging to me. “Mama, what was that?”
I don’t answer because my brain is screaming one thing: Where’s Maksim?
He was going to the car. He should have been—
Oh God. Oh God no.
I grab Daniel’s hand and run down the hallway, glass crunching under our feet. We rush down the stairs, taking them two at a time while Daniel stumbles beside me.
“Mama, you’re hurting me!” he cries out, trying to keep up.
“I’m sorry, baby. I’m sorry.” But I don’t slow down.
When I burst through the front door, the scene that greets me is something out of my nightmare.
The SUV is a burning wreck. Metal twisted and blackened, flames pouring from what’s left of the engine compartment. The windows are blown out and the roof is peeled back like something tore it open from the inside.
Guards are everywhere. They’re shouting into radios and running toward the fire with extinguishers, trying to contain the blaze before it spreads to the house.
And I can’t see Maksim.
“Maksim!” I scream. “Maksim!”
No answer. Just fire and smoke so thick I can barely breathe.
Terror like I’ve never known floods through me. He was going to that car. He was supposed to be in that car. He should have been—
Then I see him.
He’s near the garage entrance, on the ground. He’s covered in blood and debris, but he’s moving.
He’s alive.
“Daniel, stay here!” I shove him toward one of the guards. “Don’t move!”
Then I’m running to where Maksim is trying to push himself up on shaking arms.
“Maksim!” I fall to my knees beside him, my hands hovering over him. I’m afraid to touch him, worried I’ll hurt him worse. “Oh God, Maksim—”
“Aria.” His voice is rough and strained. “Daniel? Where’s—”
“He’s safe.” My hands find his face, and they come away bloody. My heart sinks. There’s so much blood. “What hurts?” I ask, trying to keep the rising panic at bay. “Where are you hurt?”
“I’m—” He tries to sit up and gasps, his face going white. “Ribs. I think they’re broken.”
I can see the injuries now. There are shrapnel wounds across his back and side, shredding his suit jacket. Blood mats his hair from a head wound and his face is cut in a dozen places from flying glass.
But he’s breathing, which means he’s alive.
“Don’t move.” I strip off my light weight cardigan and press it against the worst of the bleeding on his side. “Just stay still. Help is coming.”
“Len.” Maksim’s voice breaks. “Len was in the car. He—”
I look at the burning wreckage and understand, my heart sinking. The driver was in the car when it exploded.
The car Maksim should have been in.
“I’m sorry.” It’s all I can say. “I’m so sorry.”
“The bird shit.” Maksim laughs, and it turns into a cough that makes him groan. “Fucking bird shit saved my life.”
Does he have a concussion? Is he losing it? My hands still as I stare at him. “What?”
“My mother’s superstition. Bird droppings on the windshield.” He’s going into shock, I realize. He’s talking too fast, his eyes unfocused. “She made me promise. Never ignore the signs. I thought it was nonsense but I couldn’t—I couldn’t get in the car—”
“Shh. It’s okay. You’re okay.” I keep pressure on the wound, my other hand cupping his face. “You’re going to be okay.”
“Mama!”
I turn to see Daniel running toward us, tears streaming down his face, one of the guards chasing after him.
“No!” I cry out, holding my arm out to block our son from seeing Maksim. “Daniel, stay back—”
But he’s already there, dropping to his knees beside Maksim, his hands reaching for his father.
“Maks!” He sobs. “Maks, don’t die! Please don’t die!”
“I’m not dying, solnyshko.” Maksim tries to smile, but it comes out as a grimace. “Just a little banged up.”
“You’re bleeding!” Daniel is hysterical now, his voice rising to a scream. “There’s so much blood!” He turns to me, his face bloodless. “Mama, why is there so much blood?”
“He’s going to be okay.” I’m crying too now, unable to stop the tears. “The doctors are coming and they’re going to fix him up.”
Daniel presses his face against Maksim’s chest, sobbing, and Maksim’s shaking arm comes up to hold his son.
“It’s okay,” Maksim murmurs. “Papa’s okay.”
Papa. He called himself Papa, the name I know he so desperately wants our son to call him. And Daniel doesn’t even seem to notice; instead, he clutches at him like he’s afraid Maksim will disappear.
Two paramedics arrive with a stretcher and medical bags. One of them gently pulls Daniel away while the other starts assessing Maksim’s injuries.
“Possible broken ribs, cuts across the back and side, and I think he has a concussion,” I report, my voice surprisingly steady. “He’s been conscious the whole time but he’s in shock.”
The paramedic nods, already working. “We need to get him to the hospital. Ma’am, I need you to step back.”
“No.” I grip Maksim’s hand. “I’m not leaving him.”
“Aria—” Maksim starts.
“I’m. Not. Leaving. You,” I say fiercely before I look at the paramedic challengingly. “I’m riding in the ambulance and that’s non-negotiable.”
The paramedic doesn’t argue which is good because I would have torn their faces off. They get Maksim onto the stretcher, and I turn to find one of the guards there, a man I believe is named Anton.
“Take Daniel inside. Keep him safe. Lock down the estate. No one is allowed in or out without clearance,” I order.
Anton looks at me in disbelief. “Ma’am—”
“Do it!” I shout, my voice cracking. “Someone just tried to kill Maksim. My son is not safe here. Get him inside and lock everything down now.”
Anton nods, his face grim. “Yes, ma’am.”
Daniel is screaming as Anton picks him up. “Mama! I wanna go with you! Don’t leave me!”
“I’ll be right back, baby!” I call after him, my heart breaking. “I promise! I’ll be right back!”
Then I’m in the ambulance with Maksim, and we’re tearing out, sirens wailing.
Maksim keeps drifting in and out of consciousness. Every time he wakes, he asks the same thing. “Daniel? Aria? Baby?”
“We’re safe.” I hold his hand, careful of the IV they’ve put in. “We’re all safe. Just stay with me, okay? Stay with me.”
“Love you.” His eyes close again. “Love you so much.”
“I love you too.” I press my lips to his knuckles, my mouth trembling. “So stay with me. Please. Just stay with me.”
At the hospital, they take him straight into surgery.
A doctor in scrubs tries to explain what they’re going to do, but I can barely process the words. All I can see is Maksim’s pale face as they wheel him away and Daniel screaming for his father.
They try to lead me to a waiting room, but I can’t move. My legs seem to be cement.
“Ma’am?” A nurse touches my arm gently and I flinch. Her eyes are sympathetic. “You should sit down. Let us look at you.”
“I’m fine,” I say shortly, looking at the doors where Maksim was taken.
“You’re bleeding,” she points out.
I look down. Oh, I guess she’s right. There’s dark red blood (nearly black) that’s soaked through my shirt and stiffening now. It’s Maksim’s blood from when I was trying to stop the bleeding. And maybe mixed in my own from the cuts on my back from the flying glass.
“I don’t care.” I sound distant, like it’s coming from someone else. “My son. I need my son.”
“I’m sure he will come soon, but you need medical attention—”
“Not now.” I finally make my legs move and let her guide me to the waiting room. “After Maksim is out of surgery. I need to know he’s alive. Then you can look at me.”
She doesn’t argue. Instead, she brings me water and leaves me alone.
I sit in the hard plastic chair and pull my legs up to my chest, my whole body shaking. Every time I close my eyes, I see the burning car and Maksim on the ground, covered in blood. My mind races with what could have been. Poor Len. Maksim would have had that same fate.
If Maksim hadn’t seen those bird droppings and listened to his mother’s superstition, he’d have gotten into the car and would have been dead.
I glance down to my stomach toward the small swell where our baby grows. Our baby would have grown up without a father, just like the first time. Except this time it would have been so much worse because Daniel would have watched his father die.
The sobs come then and they hurt from how hard they are.
Someone sits down beside me. I look up to see Anton, with Daniel in his arms.
“Mama!” Daniel practically throws himself at me, and I catch him, pull him into my lap, and hold him so tight he squeaks.
“I’m here, Danny boy,” I murmur into his hair. “I’m here.”
“Is Maks dead?” he asks, terrified. “Is he gone?”
“No. He’s in surgery. The doctors are helping him.” I rock him, like I did when he was a baby. “He’s going to be okay.”
Daniel looks up at me and those gray eyes are so familiar it makes my stomach twist. “Promise?”
I shouldn’t promise anything as I don’t know if it’s true. But as I look at my son’s tear-stained face, I can’t not promise.
“I promise,” I tell him.
He buries his face in my neck and cries. I hold him and cry too.
An hour passes. Then two.
Daniel has finally cried himself to sleep against my chest. My arms are numb from holding him, but I don’t move. I don’t want to wake him.
Guards come and go, reporting to someone in hushed voices. I catch fragments— “payment trail to offshore accounts”—but no one speaks to me directly. I’m invisible. Just the woman holding the sleeping child in the waiting room.
Then Nikolai arrives.