Chapter 49
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
The Full Truth
IRINA
Pizd?, the bruises on Kat’s neck. I had to swallow back hot tears when I saw them, force the vivacious Ri front and centre to cover up how much seeing them affected me.
“That fucking piece of shit!” I growled instead, and when Kat’s eyes found mine across the room and lit up happily, the lump in my throat only expanded.
Striding across the room with a confident air that was all fake, I plonked myself down on the bed beside her.
“I hope the little arsewipe gets what he deserves!”
“Dom broke his cheek,” Kat replied, her voice hoarse. My chest tightened, but I forced out words that the Ri that Kat knew and loved, the Ri who was a bundle of fun, would say.
“Should have broken his dick too.”
Kat’s laugh turned into a wince, her hand fluttering to her throat. Outside, Lucian chuckled too, and Kat raised a questioning brow.
“The lumberjack,” I explained with a shrug, then launched into a believable lie about the media hounding me as the wife of a reclusive billionaire.
“Your life feels like a complete mystery to me now, Ri,” she told me, eyes wide. Guilt riddled me; it was a mystery only because I kept secrets from her. But how unfair would it be, to lay all my problems on her right now, after everything she had just been through?
One day, I’d tell her everything. But not today. Not until it was all behind me.
I mumbled some words about wanting to punch my own tit for saying something as ridiculous as ‘my husband owns a private island’ and quickly turned the conversation back to her.
“Jesus! Let me in, you giant brute, I’m Katarina’s aunty!” Sophia’s shrill voice echoed outside the door. A scowl formed on my lips as I jumped up and marched through the door.
Outside, Lucian stood, an immovable mountain of muscle, while Kat’s tiny, aggressive aunty glared up at him with an expression so cold I had to suppress a shiver.
“De dragul dracului!” I hissed up at him. “She’s not here to report me, you gogoman!”
Sophia muffled a snort under her hand as Lucian turned his glower in my direction.
“You’re here to visit with your friend. I’m here to ensure you don’t come to any harm. Do you see me climbing on the bed with Katarina and making jokes about penile violence?”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course I don’t, that would—”
“Then don’t come out here and try to do my job for me!” he interrupted, turning back to Sophia. “If you can show me photo ID that proves you’re a relative, I—”
“I’m telling you she’s a relative, you idiot! I’ve known Kat for years. This is her Aunt Sophia! Let her in, for fuck’s sake!”
With a long-suffering sigh, Lucian stepped aside. “Please. Go visit with your niece. And be grateful she’s not a raging lunatic like this one.”
“All the best women are raging lunatics,” Sophia told him curtly, throwing a wicked smile in my direction as she pushed past him and opened the door.
Lucian massaged his temple. “Are you sure she’s not your relative?”
“I wish I had a woman like her I could call family,” I replied coldly.
“A woman like who?”
I looked up to find Dom striding towards the door. He was much less put together than usual. His hair looked like he’d been running his hands through it, and his beard badly needed a trim. But saving the love of your life from a violent attacker would do that to a person, I supposed.
“Sophia,” I answered. Lucian made a grumpy noise behind me. The overly suspicious twit probably thought Dom was going to whip out his phone and call the police.
“Lucian, this is Dom,” I explained, in the voice I’d used with my littlest Learn to Swim kiddos. “He’s Kat’s boyfriend. He does not need to provide you with photographic evidence of his relationship with her.”
Dom cleared his throat, and with a tiny, amused smile, offered his hand to Lucian.
“Nice to meet you. I’m guessing you’re the bodyguard?”
Lucian shook his hand curtly. “I’m Henry’s security detail who has been put on wayward wife duty.”
I opened my mouth to say something snarky, but Dom cut me off. “Have you been in to see her yet? How is she today?”
I shrugged, forcing words past the tightness in my throat. “She seems in very good spirits, all things considered.”
Dom nodded, tight-jawed. “She’s going to press charges. I …” He scratched at his beard. “I’m glad you could make it, Ri. I know Kat has been worried about you.”
A wave of affection for this man overtook me. I hadn’t been around for Kat much this year, and this man had stepped up when she needed someone. He was hers.
The way Henry was becoming mine.
“I’m glad she’s got you, Dom,” I rasped. “I … I’m glad she’s found someone who fits her perfectly.”
“She’s my person.” Dom’s eyes softened, and a tiny smile tilted his mouth. “Any chance of meeting the elusive Henry soon?”
“Soon. Things are … busy at the moment, and we’re keeping a low profile.” I gave him a gentle nudge towards the door before Lucian decided I was saying too much. “Go see your girl.”
Dom nodded, opening the door just as a spluttering cough erupted from inside the room.
“Shit,” he muttered as the door closed behind him, and I let out a long breath.
“If you want to spend some more time with her, you better do it now,” Lucian warned. “We can’t loiter around the hospital all day.”
I rolled my eyes, slipping back inside the room.
“… Don’t say that I did nothing wrong,” Kat insisted in that gravelly, damaged voice that made my throat tight.
“Because I know that. But we’re not talking about what’s rational.
We’re talking about my feelings. This, right or wrong, is how I feel right now.
And nothing anyone can say will change that.
So I just need to be allowed to sit with it.
I’m sure the psychologist will have some words to say to me about it.
And that’s all I need at this point. To sit with my feelings and know that I’ll work through them when the time comes. ”
Her words may as well have reached out and punched me in the space between my tits, because they robbed me of my breath.
“Why’d you lie to Kat—why’d you tell her that photographers are hounding you?” Lucian asked when I emerged from Kat’s room, and he immediately whisked me towards the elevators. He jammed his finger against the button over and over, glowering at the door like he could terrify it into opening for us.
“Well, they have been hounding us,” I argued. “What about all those TechRaker articles?”
Lucian’s eyes left the elevator doors to fix me with a cold stare.
“Did you forget, in your little interlude with your friend, that it’s not the media we’re trying to avoid today—it’s the police, who’ll have no qualms about deporting you, given you’re breaching the agreement Henry managed to make with them. Will you please take this seriously?”
My stomach lurched, but I forced the queasy, lightheaded feelings down, rolling my eyes. “Me taking this seriously is exactly why I didn’t tell Kat the truth. We don’t need to drag more people into this mess.”
I leaned against the wall, my legs suddenly wobbly. I gritted my teeth; I was made of stronger stuff than this!
Kat was handling her very recent, very harrowing experience with far more strength than I was handling my memories. Her words about sitting with her feelings—of needing space to feel all the messy, miserable things—had hit me hard.
How many events in my life had I run from, pushed down, hidden away, rather than allowed myself to face the hurricane of emotions that went along with them?
Was that why I hated sharing them with anyone? Because sharing meant digging up feelings that I’d suppressed for so long. It meant reliving emotions that were festering away in the very centre of me.
But hadn’t sharing some of them with Henry shown me that it wasn’t as scary to let them out as I’d always convinced myself?
The thought of sharing everything had my heart thrumming in my too-tight chest, my stomach roiling, my legs turning to jelly beneath me.
Pull yourself together, Irina Baxter!
“When is this fucking lift getting here?” Lucian growled, jamming his finger once more against the already-lit-up button, giving a nurse who bustled past a dark glare.
“I don’t think the medical staff are interested in getting me arrested.”
Lucian threw me some withering side eye, tilting his head in the direction of the retreating nurse.
“You have no idea if she’s a hospital employee or an undercover Home Affairs agent.
” He lowered his voice, eyes sharpening.
“You’re breaking the law right now, Irina.
If you want to keep yourself out of trouble, you have to assume everyone is out to get you. You need to think like a criminal.”
Hot anger flared in my throat. “I’ve spent most of my life trying NOT to think like a criminal!” I hissed. “Trying desperately to survive in my fucked-up family until I could escape them!”
Lucian pinched the bridge of his nose. “Shit. Sorry, Ri, I didn’t mean—”
The elevator doors slid open, and I pushed past him.
“I don’t need your apology. I just want to get back to Henry.”
The trip down to the carpark was silent and tense. The doors opened into the underground garage, and I surged out, Lucian cursing and grabbing at me.
“Will you wait?” he hissed, scanning the area. I sighed noisily, and Lucian’s jaw flexed. He gripped me by the arm and tugged me in the direction of the car.
“Hey!” a deep voice shouted. “What are you doing with her?”
Lucian stiffened, increasing his pace towards the car. “Great job, Irina! You’ve drawn attention to us now.”
“If you weren’t manhandling me like a lunatic, we wouldn’t be in this predicament!” I snapped right back before lifting my head, finding a man in scrubs striding towards us, concern furrowing his brow.
I smiled reassuringly. “He’s just doing his job. He’s my bodyguard, and I’m apparently terrible at keeping a low profile.”
The man’s brow furrowed. “Are you sure you’re safe with him?”