Page 191 of Maddening Fixation

“I promise she’ll receive the best care possible. And if there’s any change—good or bad—I’ll contact you immediately.”

Gratitude swelled in my chest.

“Thank you.” I offered her a faint smile before turning back to my mother.

As I stared at my sick mother, my mind drifted back to the time I was eleven, when a vicious fever had nearly taken everything from me.

My mother never left my bedside.

She spent night after sleepless night pressing cool cloths against my forehead, whispering old Russian lullabies, promising that no hardship would ever be stronger than her daughter.

When I was seven, sitting beside her in a quiet park far from Bratva business and bloodshed.

She had woven tiny wildflowers into my hair while patiently teaching me how to braid daisy stems together.

I still remembered how we laughed until our stomachs ached, how for one precious afternoon, the weight of her life seemed to disappear.

She wasn’t the wife of a ruthless mafia leader.

She was simply my mother.

Healthy. Radiant. Happy.

Back then, she had stood like a wall between me and the darkness that surrounded our family.

Now...

Now that same woman lay imprisoned inside her own body, her spirit trapped behind limbs that refused to obey.

A devastating stroke had stolen her independence. She couldn’t even bathe herself without help.

The contrast hollowed something inside me.

I looked away before the tears gathering in my eyes could fall.

Without another word, I slipped out of the room.

Outside, I climbed into my car and started the drive back to Romeo’s bungalow.

I still couldn’t bring myself to call it ‘home.’

Not yet.

Maybe not ever.

My thoughts remained with my mother until a flicker of movement in the rearview mirror pulled me back to the present.

A black sedan.

It stayed several car lengths behind me, matching every turn I made.

I frowned.

Hadn’t I seen that same vehicle earlier?

At first, I’d dismissed it as coincidence, but now there was no denying it.

Someone was following me.