Page 147 of His to Own

“I know. Where is Gregory? Why hasn’t he come? Does he hate Elena that much that he wouldn’t even care if she’s in the hospital or not?”

“I don’t know what’s going on with my father. I don’t think you’ll ever like him, Maxim. But you can’t do something rash. You are in an alliance with my husband. If you fuck that up, I’ll personally hurt you. And I spent a lot of my years dealing with bitchy ballerinas. I know how to fuck a person up.”

“Did anyone ever tell you how scary you can be?”

“What’s taking so long?” Adriana asks, pacing back and forth. “Why isn’t Elena out of surgery yet?”

“These things take time,” Nikolai explains. “I’m sure everything will be well.” Always the handler. I’m not even sure Nikolai knows he’s doing it. It comes so naturally to him.

A doctor finally approaches us after waiting for a few hours. “Are you Elena Morozov’s family?”

“Yes,” I say, getting to my feet. “I’m her husband.”

“I’m her mother,” Masha adds. At least she looks worried unlike Gregory who couldn’t even be assed to be here.

“All right. Elena made it out of surgery. It was touch and go there for a while but she survived. She’s sedated but should wake up soon.”

“Great,” I say. “What room is she in?”

The doctor hesitates. “There were… some complications though. Where Elena was stabbed… it was in her lower intestines. They took the force of the damage.”

“Is she ok?” I ask.

“She’ll live but… we’ll have to do more tests after she wakes up.”

“Tests?” Masha asks. “For what?”

“To see if she can have children. To see if she can even walk. Sometimes any sort of abdominal trauma can cause complications. We won’t know until she wakes up.”

“Get out of my way,” I snarl. “Just tell me where she is.” After the doctor finally gives me her room number, I take off running. I find Elena asleep in the hospital bed, a tube attached to her nose. She looks so small and weak but I know she’s a fighter. It’s the only reason she’s still alive.

I take her hand in mind. Her sisters and mother join and together we all sit in silence while we wait for Elena to wake up.

Elena

When my eyes open, it takes me a moment to realize that my husband, mother, and sisters are all staring down at me.

“Hey,” Lana says in the sweetest voice I’ve ever heard from her. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired,” I say. My voice sounds like rocks gargling together.

“You were stabbed in the abdomen,” Maxim says. “Of course you’d be tired. But you’re awake and you’re alive. That’s all that matters.”

It’s then that I remember what happened. How my father stabbed me.

“My father?”

They all share a look before my mother answers. “He’s not here, Elena.”

“Where is he?”

“I’m not sure,” she admits. “I came over here before he returned home.”

“He’s… free? To just get away with what he did?”

Maxim frowns. “What did he do?”

I open my lips but hesitate to speak. The moment I tell Maxim what my father did, everything changes. The alliance he built with Maxim and Nikolai will be over. I have no idea what will fully happen but I know it won’t be good.