AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You wanna come sit with me for a bit?” she asks, patting the empty cushion beside her. “I was reading up on Prague, and it’s—”
“I have to ask you about something,” I say sharply, cutting her off so that I won’t have to reject her offer directly. I didn’t plan on asking her about her second account when I walked in here, but I decide on the spot that I shouldn’t ignore it.
“Okay?” she says, immediately cautious.
Before I can get to it, however, we’re interrupted by Rada. “I’m sorry, sir,” she explains as she raps lightly on the doors to announce her entrance. “A delivery has just come for Miss Paige.”
She walks in, holding a large and elaborate arrangement of flowers. It’s chaotic, a dozen colors and varieties, but each of them is exquisitely eye-catching.
“Wow,” Paige breathes. “They’re amazing. Who sent them?”
“The card was from Miss Nessa, Ma’am,” Rada says. “I brought them straight to you.”
Smiling, Paige takes the arrangement from the maid’s hands and breathes in her flowers. “That’s so sweet of…”
She trails off a little. It takes me a moment to register that her expression has changed from pleased to panicked.
“Paige?” I ask, inching forward.
Her eyes move up to meet mine. I see fear in there, pure and unvarnished.
Then she drops the arrangement.
The vase shatters at her feet, water and flowers splashing out in every direction. I don’t know how I get to her side so fast, but suddenly, she’s in my arms before she can collapse to the ground. Her face is turning colors before my eyes. Purple, red, blue, then white as a ghost.
“Paige,” I keep repeating, running my hands over her suddenly mottled skin. “Paige. Paige.Paige!”
She shakes her head frantically. “I… I… can’t… b-b-breathe…”
“Rada!” I roar. “Call an ambulance!”
Rada’s running footsteps fade away as I cling to Paige. I try to hold her upright, but she wilts in my hands. When she goes slack and unconscious, I pick her up and carry her out of the greenhouse.
She struggles for every breath, and I feel as though the same breath is being stolen from my own lungs.
All I can think is,I’ve lost so much already. I will not lose her, too.
88
MISHA
The clock says it’s only been a few minutes, but it feels like an eternity.
The moment they wheeled Paige into the emergency room, the usual framework of seconds and minutes shifted, shattered. We are dealing in lifetimes now. Eons. With every lap across the speckled tile floor, civilizations rise and fall…
But I’m still here.
Waiting.
Wondering.
And, for the first time in my life… praying.
“Brother!” Konstantin calls as he races into the private ward. He’s flushed from running the hallways to get here. He looks as horrified as I feel.
“What took you so long?”
Konstantin frowns. “I was in the area following a tip about our missing money man. As soon as I got your message, I dropped everything and came right over.”
