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She looks so pretty.
Like one of my dolls.
"Mommy," I cry, touching the blood blooming on her chest. "Mommy, wake up!"
My mom doesn’t move.
Her chest stops rising and falling, and her arms lay flat at her sides. I feel something wet on my face and dab my finger, screaming when I see blood on my hand.
One gunman tackles my dad to the ground, forcing him to submit, while another man lifts me off the floor.
“Papa, no. Help me!"
"Katarina," he bites out as his eyes meet mine, ignoring the man holding him down. “Papa will find you. I will never stop looking for you, kisa."
ChapterForty-Three
COLE
Grace had a dead look in her eyes as if she went someplace else in her mind and wasn’t here with us anymore. She sat between my legs with her head resting on my chest. But mentally, she wasnotokay.
I did this to her.
If I hadn’t contacted Viktor, her uncle wouldn’t have come to my house. Drake masked our location, but Maverick was a black hat hacker—one of the best in the world.
I told Viktor I wouldn’t let him see Grace until he provided concrete evidence to help us with Fitzy—anything to prove why he’d made Grace his heir. Viktor had information on Fitzy and his dirty deeds, and until we had something to nail the old man to the wall, I wasn’t letting Grace near Viktor Romanov.
And now…
She wasn’t Grace.
That girl was gone.
Her eyelids fluttered as she looked up at Rhys. She stared like he was a stranger. Did she even recognize him?
Tears leaked from her eyes and dripped down her cheeks. Rhys bent down in front of her on one knee and swiped away her tears. She opened her mouth for the first time in over twenty minutes and whispered words in a foreign language.
Rhys looked at me and shook his head. “Why is she speaking Russian?”
“Because it’s the language Katerina spoke.”
He let out a deep growl, knowing what that means. Grace hadn’t spoken Russian since she was a little girl. The fact she even remembered more than a few words surprised me.
Which meant she wasn’t Grace. She was Katarina.
Drake hunched down beside me. “I called Dr. Beck. He’s on his way.”
I tucked her head under my chin and rocked her in my arms. “I can’t lose her.”
“You won’t.” He waved his hand in front of Grace’s face. “She’s in there somewhere.”
Rhys dropped to his knees. “Grace, can you hear me?” He waved his hand again. “Hey, look at me, princess.”
She focused on him and blinked a few more times. Finally, her mouth opened, and words tumbled out, but they weren’t in English.
“Grace.” I pressed my lips to her forehead. “Can you understand us?”
We thought she’d forgotten her father’s native language. According to my dad, it had been years since she remembered anything from her past. She hadn’t mentioned anything to me about her past life. Not even the nightmares I watched her have on the nights I popped into her bedroom.
