I don’t understand why Vanya is congratulating me.
She crosses the room towards us, slow and hunched but beaming with pride. I shield Ava and Nina behind me. “What’s going on, Babushka?”
She stops before us, a wide smile still spread across her face.
“Just a little test, Tyoma. I had to make sure you were ready. Both of you.” She turns to Nina, too, whose trembling is getting worse by the minute.
She freezes as she processes Vanya’s implication. Then I feel Nina tense and lean forward.
“What?” she hisses at Vanya.
“You were never supposed to get hurt.”
“Art, hold Ava.”
I turn to my wife, as she leaps forward to slap my grandmother in the face. And honestly, I cannot blame her at all.
Vanya recoils in shock.
I’ve never seen anyone hit Vanya before. She winces as she brings a hand to her reddening cheek, then starts to laugh. “She’s a feisty one, your wife.”
“My daughter — our daughter — is not some pawn in whatever game you’re playing, old lady,” Nina hisses, then winces as though the sudden movement has caught up to her.
Vanya cackles as Nina collapses back into my arms.
“Mommy needs a doctor,” Ava says, frowning at Nina and tugging on my hand. My heart pounds as I realize she’s right.
“I knew I taught you well. You understand, this tree will crumble to dust if it’s not supported by love, Tyoma,” Vanya is saying, going on about her family metaphors.
If this is what she does to family, then the words truly mean nothing to her. I can’t fathom her putting Nina at risk like this — leaving her with Polina, when we all know that she’s been unstable since Denis’s death.
Vanya’s words fade into the background as I press my fingers against Nina’s jugular, just like she showed me.
Two fingers, firm pressure, an inch in from the corner of the jaw.
No.
I try not to let the panic grip me, trying to stay strong for Ava, but Nina’s freckles are stark as her face pales by the second.
Her heartbeat is so weak that I almost don’t notice the pulsingagainst my fingertips.
It’s anything but strong and steady. It’s thready and irregular. Blood loss from her head injury. She needs to get to a hospital.
I don’t have time to find out what the fuck Vanya was thinking when Nina is this weak.
I carry Nina to the entrance, Ava’s hand in mine, and tell the guards to get the helicopter set up.
42
ARTYOM
I’ve bought so many flowers that the room is overflowing. I’ve offered pay raises to every doctor that treats Nina. And I would do any-fucking-thing under the sun if it meant that my wife could leave this hospital suite today.
If not for our daughter, I would sleep slumped in a chair beside Nina’s bedside, no matter what the damn hospital visitor policy says.
But someone has to make sure Ava’s okay, and I don’t trust a single person in my own family right now. Lily texts me hourly updates about Nina’s condition when she’s on shift.
I’ve had Daniel relocated to another hospital, because I didn’t want him near Nina — or me — in this state. I’m considering making it a permanent state of affairs too, given the hell that he put my wife through.
