I shove my brother in the chest, and he takes an unsteady step backward, but doesn’t fight me. His lip is cut and bruised.
“Did you fight with him?” I demand, pushing him again.
“No, Maria, stop. Ihelpedhim.”
“Liar!” I scream in panic and desperation.
Misha grabs me, and to my surprise, he pulls me into a hug.
“He’s going to be okay, Maria,” he says gently. “We got him out of there, we brought him here. The doctor is going to help him.”
I melt into my brother’s arms, sobbing and terrified.
“What happened?” I cry.
“Paul set a trap in his villa. All the exits were rigged with explosives. One of my contacts in the city found out and told me when he heard the Pakhans were planning an attack. I got there and found the place already burning, and I managed to break down the front door. But the ceiling collapsed on Artur…” his voice fades.
I pull away from him to look at his face. “You really helped them?” I ask, confused and bewildered.
He sighs and lets me go.
“I helped them,” he shrugs.
“Why?” I mutter.
“Because I saw how much they loved you. I realized that I’m not the only one who loves you…andI realized that if anything happened to them, it would break you,” he sighs.
“But you thought Artur was beneath you?” I murmur, unsure if he’s being honest. But when I look into my brother’s eyes, I don’t see any of that old resentment or anger.
He pushes his fingers through his hair and shrugs. “Maria, I just don’t want to lose you. I can see that if I keep fighting this, that is exactly what’s going to happen. You’ll choose them, and you’ll be forced to give me up. They were trying to connect with me, to smooth things over, and I was the one unwilling to budge.”
“So…what now?” I ask, tilting my head to the side.
“Now…you live here, and you live a happy life. I go home. And we’re still family.”
Fresh tears spill down my face as I run to hug him again. I wrap my arms around my brother’s waist and hold him tight.
“Maria?” Kaz calls my name.
“Is Artur okay?” I blurt out, turning toward him.
“You can come see him. We moved him upstairs. He’s stable,” Kaz says.
“Stable? What does that mean?” I huff.
“I’m going to head out,” Misha says. “I’ll come see you next week…let me know how Artur is,” he mutters. I nod, then turn to run upstairs to see my husband.
Kaz follows me.
Artur is lying on his back on his bed. There is an IV in his arm and a weird thing attached to his head beneath a bandage that is soaked with blood.
“Art?” I whisper, walking to the side of his bed and taking his hand in mine.
“He’s in a coma, baby bird,” Joe explains. “The doctor has stabilized him, and there is a drain on his head to make sure the swelling stays down. The doc is returning now with more equipment to monitor his progress and make sure there’s nothing else wrong, but for now, all we can do is wait for him to wake up,” Joe sighs softly.
“Art?” I call his name, and there is no response at all. Not even a flicker across his closed eyes.
Sitting on the side of his bed, I slowly lay down on the bed next to him and stroked my fingers over his cheek while I talked to him softly.
