I hear voices in the distance.
Someone pulls at my hands. They fall from my head. Zo wipes my face.
“She is fine.”
I look up. The door is still shut.
“You’re lying,” I mutter, looking into his cold blue eyes.
“A nurse just came out and said this,” Kaz speaks from beside me.
“I want to see her.” I get up, but he stops me, grabbing my shoulder. “You can’t go inside. The doctors aren’t done yet.”
I sit down again. My eyes meet her father’s. He’s sitting with Uncle Maksim. He gets up, comes toward me, and sits down beside me.
“I didn’t protect her,” I mutter.
He places his hand on my knee. “It’s not your fault, son.”
I look at him. “Are you not angry?” I shake my head. “You should be angry.” Tears start falling again. “I failed to protect her—you should be angry.”
He pats my shoulder. “You didn’t fail her. If anyone has failed to protect her, it’s me.”
Uncle Maksim squeezes his shoulder. “Don’t bury yourself in guilt, Damir. You know very well not everything is in our control.”
The door in front of us opens, and I jump to my feet. A team of doctors comes out. Zo asks them about her.
“The bullet was very close to her heart, but the operation was a success. She will be conscious in a few hours.”
One of them looks toward me. “You can see the patient after we shift her to the observation ward.”
Even after the doctors move her and give me instructions, I don’t go inside. I ask her father to go.
Kaz asks me, “Why aren’t you going?”
“She’s safe with him,” I mutter.
Uncle Maksim grabs me around the neck. “So love can make anyone stupid. She reached here in the first place because she’s our daughter. Your wife would never have reached here otherwise.”
I look toward him. He nods. “We didn’t protect her, son. It’s not on you.”
He leaves me standing there and enters the ward.
After half an hour, they come out. Her father meets my eyes. Kaz pushes me forward. I enter the ward and close the door behind me.
She’s lying on the bed, surrounded by machines. Her hair has fallen around her head on the white pillow like a red halo. My Angel.
I sit down on the chair beside her. She’s breathing, yet the fear refuses to leave me. My mind isn’t catching up with the present; it’s still stuck on the moment I saw her chest completely still before they took her inside.
I can’t believe she didn’t leave me. She always wanted to leave me. Maybe she decided to stay only for her parents.
What am I even thinking? I take a deep breath and look up. Uncle is right. I’ve become stupid.
The door opens, and Zo comes in.
He sits on the chair beside me. “She’s fine.”
“You lied to me.”
