“But don’t tell Ivan. Definitely not Raisa,” I added. “Not yet.”
“Understood.”
The last thing I wanted to do was give them false hope if this wasn’t Kalina.
“Sadie’s doctor is here checking on her,” Allan said.
I’d already forgotten that Sadie was expecting again. With Carina only several months old, it seemed too soon.
“Good. Ask her to stay and check over…” I hesitated. “The woman we’re bringing in.”
Done with the call, I stared at the sleeping woman. Curious. Concerned.
And helpless.
Seeing her so distressed and vulnerable like this tugged at my heart.
No woman should be left like this. Discarded.
Too many questions swirled in my mind, but if this was Kalina…
“Don’t worry,” I whispered. “You’ll be safe now.”
6
KALINA
The darkness was all I remembered.
It swarmed over me, seeping into my mind as I was lured closer and closer to giving up. To stop fighting.
Under the kiss of the fresh air—though so brutal and bitingly cold—I lowered my guard for the first time in fourteen years.
It was only in the deepest degree of irony that I didn’t wake back up.
Shards of pain cut into me as I slowly regained consciousness. Pinpricks of tingles coasted over my skin. Further in, the throbbing intensity of the bruises Yusef had given me in that last, brutal beating had me wishing I could continue floating in the abyss of nothing.
I was used to this. That blankness. Shuttering my conscious mind was the only survival instinct I was left with after all the years of torture and pain. Of isolation and no trust. No compassion.
But this wasn’t the same. This darkness felt too heavy, like I was drugged and coerced back into the living.
I couldn’t be sure of how long I stayed out, but with more frequent wisps of sound and touches, I realized in some far-back recess of my soul that I was alive. I hadn’t died running out of that apartment and sprinting into the snow and ice.
I lived.
Just as I vowed to myself, I would die fighting for my freedom. But there was no easy war to wage against this sluggishness.
Warmth reached me in a sharp contrast. Wherever I lay, I was in a quiet place. Voices came and went. Male. A couple of women. I was almost convinced I’d heard someone crying. A baby wailing.
Have I finally lost my mind?
Is this purgatory?
Hell?
Moving my fingers was the first clue that I was very much part of the living world. Yet, until I summoned the strength and willingness to pry my tired eyes open, I couldn’t be sure if I was back in the nightmare Erik and Yusef wanted me to endure until my marriage or if I was in the real world. Among normal people. With the birds flying free overhead in the wide-open sky.
That woman.
