I pulled away before the pain could break me completely. “Go. Say goodbye.”
I don’t know how long I sat there—long enough for Cole to come out looking like death, for Alek to go in and come out with his eyes red and his hands shaking.
The hospital corridor stretched before me, sterile and endless. Through the waiting room windows, I could seeRami and Haruto still standing guard. They’d make sure she healed, make sure she stayed safe—from Carter’s legacy, from the press, from us.
Her father looked up, guilt etched into his face. “You’re leaving?”
“Yes,” Alek said, his voice hollow.
“You’re idiots,” Conrad said flatly. “All three of you.”
None of us argued.
“Take care of her,” Alek said. “Please.”
Somewhere in the maze of machines and monitors, Eva’s heart kept beating. Healing. Growing stronger.
Without us.
Just like she would.
Just like we all would.
Until she was ready.
If she was ever ready.
But for now, we’d give her the only gift we had left to give.
Freedom.
61
COLE
My apartment was fucking depressing.I stood in the middle of bare white walls and boxes I hadn’t unpacked, staring at my phone like it might tell me who I was now that I wasn’t my father’s son, not a hockey player, nothers.
It wasn’t the first Christmas morning I’d spent alone, but this one hurt more than usual.
My phone buzzed with the daily update I’d bribed the hospital for, throwing more and more money at more and more people until I’d finally convinced someone to check her chart every day.
Nurse Fuckface
She’s stable. Cardiac function improving. PT going well. Her father visited yesterday.
She asked to be taken down to the hospital cafeteria to meet friends later today.
Merry Christmas.
We’d blackmailed her. Coerced her. Used her. She almost died because of us—twice—because of myfather, because of the situation we’d put her in. The least we could do was stay the fuck away while she healed.
That didn’t stop me from paying for everything—a private room, the best physical therapists specializing in cardiac rehab, anything and everything she needed, donated anonymously, although Eva wasn’t a fucking idiot. She had to know it was me.
My phone buzzed again. It was my lawyer about the emergency board meeting they’d called for tomorrow morning to deal with the fact that I was now a majority shareholder, even as my father’s empire circled the drain without him.
I swiped it away.
I needed coffee. I needed?—
