Page 69 of Ruthless Serenade

If Mindy is Sharon’s mother…

and Sharon is six…

Could she be…?

Motherfucker!

No. I shake my head, trying to clear the impossible thought. If Sharon was mine, Mindy would have told me. She would have… wouldn’t she?

Even if I ask myself this question, doubt creeps into my mind and lingers there like a dark shadow.

How the fuck would she have told you?

She thought you were dead, mudak!

She still thinks you’re dead for fuck’s sake!

I almost turn around and storm out of the room as the realization dawns on me. She’s going to freak out if she wakes up and sees me standing here like an idiot. She’s going to think she’s seeing a ghost. A ghost from the past. But I’m so overwhelmed by the weight of everything that I can’t get my legs to move. It’s like they’ve grown roots. A part of me wants to turn around and flee, to pretend I never saw the two of them. But another part, a much stronger one, keeps me there. I’m unable to look away from the woman I once fell for and her child who might be… mine?

Could she be yours, Korolev?

Why the fuck do you think she resembles Cordelia?

Bozhe moy!

My mouth goes dry in an instant. I open it and close it, but no sound comes out. I’m like a gaping fish fighting for air. Every single nerve in my body is screaming at me to move, to do something, but I’m paralyzed, locked in place by the sheer weight of my realization.

And then, as if sensing my presence, Mindy begins to stir.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Mindy

I wake up to the sound of Sharon’s soft snoring.

I flinch and shift in the uncomfortable chair, but my eyes remain closed. My back is sore from sleeping in a seated position for the last few hours, but I don’t really care. All I care about is that my daughter’s surgery was successful. And that I get to be by her side as she recovers.

"The intervention was a success, Miss Williams," the doctor had said. "Sharon needs to stay here for a few days to recover, but she’s out of danger."

There are no words to express the relief I’d felt. I nearly jumped up and pulled the doctor into a big bear hug. Knowing that my baby girl would be okay felt like I’d been handed my life back.

"Can I please stay with her?" I was practically begging the doctor.

"Of course." He gave me a smile. "We can’t provide relatives with a bed to sleep on but if you’re comfortable with a chair-"

"Of course. Of course, I am," I’d said. I didn’t care that I hadn’t slept all night; I knew I’d sleep on broken glass if it meant I could be near Sharon.

My sweet baby girl. She’s barely six, yet she’s already a fighter. She overcame two big challenges very recently: first, she bravely spoke in front of a live audience at her school event. And now, barely a week later, she came out of major surgery, stronger than before. I could not be prouder of her.

I sense movement in the room and hear the door open, followed by soft voices drifting in from the hallway. My eyes flutter open slightly, but I close them almost immediately, flinching against the dim light. It’s probably just the nurse coming to check on Sharon.

But the movement stops. Nothing happens. The room is still. Yet the sense of someone nearby presses in on me. I feel a presence in the room – silent and motionless, but unmistakable. I don’t know why but my pulse begins to quicken. My heart rate picks up. I’m no longer sleeping.

My eyes snap open like a door flung wide. My vision is blurry at first, slowly adjusting to the dim light spilling in from the hospital corridor. I catch sight of my daughter’s peaceful, sleeping form on the bed beside me. She’s still, but the steady rise and fall of the bedsheet reassures me of her soft breathing. Then, as my gaze shifts toward the doorway, my heart drops.

There’s a figure standing there and I can tell it’s not the nurse. Unless it’s a male nurse - a very tall and broad one. But somehow, I know it isn’t. My eyes are wide open now, drawn to the silhouette of this man and his magnetic aura.

I know this man.

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