Page 79 of The Den of Sin
“Why didn’t the school call?” I asked her, my voice rough. “I was the emergency contact for your room.”
“She didn’t want to go to the campus hospital. She begged me not to call anyone and to take her to a city hospital. I carried her to the car and she passed out. She was out for two days. They said if she’d come ten minutes later, she would have bled to death. Now I know it was stupid. That delay could have cost her life. But it was such a shock. I didn’t even know she was pregnant.” For the first time since I forced her back into my life, I couldn’t help but regret it. Because I abandoned her when she needed me the most. “It was hard for her after she lost the-”
Tatiana’s voice broke, but I couldn’t comfort my little sister. I sat numb, my heart thumping against my chest, but it felt hollow. Someone I was supposed to cherish and protect was instead hurt in the worst way possible.
“She struggled to move on. She pretended she was okay, but in the middle of the night when she thought I was asleep, I heard the way she fell apart. If you are toying with her, I swear, Vasili, brother or no brother, I will never speak to you again. Isabella forgives too easily, but I don’t. If I knew back then that it was yours, I would have killed you myself. She didn’t deserve that.”
Nothing quite highlighted how badly I fucked up as getting scolded by my little sister.
“No, she didn’t.” Fuck, I never realized how badly I hurt Isabella. When she fell asleep in my arms last night, I held hope we were headed for our own forever. Now, I wasn’t so sure. How could she ever look at me and not remember how much she lost. “Did the doctors say why it happened?”
“They said something about the placenta. I don’t know. The doctor said so many things and most of them went over my head. They did a surgery, but couldn’t save the baby. All I know is that Isabella was out cold when we got there, and I’d promised her before she passed out that I wouldn’t call you. I was more worried about Isabella living through it than I was about her not wanting you to know.”
The thought of Isabella almost dying shook me to my core. My world without her would be empty. Five years without her were torture, but what kept me going was knowing she was alive and well. Isabella’s mother was right. Her daughter was too soft, too forgiving. Even after everything she endured, she let me touch her. A bastard like me didn’t deserve it.
“Don’t worry, sestrenka. I’ll make it right.”Even if it kills me.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Vasili
Adrian and I pulled up to my compound, finding Alexei cleaning his weapons on the front step. Adrian went straight to organize positions for our men.
“Getting ready for a war?” I asked my brother. He might have been in my life only for the past four years, but it felt like he was part of me my whole life. Alexei and my character were more alike than mine and Sasha’s.
I sat next to him and met his surprised look. Without him saying anything, I knew he thought I’d run to find Isabella. I wanted to, but after what I just found out, I was fucking scared.
I was scared she’d tell me any second that she couldn’t stand me.
“What do you know about Cassio King?” I asked my brother. My brother was an outsourced enforcer whenever others failed. He was one of the best and did a few jobs with Cassio King over the last ten years. Their business relationship started before I found Alexei. While I knew Cassio from afar, my brother would know him as a close associate. Those two used to hunt and kill men together.
“He’s got honor. Better than his bastard father.” He looked up at the sky pensively. He didn’t know it, but it was something our father used to do. “He is fair, his alliances are strong, and I wouldn’t be surprised if one of these days he overthrows his father and half-brother, Marco.”
“Can he be trusted?”
“Can anyone in our world be trusted?”
“Point taken.”
“Although, I think he is trustworthy. He stands behind the people who stand with him.”
“You still keep your connections with him?”
Alexei raised his eyebrow just a bit, almost like a twitch. “Why?”
“I need to know if Raphael Santos is trustworthy and would protect your sister at all cost.”
“What the fuck, Vasili? We agreed she’d stay with us.”
That was before I learned that I left her to deal with the result of our night of passion alone and almost died. But if I told this to Alexei, he might murder me himself. I was convinced Isabella would never stay with me long-term.
“Humor me. Just in case Isabella doesn’t want to stay with us, I want to know she is safe under Santos’ protection.”
“I’ll keep her safe.” Alexei was as stubborn as me too.
“I know, but it doesn’t hurt to have back up plans. Isn’t that what you always tell me?” And he was right. In this world of ours, multi-layers of backups were needed. Isabella was born into this world, though nobody knew it. Just her mother.
“I’ll give Cassio a call.”
