For the first time in days, I feel like I can actually breathe. Is the light streaming through the windows more golden today, or is that just me? Are the birds more chipper, or am I imagining things? It’s like all the color has been added back into the world. The smile on my face refuses to go away.
Because things changed last night. Stefan told me the truth about Mikayla last night. He said he loves me last night. Last night, we sat by that lake and talked about our future as if it was something real and tangible instead of a fantasy I’ve been too afraid to reach for.
I turn my head to look at him. He’s still asleep, his face calm and smooth in a way it never is when he’s awake. The hard edges soften. The tension in his jaw eases. He looks younger like this. Almost peaceful.
Not quite, but almost.
I trace a finger along his collarbone along the edge of one of his tattoos. He stirs but doesn’t wake. That little sigh that passes through his perfect lips makes my smile tick one notch wider.
Carefully, I wriggle out from under his arm and sneak across the room to the bathroom. Like Stefan, my face looks a little more at ease in the mirror this morning. And that smile… what a silly, stupid, beautiful thing that is.
I brush my teeth, splash water on my face, and try to ignore the small voice in the back of my mind that whispers about Mikayla locked in the basement below us.
Stefan was right to keep her down there. She tried to hurt me. She sabotaged my clinic. She’s dangerous.
But still… The thought of her trapped in the dark while I sleep in silk sheets and wake up to ocean views makes my stomach twist.
I push the thought away and head to the closet. My swimsuit is hanging where I left it yesterday. I’m thinking of going for a morning dip. The water will help clear my head. It always does.
I change quickly, pulling my hair into a messy bun. When I emerge from the bathroom, Stefan is sitting up in bed, watching me.
“Going somewhere?” His voice has that husky-from-sleep quality, which ought to be regulated by the FDA or something, because it’s an insanely potent aphrodisiac.
“Just for a swim,” I say.
He stretches and yawns. The motion makes the sheet fall to his waist, revealing abs, chest hair, more things that really need to be carefully doled out so they don’t overwhelm a poor, lovesick girl like me. “Want company?”
“I thought I’d go alone this morning. Clear my head a little.”
His brow furrows. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Just thinking.”
“About?”
I hesitate. “About Mikayla.”
That’s all it takes to suck the sexy energy right out of the air. “Olivia—”
“I know. I know she’s dangerous and that she tried to hurt me.” I cross to the bed and sit on the edge so I can be close to him. “But it’s hard not to think about her down there.”
“She made her choices,” he snarls.
“I know that, too.” I reach for his hand. “I’m not saying you should let her go. I’m just saying it’s complicated.”
He studies my face. “You’re too good for this world.”
“That’s not a bad thing.”
“It is when people like Mikayla exist.” He lifts my hand to his lips and kisses my knuckles. “Promise me you won’t go down there.”
“I won’t.”
“Promise me, Olivia,” he repeats sternly.
“I promise.”
He holds my gaze for a long moment, then nods. “Alright. Go swim. I’ll make breakfast.”
I kiss him quickly and head for the door.
“And cover up!” he yells after me. “Your ass in that swimsuit is for my eyes only. If any of my guards see you… Blyat’, she’s going to be the death of me…”
I giggle, give him a little hip-shimmy-slash-booty-shake for good measure, then step out.
The hallway is quiet. Most of the house is still asleep. I make my way down the stairs and through the kitchen, grabbing a towel from the linen closet on my way out.
Like the rest of the house, the pool deck is empty. The water glows delightfully turquoise in the morning light. I drop my towel on a lounge chair and dive in.
The cold hits me like a shock, but a good one. I surface, gasping, and start swimming laps. One, two, three. The rhythm soothes me. The repetitive motion clears my mind.
I’m halfway through my tenth lap when my phone starts ringing from where I left it with my towel. I haul myself out of the pool and grab it, water dripping onto the deck and pooling around my feet. The screen shows an unfamiliar number.
“Hello?” I say cautiously.
“Dr. Aster? This is Dr. Heller from Mass Gen.”
I straighten. “Dr. Heller! Hi.”
“I hope I’m not calling too early.”
“Not at all. Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine. I’m actually calling because I heard from Ms. Genevieve.”
My heart stutters and skips. “You did?”
“She reached out yesterday evening. I passed along your message like you asked.”
“Oh! That’s— Wow. And?”
“She said she’s willing to speak with you, but she’s traveling quite a bit right now. She gave me a number where you can reach her at a specific time today.”
I grab my towel and wrap it around myself. “What time?”
“10:00 A.M. Eastern. She was very specific about that.”
I glance at my phone. It’s eight-thirty now. “Okay. What’s the number?” She rattles it off and I commit it to memory. “Dr. Heller, thank you. This means a lot.”
“Of course. Good luck, Dr. Aster. Hope you find what you’re looking for.”
She hangs up and I stare at the phone in my hand. Natalia wants to talk to me. I should tell Stefan. I should go upstairs right now and let him know.
But something stops me.
If I tell him, he’ll try to stop the call. He’ll give me the obvious lecture: it’s dangerous, she can’t be trusted, I’m putting myself at risk, blah blah.
And maybe he’s right.
But I need to hear what she has to say. I need to understand her side of this story. If he won’t listen to her, I’ll have to do it for both of us. He said I’m too good for this world and that he’s too dark for it.
But what if the truth is somewhere in the middle? What if there’s a happy ending to all this bloodshed and madness that doesn’t require more lives to be lost?
If there is, I owe it to everyone—to Stefan, to Natalia, to myself, and to my baby most of all—to find that way through the woods.
I swore an oath to protect lives, after all. I meant it then. I still mean it now.
So I wrap the towel tighter around myself and go back inside.
Stefan is in the kitchen when I get there, true to his word. He’s standing at the stove, scrambling eggs. The smell of coffee fills the air.
“That was fast,” he says without turning around.
“I…”
Got a phone call is on the tip of my tongue. Honesty has been such a hard thing for us. Even now, I want so badly to commit to it. But I can’t. I just can’t.
“… got a cramp,” I say instead. “Guess I’m a little out of shape.”
He turns to look me up and down and grins. “I’d say you’re in exactly the right shape, in my opinion.”
I laugh and flick the wet corner of my towel at his ass. “Someone’s in rare horndog form this morning,” I say.
“It’s your fault,” he retorts. “If you didn’t look and smell that good, maybe I’d be able to keep my hands and eyes to myself. As it is… Well, you saw the outcome last night.”
My face goes beet-red as sex flashbacks hit me like a ten-car pile-up. “Are you just gonna flirt with me, or are you actually gonna feed me?” I sass back.
Right on cue, he hands me a plate piled high with toast, scrambled eggs, and bacon. “Ask and ye shall receive.” He makes me kiss him before I get my food, not that I mind that too much.
I settle at the kitchen island with my plate and watch Stefan move around the kitchen, cleaning up and wiping down the counters.
“This is really good,” I say after the first bite of eggs. “Though you shouldn’t get a big head about it or anything.”
“Me? Big head? I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m the humblest man I know.” He smiles and takes a sip of coffee. “What do you want to do today?”
I pause with a forkful of eggs halfway to my mouth. “I don’t know. I hadn’t thought about it.”
“We could go into the city. Get lunch somewhere. Walk around.”
“That sounds nice.”
“Or we could stay here. Swim. Watch a movie. Do absolutely nothing.”
I smile. “That sounds nice, too.”
“Very helpful, Dr. Aster.”
I laugh and chew my bacon obnoxiously in his direction. “You’re the boss, Mr. Safonov. You decide what to do with me.”
His eyes twinkle. “Keep dirty talking like that and you and I are going right back to the bedroom.”
We keep chattering as I eat, but my eyes stray to the clock on the microwave again and again. Even as the morning brightens and Boston comes to life and everything feels domestic and happy and sunlit and perfect, the pit of my stomach drops ever lower.
Nine-fifteen.
Nine-twenty-five.
Nine-fifty.
My stomach twists. I push the last scraps of my eggs around my plate.
“You okay?” Stefan asks.
“Yeah. Just full.” I set my fork down. “That was a lot of food.”
“You barely ate half.”
“I’m smaller than you.”
He studies me skeptically. I force myself to meet his eyes and smile.
“I’m fine. Really.” I stand and carry my plate to the sink. “I think I’m just a little more tired than I first realized. Last night was… a lot.”
His scowl eases up by degrees. “Yeah. It was.”
I rinse my plate and load it into the dishwasher. My hands are shaking slightly. I hope he doesn’t notice.
“I might go lie down for a bit,” I say. “Take a nap.”
“If you want, I could come with and—”
“No, I’m okay. You should do whatever you need to do today. Don’t let me hold you back.”
He stands and crosses to me, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind. His chin rests on my shoulder. “Nothing is more important than you,” he murmurs.
The guilt eats at me. “I know,” I whisper.
He kisses my neck, then releases me. “Go rest. I’ll be here if you need me.”
I nod and head for the stairs, forcing myself not to run.
In the bedroom, I close the door and lean against it. My heart is pounding.
Nine-fifty-seven. Three minutes.
I grab my phone and pace the room. This is a mistake. What am I doing? I need to turn around, go back downstairs, and spill my guts. Beg for his forgiveness.
But I don’t.
Instead, at nine-fifty-nine, I sit on the edge of the bed and dial the number Dr. Heller gave me. It rings once. Twice. Then a familiar voice answers.
“Hello, Olivia.”
My heart thuds and my blood rushing in my ears sounds like an ocean tide. “Natalia.”
“Are you alone?”
I glance toward the door. It’s shut, no signs of any footsteps approaching. “Yes.”
“Good. I wasn’t sure you’d call.”
“I wasn’t sure I would, either.”
She laughs softly. “Honesty. I appreciate that.”
“Dr. Heller said you wanted to talk to me.”
“I did. I do.” There’s a pause. “I wanted to make sure you were alright. After everything that happened.”
“I’m fine.”
“Are you? My son can be very intense.”
I bristle. “He cares about me.”
“I’m sure he does. In his own way.” Another pause. “Has he told you what he plans to do with me?”
“He said he wants to keep you away from his family.”
“By any means necessary, I’m sure.”
“He’s scared, Natalia. You hurt him.”
“I know I did.” She sighs. “And I’ve regretted it every day since.”
“Then why did you do it?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Everything with your family seems to be complicated.”
She laughs again. “You’re not wrong about that.”
I take a breath. “I read your husband’s journal. About the tumor.”
“Then you know the truth.”
“I didn’t kill him, Olivia. The drugs did. The tumor did. I was trying to save him.”
I close my eyes. “I want to believe you. But I don’t know if I can.”
“That’s fair.” She exhales somberly, as if gathering her thoughts. “What if I told you I could prove it? That I have medical records, doctors’ statements, evidence that everything I’m saying is true?”
That gives me pause. “Why didn’t you show Stefan before?”
“He wouldn’t have believed me. He was too angry and hurt. He’d already made up his mind about what happened.”
“And you think he’ll believe it now?”
“No. But maybe you can help me show him.”
I open my eyes. “How?”
“Let me talk to him. Face to face. With you there as a mediator.”
“He’ll never agree to that.”
“Then convince him. You’re the only person he trusts.”
“I don’t know if that’s true anymore.”
“It is. I can hear it in the way you talk about him. He loves you, Olivia. And you love him. That kind of love can bridge even the widest gaps.”
My throat threatens to close up. I keep glancing at the door, praying that Stefan doesn’t suddenly barge in and catch me stabbing him in the back red-handed. “What if you’re wrong? What if showing him the truth just makes things worse?”
“Then at least we tried. At least I got to see my son one more time before…”
“Before what?”
“Before this war destroys us all.”
A chill runs down my spine. “What do you mean? Are you threatening me?”
“No, dear, I’m warning you. There are forces at play here that are bigger than any of us. And if we don’t find a way to work together, we’re all going to lose.”
I stand and pace to the window. “This is insane. How do I know I can trust you?”
“You don’t. But what choice do you have?”
I press my forehead against the cool glass. “If I help you set up a meeting with Stefan, you have to promise me something.”
“What?”
“That you won’t try to hurt him. That this is really about reconciliation and not revenge.”
“I promise. I swear on my grandson’s life.”
“Could be your granddaughter,” I correct automatically. “We don’t know yet.”
“Either way. I swear.”
I take a shaky breath. “There’s something else you should know.”
“What?”
“It’s about Mikayla. Stefan has her in the basement.”
The silence that follows gives me enough time to wonder if I’ve made a terrible mistake. I’m not even sure why I said it; it just felt important at the moment. And if my gut is the only thing I have left to guide me through this nightmare, I have to believe it’s pointing me in the right direction.
“He’s keeping her prisoner?” Natalia asks finally. “And he hasn’t killed her?”
“Not yet.”
“That’s interesting.” I can almost hear her thinking. “Very interesting.”
“Why?”
“Because it means he’s changing. The old Stefan would have put a bullet in her head without a second thought.”
“Maybe he’s trying to be better.”
“Or maybe you’re making him that way.” Her voice softens. “Thank you for telling me about Mikayla. That changes things.”
“How?”
“It means there’s hope. If Stefan can show mercy to someone who betrayed him, maybe he can show mercy to me, too.”
I’m not sure that logic tracks, but I don’t argue. “So what happens now?” I ask.
“I need to think about how to approach this. And I’d like to talk to you again. In person this time.”
“Where?”
“I’ll find a safe place. Somewhere Stefan’s people won’t be watching.”
“And if I say no?”
“Then I’ll respect that. But I hope you won’t.”
I hear footsteps coming up the stairs. Heavy, confident steps that can only belong to one person. “I have to go,” I blurt into the phone.
“Think about what I said, Olivia. Please.”
“I will.”
I hang up before she can say anything else. Right as I’m tucking the phone underneath my thigh, the door opens. Stefan’s head sticks in.
“Sorry,” he mumbles. “Just needed to grab my laptop before you fall asleep.” He crosses the room and takes it off the nightstand, then stoops down to kiss me on the forehead. “Get some rest, Olivia. You deserve it.”
I try my best to smile normally, though it feels like every muscle in my face has forgotten how to do that. “Thanks,” I say. “I’ll see you in a little while.”
He steps out of the room and pulls the door shut. When he’s gone, I lie back and stare at the ceiling, wondering how everything got so complicated so fast.
And hoping that I haven’t just made the biggest mistake of my life.
