Chapter 144: Back to meds school

"It’s a very high standard." She shook her head, smiling. He reached for her hand again. "I don’t want you to give up the life you had before you met me." Her smile slowly faded.

"Even if I’m your wife?"

"Especially because you’re my wife." The words settled somewhere deep inside her.

For all his possessiveness, all his darkness, all the blood that seemed to follow Viktor Kessler wherever he went, he was handing her a piece of herself back. Sienna looked at him for a long moment.

"Thank you." Viktor squeezed her hand. "You don’t have to thank me."

"I do." She smiled. "And I’m going back." His eyes warmed. "Good." She picked up her spoon again.

"Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow." Sienna took another bite, then glanced sideways at him. "You’re coming with me, aren’t you?" Viktor raised an eyebrow. "To medical school?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I have a feeling if I leave you alone, you’ll start another war." A slow grin spread across his face. "Then I’ll behave."

"I don’t believe you."

"You shouldn’t." She laughed, and for the first time in ten days, the sound filled the room without any shadow of worry behind it.

"Aria is going to be so happy," Sienna said, reaching for another piece of chicken. "I’ll have to call her after I’m done." Viktor’s expression shifted.

"About that..." Sienna looked up. "What?"

"Aria’s father was shot." Her spoon stopped. "What?"

"He survived." The relief barely had time to settle before Viktor continued. "With everything that happened with the accident, her family decided it was safer for them to leave the country for a while." Sienna stared at him.

"They left?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"Somewhere outside the country." She reached for her phone. "I’ll call her."

"I don’t think you’ll get through." Her fingers froze around the phone. "Why?"

"They’re keeping their location private." Sienna’s face fell. "But she’s okay?"

"She’s fine."

"And her father?"

"Alive. Recovering." She slowly lowered the phone. "She didn’t even say goodbye." Viktor watched the disappointment settle across her face.

Sienna had been looking forward to seeing Aria again. She had talked about going back to school, about telling her everything, about having someone familiar beside her after the nightmare they’d just survived.

Now she couldn’t even reach her. "I should have called her sooner. We spoke a few days ago, I should have known."

"You couldn’t have known."

"I should have tried." Viktor reached for her hand. "She’s safe, Sienna." Sienna nodded. "I know." But she didn’t pick up her spoon again. She stared at the tray instead.

Viktor recognized that look. The same one she’d worn when she’d first woken up and thought he’d disappeared. He hated seeing it. "Eat."

She didn’t answer. "Sienna."

"I’m not hungry anymore."

"That’s unfortunate." She glanced at him. "Why?"

"Because I had the kitchen prepare enough food to feed a small army." That earned him the faintest smile. Viktor pointed at the tray.

"And I refuse to let my wife starve because her best friend went on an international vacation without asking permission." A small laugh escaped her.

"That’s not funny."

"I’m trying."

"I can tell." He picked up a piece of chicken and held it toward her. She stared at it. "Really?"

"Really."

"I can feed myself."

"I know."

"Then why are you doing that?"

"Because you’re sulking."

"I’m not sulking."

"You’ve been staring at the same chicken for thirty seconds." Sienna looked down. She had. She sighed and finally leaned forward, taking the chicken from his hand.

"There." Viktor nodded approvingly. "Good." She chewed slowly. Then looked at him. "You really think Aria is okay?"

"I know she is."

"You’re sure?"

"I wouldn’t tell you otherwise." She studied his face for a moment before nodding.

"Okay." Viktor leaned back against the headboard. "And when she comes back, you can tell her all about medical school." Sienna’s eyes brightened slightly.

"She’ll probably scream."

"Probably." She smiled. "She’ll ask a million questions." Viktor’s eyebrow lifted.

"About school?" Sienna’s cheeks warmed. "Don’t." His grin widened. "I didn’t say anything."

"You were about to."

"I was." She rolled her eyes. For the first time since he’d mentioned Aria leaving, some of the heaviness lifted from her face. Viktor watched her carefully.

He would find a way to bring Aria home safely. But for now, he had something more immediate to deal with. His wife was still upset.

—--

West Street

9:45 pm

The apartment smelled like takeout containers left too long in the trash a smell Aliya had stopped noticing three days ago because she’d stopped caring about anything that wasn’t the phone in her hand.

She was folded into the corner of the couch, knees drawn to her chest, the blue light of the screen the only light in the room besides the streetlamp bleeding through a gap in the blinds. She hadn’t opened the blinds all the way since she’d moved in. Didn’t want anyone looking in. Didn’t want to see anyone looking back.

Her thumb moved on its own now, scrolling. She knew she should stop. She kept scrolling anyway, the way you keep pressing on a bruise to see if it still hurts.

It still hurt.

There she was, her own face, in a photo she never agreed to have taken, captioned with words she wouldn’t repeat out loud. Her wedding, dissected by strangers, picked over like roadkill. Someone had made it a joke. A meme. A massacre, and she was the one still bleeding from it while the internet moved on to the next thing.

Then the next post loaded, and her stomach dropped somewhere past the floor. Sienna. In white. Viktor beside her, his hand at her back like he’d never once put it at Aliya’s.

They got married.

The words came out of her before she decided to say them, cracked and too loud for the small room.

"They got married," she said again, and then she wasn’t holding the phone anymore it was in the air, then against the wall, then in pieces on the floor, and she was breathing like she’d been running.

The bedroom door opened.