Chapter 85: Family History

There was a long pause on the other end of the line.

At first, the doctor didn’t seem willing to say much of anything. Sienna’s medical records were private, she reminded him carefully, and she wasn’t in the habit of discussing patients with people who called her out of nowhere at night, no matter how much authority their voice carried.

"I’m her husband," Viktor said simply, the words feeling strange and heavy in his mouth even as he said them. There was another pause, shorter this time, before the doctor finally seemed to accept that this was reason enough to talk.

"All right," she said, her voice growing more thoughtful now. "I’ll tell you what I know."

Viktor listened carefully, pacing slowly down the hallway outside Sienna’s door, his phone pressed tight against his ear.

"We ran a full workup on her, months ago," the doctor explained. "Everything came back clean at first. No structural problems with her heart, no obvious signs of disease. My first thought was that it might be nerves, or something tied to trauma from her past. When she gets anxious, or overwhelmed, she faints. Sometimes she starts coughing badly before it happens."

"What about her blood?" Viktor asked.

"That’s exactly what I wanted to check next," the doctor said. "I asked her to come back in for a full blood panel, something more detailed than the standard tests. She never came back for it. Every time I followed up, she told me she felt fine. Said she was perfectly healthy." The doctor hesitated.

"It’s possible whatever is happening to her is hereditary. Something passed down that simply hasn’t fully shown itself yet. But without that bloodwork, I can’t say for certain."

Viktor’s jaw tightened. "Okay," he said finally. "Thank you for your time."

He ended the call slowly, staring down at the phone in his hand for a long moment before slipping it back into his pocket.

Marcus appeared at the end of the hallway a moment later, his expression carefully neutral, though his eyes flicked briefly toward Sienna’s closed door before settling back on Viktor.

"Maybe we need to find out more about her background," Marcus said. "If it’s hereditary, there might be answers there. Family history. Medical records from her parents, if we can track any down."

"True," Viktor said, already turning the idea over in his mind. "We can work on that." He glanced back toward the door, worry creeping into the tight line of his shoulders. "Why is she still not awake?"

"She needs her rest, boss," Marcus said gently. "That’s what the doctor said earlier. Give her time."

Viktor exhaled slowly, running a hand through his hair, some of the tension in his frame refusing to ease no matter how many times he reminded himself that she was simply sleeping, simply recovering, nothing more sinister than that.

"Did you find out who shot at us?" he asked, changing the subject before his own worry could get the better of him.

Marcus’s expression darkened. "No, sir. Not confirmed yet. But we all know who it could be."

"The Capri family," Viktor said flatly. It wasn’t a question.

"Most likely," Marcus said.

Viktor’s hands curled into fists at his sides. "He’s not going to stop, is he."

"Doesn’t look like it," Marcus said carefully. "We all know Aliya is the apple of his eye, boss. He’ll do anything to keep her happy, and right now, what would keep her happy is you." He paused, choosing his next words with obvious caution.

"We can’t afford a full war with the Capris right now. Not on top of everything else that’s happening. You need to be patient. Even if that means playing nice with Aliya for a while."

Viktor’s eyes snapped toward him, sharp and cold.

"Just a little attention," Marcus continued quickly, holding his ground despite the warning clear in Viktor’s expression.

"That’s all it would take to put her at ease. To buy us some time. If she believes there’s still a chance with you, her father backs off. It could stop all of this before it gets any worse."

"I can’t stand that girl," Viktor said, his voice low and hard, each word clipped short with barely restrained frustration.

"I know, boss," Marcus said. "But sometimes surviving means doing things you can’t stand."

Viktor said nothing for a long moment, his eyes drifting back toward the closed bedroom door, toward the quiet room where Sienna lay resting, unaware of the careful, dangerous calculations already being made on her behalf, all of it meant, in some twisted way, to protect her.

"You can leave," Viktor said finally, his voice flat, giving nothing else away.

Marcus hesitated only a second before nodding and turning to go, his footsteps fading quietly down the hall, leaving Viktor alone outside the door once more.

He stood there a long while after Marcus had gone, staring at the closed door, turning Marcus’s suggestion over and over in his mind, weighing the cold, practical logic of it against something else entirely, something newer, something that had settled deep in his chest the moment he’d pulled that blanket back and found nothing but pillows and an empty blood bag where he had feared finding his wife.

Playing nice with Aliya might buy them time. It might even save lives.

But the thought of it, of smiling at her, of pretending even for a moment that there was still some version of a future between them, left a bitter, sour taste in his mouth that had nothing to do with strategy at all.

He pushed the door open quietly instead, stepping back into the dim room where Sienna still slept, her chest rising and falling in slow, steady breaths, and sat back down in the chair beside her bed, exactly where he had been sitting that morning before all of this had started.

Whatever it took to keep her safe, he told himself. Whatever it took.

He just wasn’t entirely sure anymore where the line was between protecting her, and losing some piece of himself in the process.