Her heart skipped a beat leaping into her throat. Katerina stilled, staring at his hand to see if it would move again.It didn't.Thinking it was a fluke, she leaned forward only for his hand to twitch again, nearly scaring the life out of her.Suddenly, Tyler's eyes flew open, disoriented for a couple of seconds before they focused on her, sharpening. “Hey, Kate-”His body jerked, his hand slipping from hers and suddenly the machines started to go crazy.Katerina didn't know what to do, not sure when a scream tore out of her chest and she staggered out of the chair, running for the door.“Help! Somebody please help him!” She screamed at the top of her lungs, gathering the attention of some orderlies and nurses who were hanging around.They rushed into Tyler's room, their hands hovering over his body.One of them yelled, “Go get Dr Jackson, now!!”Everything seemed to be happening all at once, the sounds of the monitors rapidly beeping, the nurses racing around and talking over one an
“Oh, hey! Mom, what are you doing here?” Katerina said, awkwardly hanging her hands by her side.Unfortunately, that just sent Esther into a rant. “You didn't call me and I've been calling you ever since! Thank God for the hospital, they called me to let me know what was going on but I was so worried, Katie…”She squinted, sucking in a deep breath to calm down. “Yeah, but you still didn't need to come. I'm an adult and I can take care of myself, I don't need you running around, trying to help me.”“Forgive me for trying to be a concerned parent and make sure you're okay!” Esther said, her voice laced with a tinge of irritation.During our little ‘banter’, Katerina had forgotten that Mason was still standing there, looking very uncomfortable and eager to leave until he cleared his throat. “Um, I'm so sorry to interrupt this session but I think I have something to do…” he trailed, his eyes bouncing between them.Esther swallowed, her face reddening when she realized that there was a st
On getting to Tyler's room, Katerina noticed that it was empty, clear of all the doctors and nurses that flooded it earlier.As the nurse was about to leave, Katerina stopped her. “Uh, sorry…but where is everyone?”She turned around to face Katerina. “They've left to attend to other patients, ma'am.”Katerina blinked. “Yeah, I know that. I just mean…” she trailed off, waving her hands towards Tyler's still body. “What about him? How's he doing?”The nurse's eyes darted between her and Tyler, her mouth opening as if she wanted to say something before closing. “All I can tell you is that he's stable for now, the doctor will come by to give you more information.”“Oh, thank you….” The door slammed closed before she could even get all the words out of her mouth.Blowing out a breath, she walked towards Tyler's bed, her shoes not making a sound on the linoleum.Already, her hands were turning clammy and slightly damp with perspiration, which was odd. When she was about two feet away from
Katerina closed the door to her home softly behind her, creeping into the house as quietly as possible.For one, she wasn't trying to alert anyone that she was back home because it was quite late.A quick glance at her watch revealed the time to be a couple of minutes past one in the morning.With her parents' recent helicopter attitude, it wasn't hard to figure out that they would fly off the handle when they realized that she was coming back home by this time.It wasn't her intention to be back home this late but after she had a mini breakdown in front of Mason, he decided that it was time to let her hair down and let her breathe. They went to a bar not far from the hospital and had several drinks.One drink turned to five, which then turned into twenty as they each tried to drown their sorrows.Fortunately, the bar was open 24 hours so it didn't give them any indication that the time was letting on more than usual.By the time they had realized how far gone it was, they made a mutu
Wednesday rolled around quite faster than I would expect and with it…dread.Throughout Monday and Tuesday, Katerina was busy attending interviews and various conferences ... Apparently, so many people saw her survival from kidnapping as a huge source of motivation.After talking about it with her parents, Katerina realized that this might be good for the company and their numbers, already their interest in their markets has gone up by 20%. The more she put a spin on it, the more more people would be interested in knowing what was going on in their life and subsequently, in the company.Of course, the last thing she wanted to do was to go on in public talking about the worst and most harrowing experience of her life, but then again since she was unsure of the state of things between her and Tyler, the company was her family's most successful stream of income and it was up to her to keep the flames burning.However, after two days of talking about it, Katerina wasn't sure this was some
The other wasn't a command but more or less like a dare and Katerina couldn't resist but pick up the glass and toss back half of the alcohol in her mouth.The drink was more spicier and concentrated than she expected. Her throat closed up on reflex, making the drink go down the wrong way.She exploded into a coughing fit, lowering her head to cough out the rest into a napkin.The asshole just chuckled, ducking his head to avoid her gaze.At least, he pushed a bottle of water her way which she greedily guzzled down like a starving man.“Damn, maybe I should have warned you that it might be a little spicy,” Giorgio said, his eyes sparkling with mischief.“You think?” She returned curtly.After a couple of minutes, the peppers sensation at the back of her truth calmed a bit and it got a little bit easier for her to talk. “Are you done with the fun and games?”He shrugged. “Depends, interested in playing some more?”Gritting her teeth, Katerina slammed her hands down on the table in anger
After dropping the bomb on her, Giorgio decided that it was best she thought about it and left her behind in the restaurant saying he had some loose ends he needed to tie up.Katerina waved her hands for more for the waiter to bring more drinks to her table needing to immerse herself in alcohol so she didn't have to dwell on what she had just heard.“Thank you…” she whispered to the waiter, gratefully accepting the drink. “Please can you get me the check?”While it was tempting to drown her sorrows in drinks, it wouldn't do anything for her since she would still face the same problems when she came out of her hangover.“Oh, you don't need to worry about that. The man you were with earlier covered the tab so you're good to go.”Katarina managed to summon a smile on her face watching the waiter go.At least that was one thing that worked for her.Tossing back the last shot in her mouth, Katerina let the warm trail slide down her throat, heating her from the inside.With that settled she
Katerina fiddled with the strap of a handbag before setting it down on the table. “I'm sure that by now you know my grandfather is alive…”“Yeah, I… that much was obvious when I saw him at the clearing that night.”She blew out a nervous breath. “Okay, listen before you even say anything, I had no idea about it. I was pretty much in the dark up until a couple of weeks ago… I'm really sorry.”Tyler was still smiling at her. “It's not your fault. I mean, your family kept a huge secret from you all these years and there's no way you could have known about him, right?”She nods. “Of course.”He sits up a bit. “Now, does what you have to tell me somehow about him in the story?“Well, it turns out that he's actually a mob boss, and the whole reason why he got involved in this kidnapping shit, is because… he wants me to take over.”Tyler's smile melted off his face, the shock obvious. For a man who makes it really hard to know what he's thinking, the fact that he could be this shocked only