After several anxiety-ridden days, the former Tsar finally regained consciousness, but he was paralyzed on one side of his body. The doctors planned to start him on physical therapy soon. In the meantime, all the family members were allowed to visit him one at a time.

"Please, please don't tell your father that I may not really be his niece," Michaela begged Anastasia.

"Of course I won't, if you don't want me to," Anastasia replied. "Although I'm sure it wouldn't make a bit of difference in how he feels about you."

Michaela called Valya and Yulia right away to tell them the news.

"Uncle Nicky finally woke up," she told Valya when she answered the phone.

"That's wonderful," said Valya. "I'm so glad to hear that."

"I got to go and and see him for about five minutes," Michaela continued. "I didn't say anything at all to him about you and Yulia and the bone marrow transplant. He still thinks I'm really and for sure his niece."

Michael happened to be passing by the door at that moment and overheard Michaela's end of the conversation. Her words were like a knife through his heart, yet he knew that there was nothing more he or anyone else could say to Michaela to alleviate her feelings of rejection and isolation.

"Perhaps time will help soften the blow for her," Natalya suggested when Michael told her what Michaela had said. "At least she's genuinely concerned about Nicky, and she still has a warm, loving relationship with Alexei and the former grand duchesses, especially Anastasia."

"Right now she needs all the love and support this family can give her," said Michael. "Of course right now the focus has to be on Nicky, since he's in such serious condition, but it's important that Micky isn't neglected either."

"Sometimes I almost feel as if it's a competition between us and Valya and Yulia for Micky's affection," said Natalya.

"It shouldn't be that way," Michael said angrily. "We're the ones who raised her, who took care of her for her entire life. She only just met Valya and Yulia, and it isn't even known for certain that she's related to them."

"Well, whether we like it or not, it looks as if they're going to be an important part of her life from now on, so we may as well make the best of it," Natalya replied.


Eventually Nicholas was sent home from the hospital in a wheelchair. He was to receive physical therapy three times a week. The physical therapist was a good-looking man named Trevor who was in his mid fifties. Alexandra felt an unfamiliar stirring in her breast as he shook her hand.

"It simply breaks my heart to see Nicky like this," she told him. "He's always been so full of life, so full of vigor. It's as if he's merely a shell of the man he used to be."

"I know exactly how you feel," said Trevor. "I just lost my wife of thirty years only a little over six months ago to cancer. I remember watching her go from the vibrant woman she once was to the woman she was at the end. It was just like many small deaths over time leading up to the actual death at the end, but it isn't going to be that was for your Nicky. He's going to get better, and some day he's going to walk again, even if it means with the assistance of a walker or cane."

As she gazed into his clear blue eyes, Trevor's words filled Alexandra's heart with hope.