The room I woke up in was dark, and my vision was a little blurry at first anyway. Once things started to clear up, I could see the moon outside the windows through the sheer fabric of the curtains. I heard a strange beep, like some sort of machine and that was when I noticed the medical equipment I was hooked up to; not surprising, considering my mother had been a doctor that had a contract with the Volkov family before she became a member of the family herself. I noticed my mother over in an armchair near the window with a book in her lap, sleeping peaceful. I must have made too much noise in my attempts to sit up because she stirred a little before completely snapping back awake, dropping her book. "Valentina?" She called my name softly as she looked across the darkness at me.
"Yes mother." I called back to her with a soft cringe of pain in my back.
"Sweetheart, don't try to move so quickly." She instructed me, in Russian, as she stood quickly to her feet and rushed over to my bedside. She turned on a lamp on the bedside table and gently pushed on my shoulders for me to lie back down. "You must be in so much pain, I didn't want to give you any pain killers until you were awake."
"No pain killers. I've had enough drugs for a lifetime." I insisted.
"I've flushed most the drugs from your system." She informed me as she sat on t edge of the bed next to me. "Are you still feeling the effects?"
"Not really." I mused out loud. "My throat is pretty dry, I could use some wat- Oh my God! Where are the twins?" I shouted in concerned and my mother was quick to shush me.
"They're asleep in the guest rooms. Don't worry sweetie, they're safe, and so are you. No one else knows you're alive. After Bastian called your father, he only told Marco and Sergei besides me. Speaking of Bastian, I imagine you're going after him next?"
"Naturally." I answered quickly.
"I would love to see the look on his face when he sees you're alive."
"Perhaps we could arrange that." I smiled at my mother who chuckled softly under her breath. As I let the last few events of my life really sink in, I began to realize I had just murdered the head of the Volkov family. I looked to my mother, concern lining my face, "What did you do about the bodies?" I didn't even need to say which bodies for her to understand.
"I called your Uncle Boris. He was a little too excited to hear about your father's death. I simply told him I came home and found him that way. No one questioned it really. He took care of the rest. He's already assumed power of the family business, of course. I'm certain if he knew you were alive and responsible, he'd thank you, he's been waiting for years for your father to die so he could take over. But don't worry my darling, no one will ever know what really happened." She explained to me, brushing some hair from over my face. "You know, sometimes I think about what would have happened if your father hadn't knocked me up and basically forced me to marry him. But then when I look at you, I'm so glad he did. I always knew you were better than him and Vladimir, and I knew one day you'd realize it. I thank God for those two Irish boys, they were exactly what you needed to finally wake up Valentina. Now you can have the life I never did, a life outside the world." She leaned down and kissed my forehead, smiling sweetly at me. "I'll go get you some water dear."
I dwelled on what my mother had said, about the twins helping me realize I was better than my father and brother. She came back into the room almost as quickly as she had left, holding a glass of ice water for me. She helped me sit up so I could drink it and that's when we heard a soft knock on the door. My mother went to answer it, and from the other side I heard Murphy's soft voice, "I heard you walking down the hall, is everything alright Mrs. Volkov?"
"I told you, please call me Albina, and everything is fine. She's awake now, would you like to come in?" She offered this knowing I wouldn't object.
"Awake?" I heard the disbelief in Murphy's voice as he walked through the door and his sights instantly fell on me.
"I'll leave you two alone then." My mother smiled at me before disappearing out into the hall and shutting the door behind her.
I sat my glass of water on the bedside table and just looked at Murphy, looking at me with such a dumbfounded expression like there were so many things he wanted to say but couldn't decide which to say first. So this time, I was the first one to break the silence, "Murphy I'm so sorry." Almost instantly I felt the tears swell up in my eyes and he was quick to rush to my side. "I should have listened to you, I shouldn't have trusted Bastian. I should have stayed. I risked your life, you and Conner both, when all I was trying o do was protect you."
"Val," He tried to shush me as he sat at my side, placing his hands on my face and wiping away my tears as they fell down my cheeks. "This isn't your fault."
"Yes it is. I was so stupid to trust him, I'm so sorry." I felt such an extreme sense of guilt for what I had done, for what I put him and Conner through. I looked at Murphy, his eyes staring back at me with such a look of comfort and sweetness, and I couldn't help but hate myself for everything I had done to him. I tried to apologize again, but before the words could even come out, Murphy leaned towards me and silenced me with a kiss.
Both his hands caressed my face so softly as his lips stayed against mine. My hands trembled with such a strange sense of nerves as I touched them instinctively to his shoulders. As I leaned into his kiss, returning it, he only deepened it. What started as such a simple thing now seemed to explode with more passion and affection I had ever experienced in a lifetime. I never wanted it to end, but it did. Murphy pulled away from me and rested his forehead mine, the tips of our noses touching, his eyes still closed even after I opened mine. "Don't you dare apologize to me for this Valentina." He whispered to me in Russian. He opened his eyes now, our stares connecting as he ran his fingers through my hair. "I'm here with you now, you're safe, and that's all that matters to me." He leaned back a little and brought me closer to him, resting my head against his chest as he held me and stroked my hair.
I didn't want him to leave me, and he didn't. He crawled under the blankets with me and held me the rest of the night. I slept with my head on his chest and arms around me. It made me feel so safe and secure, like nothing was going to hurt me as long as he was there with me.
I woke up the next morning and Murphy was still there. As I sat up he started to wake up. He sat up next to me, yawning a bit as he did, and looking over at me with such a gentle smile I felt like my face burn with a red blush. "Good morning." He said to me simply. "I would love to kiss you right now." He confessed, "But I have morning breath and that simply just won't do." We both laughed as he started to toss the blankets off him and get up and out of the bed. "I'm going to see if Conner's awake and let him know you're finally up.
"Finally up? How long was I out?"
"About three days." He informed me.
"Oh my God." I mumbled under my breath.
"I'll let your mom know you're up too, she'll want to make sure you're feeling alright and get some food in your stomach."
I nodded to him and he smiled and leaned down to me to kiss my forehead. "Thank you Murphy, for not leaving me last night." I whispered to him and he just his head at me.
"Of course." He answered with a smile, but with a bit of a more serious tone to his voice before he left me there in the room alone. I missed him once he was gone, and found myself pondering in my mind how I could try to leave him again? I knew then if he asked to come back to the farmhouse, I would. The only problem was, would he? Afterall, I had left without a single hesitation the first time, and after what happened at the airport…Was all this, him kissing and holding me, just pity? Did he feel sorry for me because he just watched me get beat and raped then murder my father in cold blood? Surely he was still hurt after what had happened before. But I wanted to believe this was more than him feeling sorry for me, I wanted to believe this was all genuine, and that Murphy MacManus actually cared for me because I was tired of denying what I had known all along; I cared for him in a way I had never cared for another person before in my entire life.