The Deal by Stella Gray

Author:Stella Gray
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stella Gray

Tori

Chapter 16

We pulled up in front of the hotel, but I just sat there, paralyzed. I barely remembered leaving the restaurant. The whole thing was a blur.

“Tori?”

I glanced up at Oksana. “I don’t know what to do.”

She gently unbuckled my seatbelt for me and helped me out of the car. I was only vaguely aware of her as we walked across the lobby and into the elevator.

Stefan’s words still echoed in my ear. Your father…he’s had a heart attack.

The words sounded so malevolent. And Stefan hadn’t had any further information to give me yet. How bad was it? Was my dad dying right now?

He wasn’t a young man, but he’d always been good about his health. He exercised, he ate mostly healthy meals (when he wasn’t working through his lunches), and besides the high levels of stress inherent to his job, he took care of himself. A heart attack just…seemed impossible.

The door to our suite was open when we reached it. Hotel staff were moving around quickly, carrying things and speaking quietly to each other in rapid Hungarian. When I stepped inside, everyone stopped for a moment, their expressions frozen in sympathy.

I walked by them, my entire body numb.

Stefan was directing the staff but he, too, paused when he saw me. I didn’t know what I’d expected, but it wasn’t the gentleness in his eyes.

“Did they call again?” I asked. “Tell me what’s going on. Is he—?”

“He’s alive. He’s still unstable, but they think he’s going to be okay. They’re keeping him in the hospital for monitoring over the next few days, just until he stabilizes.”

All the air went out of my lungs. I sank onto the couch with relief, my legs gone to jelly. He was alive. He was going to be okay. I could have used a stiff drink, but it was obvious with the frenzy of activity in the room that Stefan was getting my things packed and ready to go.

“When am I flying back to Chicago?” I asked, hoping it was as soon as possible.

“We’re scheduled to take off in an hour,” he said.

“We?”

He looked at me, his expression softening just a little.

“I’m not letting you go through this alone,” he said. “We’ll leave for the airport as soon as this is done.” He gestured at the packing going on around us.

I was shocked. The last thing I had expected was for Stefan to cut his business trip short to fly back to Illinois with me. This was a marriage in name only, after all.

“Thank you,” I managed. I was still numb.

It wasn’t until we were in the elevator that I realized Oksana was gone. I hadn’t even gotten a chance to say goodbye.

Even though I didn’t completely trust her and I was still unsure about the nature of her relationship with Stefan, she had been kind to me. The thought of flying back to the United States with my husband—who was probably going to be working on his phone or laptop the whole time as I fretted about my father—was nearly unbearable.

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