Chapter 6 - The Man Behind the Monster
Victor survived.
The bullet had missed anything vital, though the doctors insisted he had lost enough blood to make his recovery unpleasant.
Sadi spent the first night between two hospital rooms.
Sam on the third floor.
Victor on the seventh.
At 4:10 a.m., she entered Victor’s room carrying coffee.
His eyes opened.
“You look terrible.”
She stared at him.
“You got shot.”
“Yes.”
“And somehow I look terrible?”
“You haven’t slept.”
“Neither have you.”
“I was unconscious. It counts.”
She put the coffee down.
Victor watched her.
“How’s Sam?”
“Stable.”
“Treatment?”
“Starts Monday.”
“Good.”
Sadi narrowed her eyes.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
“Victor.”
He sighed.
“The hospital received funding.”
“From?”
“An anonymous donor.”
“Victor.”
“Very anonymous.”
She sat beside him.
“I told you I don’t want to owe you.”
“You don’t.”
“That treatment costs hundreds of thousands.”
“I have hundreds of thousands.”
“That isn’t the point.”
“No. The point is your brother gets to live long enough to complain about you.”
Sadi looked down.
Victor’s voice softened.
“You would’ve spent your entire life paying that debt.”
“Yes.”
“And you would’ve done it.”
“Yes.”
“I know.”
She looked at him.
“That’s why I paid it.”
For several seconds, neither spoke.
“What happens to Daniel?”
Sadi asked.
“He’s finished.”
“And Mick?”
Victor’s expression hardened slightly.
“O’Shea helped us prove Daniel paid Eleanor. In exchange, he gets to continue breathing and never contact you again.”
“That sounds threatening.”
“It was mostly administrative.”
Sadi rolled her eyes.
Victor smiled.
A real smile.
She had never seen one on him before.
It transformed his face.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
“You’re staring.”
“So were you eight months.”
“Fair.”
She stood.
“I should check on Sam.”
Victor’s expression became serious.
“Sadi.”
She stopped.
“When I leave here, things need to change.”
Her stomach tightened.
“What things?”
“You.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You’re not working at the mansion anymore.”
Her face fell.
“You’re firing me?”
“No.”
“That sounded remarkably like firing.”
“I’m giving you a choice.”
“What choice?”
“Take the severance package. Go back to school. Stay with Sam. Build whatever life you wanted before hospital bills swallowed it.”
Sadi stared at him.
“And if I want to keep working?”
“Then work somewhere you don’t have to become invisible.”
She swallowed.
“You want me gone.”
Victor looked directly at her.
“No.”
The answer was immediate.
“That’s the problem.”
Sadi’s heart beat faster.
Victor continued.
“I don’t want gratitude confused with something else.”
“Something else?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Say it.”
“Sadi.”
“You can face armed men but not one maid?”
His jaw tightened.
“Former maid.”
“Coward.”
He almost laughed.
Then he became serious.
“I care about you.”
Sadi’s breath caught.
Victor continued.
“And you’ve spent months trapped by debt and fear. I won’t become another thing you feel obligated to.”
For the first time, Sadi understood.
He wasn’t pushing her away.
He was opening the door.
She stepped closer.
“Then don’t decide for me.”
Victor looked at her.
“I’m not.”
“Good.”
She leaned down and kissed his cheek.
His eyes widened.
Sadi smiled.
“That was gratitude.”
She walked toward the door.
Victor touched his cheek.
“And the something else?”
Sadi looked back.
“You’ll have to recover first.”
For perhaps the first time in Victor Costello’s adult life, someone walked away from him smiling.
May you like
And he let her.
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