Sephie slept until lunchtime. The guys waited to get Vinny’s until it was closer to the time that the acupuncturist would be there, so Sephie could wake up and eat, then have her acupuncture soon after and didn’t have to try and stay awake again. Andrei also made sure that they ordered two sandwiches for Sephie. “She can eat it later, since she’s hungry every three hours right now,” he said.
I gently tried to wake her up as Misha ran downstairs to get the food. She started to stir and went to turn toward me, immediately regretting it. “SON OF A M*THERFUCKING W*ORE HOW DID I FORGET I COULDN’T DO THAT,” she yelled. At least she’s awake now.
I couldn’t help but laugh at her response, even though I knew it caused her pain. “I’ll make sure and hold you. down when I wake you up next time,” I said, kissing her temple. She just groaned quietly, holding her arm and ribs.
Andrei walked over to help her get up. “We got Vinny’s, spider monkey. And the acupuncturist will be here soon,” he said, holding out his hand to help her up. “I got you two sandwiches, too. Since your metabolism seems to be working overtime right now,” he said, grinning at her.
“Bubba,” she said, as she used his arm to help herself sit more upright, “I just need you to marry me already. Seriously. How long can a girl wait.” He looked at me, somewhat nervous at my reaction, but I found it funny. She tried not to laugh when she saw his face. He relaxed a little when he saw I was amused by it. He leaned down and picked her up off the couch, helping her stand up. She looked back at the blanket, saying, “I’m bringing that thing with me. That’s the first time I’ve been warm in like three days.” I stood up from the couch and wrapped the blanket around her. Misha had returned and was genuinely trying not to laugh at her walking. around like a child with her blanket on. “Oh, you can laugh. I don’t care. I’m warm,” she said, sticking her tongue out at him.
Since she was awake again, she worked on translating information that they’d found while she was sleeping. As she was reading one article, Viktor’s computer beeped. “Papa Bear, do you regularly get emails in Italian?” she asked.
“Uh, no. Never. Did I just get one?”
“Mmm hmm. Should I open it?”
“Sure. If it’s a virus, I’ll deal with it,” he said. She opened the email and read through it, her eyes getting wider the more she read.
“Holy sh*t, he not dead,” she said.
“Who? The journalist?” we all asked at once.
“I mean, unless it’s the ghost of the journalist, he just emailed you. He said he monitors the articles you’ve been looking up to see if anyone is looking into Ricardo and Lorenzo. He said he’s still been watching them and he has more information on them. He also said he’s in hiding and you’ll never find him if you try looking any harder,” she said.
“Well, that’s an unexpected development,” Ivan said.
“I want to know what else he knows about them,” she said. “Should I respond?”
“Tell him that we know what he knows already,” Ivan said. Sephie looked at him, somewhat confused. “But we don’t,” she said.
“He doesn’t know that and most of the time if you tell a journalist that you know more than they do about something, it p*sses them off and makes them prove they know more than you,” Ivan said.
Sephie started to type a response, with just her right hand. She glanced up to see us all watching her type with only one hand, clearly more amused than we should’ve been about it. “Don’t mind me. I’ll have this done by the end of the week,” she said as she continued pecking at the keys as quickly as she could. Just as she got the email finished, Ivan’s phone beeped to let him know the acupuncturist was in the lobby.
“I’ll be right back, princess,” he said, walking out of the penthouse.
Sephie continued to read through what Viktor had found while she’d been sleeping while she waited for Ivan to return. She glanced up at Viktor, “didn’t you say that Armando and Ricardo were related, albeit distantly?”
“That’s what the records I found showed, but I’m not sure that’s entirely accurate now,” he said.
“There has to be a reason that Armando chose to use the family name he did,” she said. Ivan walked back into. the penthouse with the acupuncturist. Viktor pulled his computer back toward him, saying, “I’ll see what I can find while you’re getting tuned up.”
The acupuncturist looked at Sephie, then looked at Ivan, her eyes wide for just a moment. “I know. So many people wish they could look this good and they simply can’t,” Sephie said, sarcastically.
“See, I told you,” Ivan said to the acupuncturist, who was laughing at Sephie. She walked to the spare room that she usually worked on Sephie in, waiting for Sephie to slowly follow her. Ivan and I followed as well, to help her lie down more easily.
Once the door was closed, she looked to Ivan. “You need it, too.”
Sephie pointed at him, “told you.”
Adrik
The acupuncturist said, “last time, Ivan took the worst of it to save Sephie. This time, Sephie took the worst of it to save Ivan.” Ivan immediately took offense and started to argue, but she put her hand up, cutting him off. She walked to Sephie, taking her hand like she always did. She closed her eyes while pressing on the spot just between her thumb and forefinger. She shook her head no, then walked to Ivan doing the same thing. “They were going to kill you, Ivan. Sephie made sure that didn’t happen.”
Sephie was somewhat surprised. “I didn’t do anything. Other than run my mouth.”
“You kept the focus on you, Sephie. If Ivan had done that, they would’ve killed him. They needed you. They didn’t need him. You might not have been completely aware of that, but your soul knew. You listened,” she said, smiling sweetly at Sephie, who now had stray tears falling down her cheeks.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.