Page 53

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.

I only felt worse when we arrived at the airport and I discovered that we weren’t the only people on the private jet this time: Our return flight was full of KZ models.

If I could have parachutedout of the hatch, I would have. With all the drinking, loud music, and high spirits, it was obvious that the models thought of the jet as more of their own personal party bus than a method of conveyance. Everyone was having a good time except for me. What a perfect ending to the honeymoon from hell.

I sat there, overwhelmed with worry for my father and, thanks to the women currently whooping it up, anger toward Stefan. To think, I had been grateful that he had dropped everything to come home with me. It seemed like he was just using the journey as an excuse to wine and dine his agency’s most beautiful models as we headed back to the States.

It would have been better if he’d just stayed in Budapest and let me come home on my own. I would have gladly taken flying coach, in a middle seat, right by the bathroom, over watching a bunch of gorgeous women drink champagne and flirt with my husband.

In fact, I’d never seen Stefan so animated and charismatic—except for the first time I met him. When he had turned on the charm in order to get me to agree to the arranged marriage. I should have known it was a ruse. Nobody is that dreamy in real life. As he teased and joked with the models, I could tell they were eating it up.