Page 72 of Tangled Roses
Luka doesn’t wear sincerity well or offer many sympathetic words. He is cool, efficient and brutal and I’m touched by his concern. He is not only my right hand but also my best friend and we work well together. I rely on him for managing my business and couldn’t do this without him beside me.
“We should prepare to leave.”
I’m not wasting any time and breakfast is the furthest thing from my mind. As soon as we visit the private clinic and find the answers we need, the happier or unhappier I’ll be.
Then I’ll focus on food.
Then I’ll focus on the rest of my life.
Ellie is silent in the car and I hate the shadows under her eyes. Her skin is pale and her eyes heavy with pain and I long to reassure her. To pull her into my arms and tell her the result won’t matter. But I’d be lying. Of course it will matter. It will be the ending of a beginning and a life spent dodging one another, attempting to carry on knowing that happiness was once ours.
I’m not even sure why it matters so much. I barely know her, but I feel her. So deep inside me, it’s impossible to breathe when she isn’t in my sight.
“It will be fine.” She says, her voice catching on the words and I’m sure she is only reassuring herself.
“It must be.” I add, my own emotions firmly under wraps because I’m good at disguising my real feelings to paint a strong picture to hide behind.
“Is it far?”
Ellie fidgets beside me and I catch the sign to the medical center and exhale sharply. “We’re here.”
“Arman–”
She tries to form her thoughts, but her voice trails off and I merely say, “I know, Ellie.”
And I do. I feel everything about this woman. Her thoughts, her hopes, her dreams and her fears. I can read her like a well-thumbed book because we share the same hopes and wishes and I pray it’s only that and not because we share a more realistic bond than I would like.
We head into the medical center in silence. I doubt either of us could speak even if we wanted to as we wait for Doctor Monroe, the physician who was paid a huge advance for running the test on short notice. I try to steady my heart that is racing so fast I am struggling to breathe.
Ellie is called in first and, as expected, the process takes less than ten minutes.
It is the longest ten minutes of my life.
When she heads back, her tentative smile fails to lift my spirits as I head inside and Doctor Monroe takes the samples he needs.
He says gruffly, “Thank you, Mr. Romanov. You should hear back within the week.”
“I will hear back today.”
I fix him with a dark glare and remove a stash of dollar bills from my inside pocket.
His eyes widen and he stutters, “But - the lab - I can’t–”
I lay the money on his desk and watch his eyes glaze over because there are several thousand dollars worth of one hundred-dollar bills within his grasp and I say evenly, “I expect the result by the close of business today. Hopefully, the fee will speed up the process.”
His eyes drag across the bundle of notes and he nods.
“Of course. I will take care of it personally.”
I stand and nod respectfully. “Good day, doctor. I shall look forward to hearing from you.”
As I head outside, I wonder if I can survive the day and know the only possible way I can is to bury myself in business, that until Ellie entered my life, was all I needed anyway. Charles and Adele’s garden party will be a welcome distraction, even though it will be torturous spending the day with Ellie, not knowing if it’s our last.
CHAPTER 45
ELLIE
Iam miserably impressed. Is there such a thing? To be so unhappy I would rather lie in a darkened room and shut out the world while I wait for my life to break immeasurably, or marvel at the company I’m keeping in the most palatial home I’ve ever been in?