“Are you still sorry I married her?” he asked in a tentative plea for his father's approval.
“No. Why would I be? My concern was that she was too damaged to love
you. Clearly, that wasn't the case.”
“No. She loved me, Father. She truly did.” He met his father's eyes and saw
that tears shone there.
“I know,” Adrian said softly.
Christopher's vision blurred. Hot tears clogged his throat. “I love her so much,” he said raggedly.
Adrian gripped his shoulder. “I know you do, and she knows it too. If
anything can pull her through this, it will be your love.”
Christopher's crumbling composure cracked. He sank back onto the chair,
taking his wife's hand. His mother gripped one shoulder, his father the other, while his grief poured from him, unchecked and unstoppable.
In the morning, Katerina still breathed but remained unconscious. The doctor checked her and found no change for good or ill. Mrs. Turner examined her also
and found her pregnancy still holding, the baby still moving appropriately in its
mother's body. There was nothing to do but wait. And so, they waited. In the early afternoon, she finally stirred, eyelids fluttering.
“Kat, can you hear me, love?”
A soft exhalation of breath escaped her.
“Kat?”
Her dark eyes opened.
“Oh God, no!” Christopher exclaimed. Katerina was alive, awake, but that
spark, that warmth that made her the woman he loved, the awareness, the
sentience was gone.
Katerina was gone.
CHAPTER 21
She was gone, the family soon realized, deep inside herself. Her eyes
didn't focus. She didn't react to speech or stimulation. She would
swallow water dribbled into her mouth, but not food. She took no nourishment,
and she gave no sign whatsoever of awareness.
Three days crept past and she remained in this suspended state. On the
afternoon of the third day, the doctor examined her thoroughly.
“Can you do anything?” Christopher pleaded.
“No. I'm sorry.”
“Is this the fracture?” Christopher asked.
“No. She's withdrawn,” the doctor explained. “The fact she's awake at all means the fracture likely isn't going to kill her. Not this many days later. That would have happened much sooner. The broken bone will heal in the next six to
eight weeks. However, if she doesn't wake up and begin eating soon, healing won't matter. She'll just… fade. And only she can change it.”
“So, this is a mental break?” Christopher gulped.
“Yes.”
“Do you think she'll come out of it?” he asked. Please, please let her come
out of it.
