Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 118309 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118309 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
Over three million of those dollars were made from the sale of Yulia’s organs.
A high-up dignity in the Russian political scene was desperate to save his son’s life, and when he warned Dr. Sidorov that there would be hell to pay if he canceled his order, Dr. Sidorov stupidly believed his wrath would be far worse than Maksim’s promise of retribution if any organs were ever sold out of Myasnikov Private again.
He was wrong.
An exact number will never be disclosed to me, but while searching for information about Yulia’s service, I noticed online funeral notices rose by at least four hundred percent the past week.
Knowing patients were left to succumb to illnesses that were curable before their organs were harvested without consent was already shocking, but the angst deepened when Maksim announced how they tried to cover up the blunder of his mother’s near-death.
Dr. Abdulov and Dr. Azores didn’t solely prepare to throw me under Maksim’s bus if Irina’s true lineage was ever unearthed. They sprinkled my name throughout every horrid crime they instigated—crimes I would have paid for by now if Maksim hadn’t married me.
As believed, and even while not operating under his father’s surname, Maksim and his family are protected by mafia law. They’re untouchable, so if it were ever discovered that a recently formed sanction had “killed” the once matriarch of the Fernandez family under the guise of natural causes, heads would have rolled.
Dr. Abdulov and Dr. Sidorov knew theirs would be the first on the chopping block, so they doctored paperwork to shift the focus elsewhere if the truth was ever discovered.
For the past six months, I was their scapegoat.
That is why Irina’s surgery was placed under my name and why my credentials were tossed at Maksim left, right, and center when he sought the truth behind his mother’s admission.
They didn’t solely tell him it was me and hope for the best. Everything was altered—including Irina’s online paperwork when I stupidly forgot to log out of the HIS system during my last shift at the ER.
They were so thorough, if Maksim’s IT guy wasn’t the best in the business, I doubt anyone would have believed that I hadn’t tried to steal and sell Irina’s organs.
Well, everyone but Maksim.
He trusted his gut, and although occasionally the grief he was almost forced to endure had him second-guessing his intuition, he has assured me time and time again that I was never the first name on his hit list.
He will never admit to my next admission, though.
I know he initially married me so I’d be protected under the same laws that shelter his family, but I will ensure he stays married to me for completely different reasons.
The people who ran the operation out of Myasnikov Private were pissed they had been placed under Maksim’s spotlight. He was too powerful for them to push aside like they had other sanctions. When his interrogation into their trade arrived with a ton of attention they didn’t want, they sought revenge on the person they believed responsible for his interest in Myasnikov.
That person was me.
How do I know this if I’ve never met the people helming the sale of organs on the black market? The scar on the jaw of the man who woke me in the middle of the night, drenched with sweat, was extremely telling.
My memories are still hazy from the day I was drugged, but the occasional memory breaks through the fog—usually when I’m sleeping. The man who said I had sanction before his fist cracked into another man’s face had the same scar along his jaw as the man I saw gawking at Maksim and me in the poolside cabana Zoya hired for Aleena’s hen party.
I’m also reasonably sure he’s the same man who placed me on the bench at the bus shelter, but those memories are hazier since they occurred directly before my memories were stolen by a secondary benzodiazepine.
Maksim’s response last night when I woke up gasping for air and with a ton of unlocked memories exposes that he wouldn’t have offered the scarred man a second leniency even if my memories had arrived earlier.
Leaving me defenseless is as bad as hurting me in Maksim’s eyes, and the rules that stop rival families from wiping each other out agree with Maksim, leaving him free to prosecute without fear of punishment.
Although Maksim hasn’t openly admitted that he killed the people responsible for my kidnapping, I don’t think he’d lie to me if he were asked outright.
He has no issues being honest, particularly when it comes to his protectiveness of me. It is merely his belief on whether I am strong enough to hear the truth that guides his replies, hence me only learning about the organ sales being placed in my name days ago.
I’m drawn from my thoughts when Yulia’s father stops in front of me. “Dr. Ivanov, this is my wife, Agafa.” His voice is low and on the verge of breaking. “Agafa, this is the doctor I was telling you about. The one who helped our baby girl when no one else would.” He chokes on his last few words.