Page 139 of Misdeeds of a Billionaire

It was such fucking déjà vu, sending anxiety ripping through me.

A whimper slipped through Odette’s lips and her body started to convulse. Turning her head from me, she threw up all over the floor of the emergency room, heaving and shuddering. Gasps traveled through the air as people shifted away from us, parting like the Red Sea.

She was wheezing and her shortness of breath was alarming. My reasoning told me it was good that she was throwing up, but my soul shuddered at seeing her in pain.

“Sir, this way, we’ll take her straight in.”

I followed the male nurse down the corridor, cradling my wife’s body close to me. “She was drugged. Don’t know what substance, but she’s having a bad reaction to it.”

“We’ll get a doctor in here right away.”

The nurse opened the door to the room and pressed a call button.

“B-Byron—” Odette struggled to breathe. “Penicillin.”

I blinked, studying my wife’s face. Hives broke over her skin, ugly red and rashy looking. “You need penicillin?”

She whimpered, shaking her head. “Allerg—”

Retching again, her words were cut short. I met the nurse’s gaze. “I think she’s allergic to penicillin.”

Still vomiting, Odette lifted her hand weakly and gave us a thumbs-up, telling us that we got it right.

“Good, good,” the nurse muttered. “We can work with that.”

The next hour was a whirlwind of activity. I refused to leave her side, but I ended up being in the nurses’ and doctors’ way. I had no idea when Alessio showed up, but he had to pull me away from her bed.

“We can watch from here,” Alessio stated calmly. “We’ll keep an eye together. Just let them do their thing so she can get better.”

“She has to be okay,” I muttered more to myself than to my brother. “She has to be okay.”

“She will,” he said with a conviction I didn’t feel. “You smell,” he remarked calmly. I pushed my hand through my hair, the stench of puke lingering in the air. I didn’t give a shit. I refused to move from this spot until she was healthy again.

“I still smell better than you.”

Alessio shoved his shoulder into mine. From the outside, you’d never guess that we’d only gotten close over the last few years. I hadn’t known about him growing up, and I regretted that. He grew up a Russo, abused and battered by his stepfather while trying to protect his half-siblings. Father should have been man enough to step in and protect him. But yet again, he failed. Just as he did with every single one of his children.

The doctor approached us, disapproval in his eyes. He protested at having two large men crowding the room. Well, tough shit. My expression challenged him to try and remove us.

“Sir, we’ve administered a strong dose of antihistamines. Your wife will be fine.” Relief washed over me, and I sighed. “She might experience fever and some other side effects over the next few days, but she’ll recover.”

I took the doctor’s hand and gripped it tightly, shaking it. Poor guy made it look like I was shaking a ragdoll. “Fuck, thank you. Thank you so much.”

“You did the right thing by bringing her in straightaway. Your wife’s body did most of the work by emptying the contents of her stomach, but the antihistamine will continue to ease her symptoms.” His eyes darted to Alessio, then back to me. “Keep her stress at a minimum. She might be in and out, some high fever coming and going, but it’s all normal. You can even take her home tonight.”

“Thanks again”—I looked at the name stitched on his scrubs—“Dr. Chen.”

“You have the emergency line if anything changes. I’ll be back one more time before she’s cleared to go home. Excuse me,” he said.

He walked out of the room and my eyes shifted back to the bed where Odette slept, her breaths even. She’d stopped throwing up, but the hives and rash were still there. As long as she was alive and breathing, everything else I could handle.

“Nicki and Marco were working together.” Alessio’s statement sent anger through me, but I kept it under control. “Marco was planning to impregnate her—fucking moron—and Nicki was convinced you’d marry her if Odette waspermanentlyout of the picture, if you catch my meaning.”

My jaw clenched. “So one had a plan to kill her and the other to—”

I couldn’t even finish the statement. Adrenaline surged through my veins. Red mist covered my vision and every muscle in my body screamed to go punish those fuckers.

“Was our father involved?” Truthfully, at this point, it wouldn’t surprise me if he was.