Page 97 of Silver Fox's Christmas Scandal

She directed me down a sterile hallway to the room, and through the small window I could see two figures inside—Lucian slumped in a chair beside the bed, and Viktoria pacing near the window.

I knocked softly and entered, my heart hammering against my ribs.

Viktoria looked up first, her expression shifting from mild curiosity to open hostility when she recognized me.

"Well, well. The devoted assistant comes to pay her respects." Her voice dripped with venom. "How touching."

But Lucian's reaction was different.

His tired eyes found mine across the room, and something shifted in his expression—surprise and relief. It made my chest tight with emotion.

"Tessa." My name on his lips was the sweetest sound I'd heard in months.

Elena lay motionless in the hospital bed, machines beeping around her. She looked so fragile. Bruises covered her face and the parts of her arms that were exposed. Wires connected her to devices I couldn't identify, and the sight made my throat close with grief. At least she wasn't on a ventilator.

"Viktoria," Lucian said quietly, never taking his eyes off me, "could you give us a moment?"

His ex-wife's face twisted with rage. "Absolutely not," she hissed. "This is a family matter, and she?—"

"Please." Lucian sounded exhausted and desperate. He turned to her, and the pleading expression on his face made her instantly soften. "Just a few minutes." Even in divorce, there was a knowing between them, and though she hated it, she relented.

Viktoria glared between us, then stalked toward the door. "Five minutes. Then I want her gone."

The door closed behind her, leaving us alone with Elena's steady breathing and the soft beeping of medical equipment.

Lucian looked terrible—unshaven, his clothes wrinkled, dark circles under his eyes that spoke of days without sleep. And he smelled like it too—like he hadn't even gone home to shower.

"You came," he said softly.

"Of course I came." I moved toward him, feeling my stomach twisting, and wondered why I did come.

What was I hoping to accomplish?

I hadn't spoken to him properly in a month, and here I was rushing to his side to comfort him.

If he couldn’t see that I loved him desperately, I didn’t know what would show him that.

I'd been a coward for putting space between us when I should've been fighting to make something happen.

And something inside me was shifting even as he stood and walked toward me. I couldn't walk away from this again.

I needed him.

And it appeared he needed me too.

30

LUCIAN

I crossed the room toward Tessa, fighting the urge to pull her into my arms.

Three days without sleep, without food, without hope, and here stood the one person who could make the sterile hospital walls feel less suffocating.

But I maintained careful distance, acutely aware that Viktoria would return soon and any appearance of intimacy would fuel her rage.

"Thank you for coming," I said quietly, studying her face. My hand hovered near my mouth as emotion welled up. I scraped my hand over my beard and shook my head. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

"How is she?" Tessa moved closer to Elena's bedside, her voice soft with genuine concern.