Page 29

MIA

I wake up in the courthouse hallway, lying sideways on a bench. My family’s worried faces are swimming before me.

“Oh, thank goodness!” Mom exhales. “Henry, look, she’s awake!”

Dad’s hand squeezes my shoulder as I sit up. “Had a nice nap?” he teases, but I can hear the concern beneath.

Off to the side, Ginny doesn’t say anything. She’s barely looking my way, like she thinks I did this on purpose.

Wait—what happened again?

“Okay!” Nikita claps once. “Let’s give her some space, everyone.”

As if this is all she was waiting for, Ginny immediately herds our parents back inside. “C’mon, let’s go. Sleeping Beauty needs a break, apparently.”

I want to reply, but my head’s killing me.

“You fell,” Kallie explains. “Bonked your head on the stand as you went down. Nikita tried to grab you, but?—”

“I’m slippery,” I try to laugh. “Must be all the sweat.”

Isaak comes back with a glass of water. “Drink,” he orders. “I got us a ten-minute recess. You’ve been out for five. Since you’re awake, I’d rather not waste the rest.”

His tone is blunt, almost dismissive. Nikita bares her teeth at him for it.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Mr. Robot, but your client just fainted, ” she snaps.

“She’s not up for a strategy session right now.

So how about you start acting like a human being and grab her a protein bar or something? ”

Isaak’s lips curve slightly. “Is that what you want, Ms. Winters? A protein bar over your son’s life?”

That has me straightening up immediately. “I’m okay,” I promise. “I can do this. No—I need to do this. Please, Mr. Noskov.”

He seems satisfied with my answer. “At the cost of sounding callous, your panic attack helped us in there. Couldn’t have staged it better myself.”

Nikita clears her throat. Her cough sounds suspiciously like she’s muttering, Asshole.

Isaak ignores her and continues. “But now’s the hard part. Opposing counsel isn’t messing around. They know you’ve never reported your ex, and that’s what they’re banking on. The judge won’t grant a dismissal without some proof. So we need to give it to them.”

I blink. “You want me to give a statement? Or—or testify? That’s it?”

“No.” Isaak looks me straight in the eye. “I want your son to testify.”

My mind goes blank.

Eli. All this time, I’ve been trying to protect him from what he saw. Arranged therapy sessions, watched him carefully for signs of trauma. And now, this man wants me to make him relive it all? To force him to tell everyone what he saw in that house? Brad hurting me, kicking me, calling me a whore?

Brad, trying to make me lose my baby?

“No.” The word is out before I can even think it. “No way. That’s out of the question.”

Isaak’s lips press tight. “Ms. Winters, let me be clear: I am here as a personal favor to your partner. He asked me in no uncertain terms to get you a win—legally. Now, the fastest way I can do that is by getting this case tossed. And the only way to get it tossed is for the judge to hear, from the horse’s mouth, how dangerous Bradley Baldwin can be. ”

“Then let me do it!” I try to stand and sway immediately, having to brace myself against the wall. Kallie and Nikita are up in seconds, one at either side of me. “I’ll tell the judge everything.”

“That would open you up to questioning.” Isaak looks like he’s trying to explain common sense to a toddler. “We don’t want that, Ms. Winters. The second I put you on the stand, they’ll rip you to shreds.”

“I’m his mother,” I say. “I have to?—”

“That’s exactly why you can’t do it. Tell me, what wouldn’t a mother say to keep custody of her child?” He gives me a long, pointed look. “I’m afraid you’re not a credible source. Not without a police or hospital report to back you up.”

I clench my fists and grit my teeth. Fuck me, he’s right. I never went to the police, never went to the ER to get treated. I thought it’d be better if I handled it myself—that it’d be worse if I did it and Brad found out.

Now, I could lose Eli because of it.

But I can’t put him through more trauma. I can’t. Those are my mistakes, which means they’re mine to fix.

“No testifying,” I repeat. “That’s final, Mr. Noskov. I’m sorry, but I won’t allow it.”

Isaak shoots me a frustrated look, but it’s quickly smoothed under his lawyerly facade. “Fine,” he sighs. “If that’s what you want.”

“I can testify for her,” Nikita jumps up. “The other day, he tried to hit her in front of the school. I’ll tell them?—”

“And how’s that cross gonna go?” Isaak crosses his arms. “‘Ms. Morozova, isn’t it true you’re a hired gun for the Bratva? Tell us, what’s your body count?’ I’d be really curious to hear what you’d say to that.”

“I’d say that I rarely use guns.” She cracks her knuckles and matches his stance, staring up at him in defiance. “And that I don’t kiss and tell.”

For a second, sparks fly between them. I’m not sure what I’m looking at: fireworks or gunfire.

“Mr. Noskov!” the court officer calls. “The hearing is about to resume.”

“Then I’d better get ready to go back in there,” he says with a parting smirk to Nikita.

I wobble upright again. “I’m coming, too?—”

“No,” he cuts me off. This time, his tone brooks no argument. “You passed out. If the judge sees you now, right as rain, she might think it was a stunt.”

“But—”

“No buts, Ms. Winters.” He crosses his arms and stares me down, thunderous. “Either let me do what I do, or find yourself someone else.”

For a second, I consider fighting back. But then I remember this is Eli’s life on the line, and I’ve already jeopardized that enough. “Okay,” I whisper. “Thank you, Mr. Noskov. For everything.”

His features smooth over. “We’ll get you through this, Mia,” he says. “You have my word.”

Then he strides back in.

“I’ll go, too,” Kallie says quickly. “Be your eyes and ears.”

“Thank you,” I whisper.

Once she’s gone, too, Nikita plops back down next to me. “I don’t like him,” she grumbles. “He’s a self-centered asshole.”

“Yeah? ‘Cause I could have sworn you were about to jump in his court briefs.”

“Ugh.” She puts her face in his hands. “I’m never getting that image out of my head.”

It helps, teasing Nikita about her weird, prickly chemistry with my new lawyer. It keeps my mind off my problems.

Like Eli’s fate.

“Was I wrong?” I ask. “To keep Eli from testifying?”

Nikita shakes her head. “He’s been through a lot. There’s only so much kids can take before they break.”

I remember all she’s gone through. How badly it broke her. “Thank you,” I murmur, squeezing her hand. “For being here with me.”

She doesn’t answer, but I feel her squeeze back.

We stay like that for a while. Ten more minutes, maybe fifteen. By the time Isaak’s gotten back to us, I already know what he’s going to say.

“We lost it, haven’t we?”

“Well, we didn’t get our dismissal.” He shrugs. “But we haven’t lost shit. The fight’s just beginning.”

He brings me up to speed, but Smithers’s arguments fly over my head: parental alienation, lack of best interest for the minor—oh, and the cherry on top.

“He’s suing me for child abuse?”

“He’s throwing everything at the wall and hoping something will stick,” Isaak says. “A not uncommon strategy, I’m afraid. And you did have that stove incident.”

Right. The stove incident . Not like the universe will ever let me forget. Or my own conscience, really.

“So,” I ask, “what’s next?”

“You rest,” he says. “You start wearing maternity dresses to court. And you leave the heavy lifting to me.”

“Maternity—?”

“Psychological warfare,” he says dismissively. “In court, the suit makes the man.”

“And the belly bump makes the innocent mother?”

He smirks. “Something like that.” Then he pulls out a piece of paper. “Almost forgot. This is for you.”

My fingers tremble as they close on the corners of the sheet. And why wouldn’t they? Lately, nothing good has come of pieces of paper being handed to me.

But then I read it, and my breath catches.

“This…” I whisper. “This says I can be reinstated as a nurse.”

“Your suspension was illegal.” He shrugs like it’s no big deal. “Wasn’t hard to make them take it back.”

“This says I’m entitled to back pay, too.”

“As is your right.” He flips his suitcase shut. “Take care, Ms. Winters. I’ll keep you posted.”

I don’t know what to say. This is… incredible. “Thank you,” I say. “I—thank you, Mr. Noskov.”

“I’m not the one you should be thanking.”

Yulian. The thought warms me up from the inside. He asked for this—for me.

Suddenly, all I want is to go home. To feel his arms around me and breathe in his scent. To feel safe.

“Thank you,” I choke again. “Both of you. Really.”

“You’re welcome.” Isaak throws one last glance my way. “I’ll see you both soon.”

“Don’t count on it,” Nikita mutters under her breath, glaring daggers at his retreating back.

I stare at the paper in my hands long after Isaak is gone. His parting gift—and Yulian’s. I have no idea how this hearing will end. How vicious the battle will get, how bloody.

But I do know two things.

One—I’ll never let Brad take Eli from me. Not as long as I’m breathing.

And two?—

I’m going back to work.