"Прекратить огонь! Идиоты, прекратите стрелять!" Nikolai roared in Russian, his voice echoing through the foyer. "Cease fire! That was my wife! Why did you shoot?"

The room became eerily silent except for the sound of Fiona’s sobbing frantically. Nikolai immediately made his way toward the duo and towered above the two with a look of shock etched onto his face. Despite being seriously injured, Nathan managed to cling to Fiona with all that he had left in him.

"Don’t...touch her," Nathan whispered hoarsely.

Fiona hurriedly extricated herself from under Nathan and noticed her hands turned red almost immediately as she came into contact with his coat. It did not matter that Nikolai loomed over them menacingly or the fact that the gunmen pointed their rifles at her. Fiona paid no attention to anything but the deathly pale face of Nathan.

"Nathan?" she whispered weakly. She shook Nathan’s shoulder hard, but Nathan’s head just hung loosely to one side. "No...no, no, no! Nathan, please!"

She let out a soul-shattering scream, pulling his head into her lap. "Wake up! Nathan, look at me!"

Her tears dripped down his face, rinsing off some of the dirt from the explosion. She touched her hands against the smudges covering his torso, trying to plug the escaping life, but there were too many openings. "Please do not abandon me here! I’ve remembered it all! I know! Nathan, please 🥺!"

Nikolai took another step towards him, his face contorted with feelings of anger and disgust. His big hand grabbed Fiona’s arm and tore her away from the injured man.

"Get up, Viktoria," Nikolai demanded, his voice quaking with barely restrained fury. "He’s dead or nearly dead. That does not make any difference. We have to go now. Our escape awaits us. Mateo is waiting for us."

"Stop touching me!" Fiona screamed, fighting off Nikolai’s hand. "You’re the demon! You’re the one who caused this! I am not Viktoria! My name is Fiona Brown!"

She yelled not caring she was surrounded by men with guns. "You promised me, Nathan! You said we were going to be okay! Don’t do this! Please don’t leave me!"

She shook him, her tears falling onto his forehead and mixing with the red stains. "I remember the fair, Nathan! I remember everything! I know who I am! Please, just stay with me!"

Nikolai looked like he wanted to explode. Hearing her call herself "Fiona" and beg for Nathan was like a slap in the face. He grabbed her hair, forcing her to look at him. "He is dying, Viktoria! He is a ghost! You are coming with me now!" 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"I’m not going anywhere with you, you monster!" Fiona shrieked. She bit Nikolai’s hand as hard as she could, tasting blood. He yelled and pulled back. He signaled to his remaining men. "Pick her up. We go to the airfield now. If she fights, sedate her."

Two men grabbed Fiona, dragging her away from Nathan’s body. She fought like a wild animal, her heels dragging on the floor, her fingers reaching out toward Nathan until the very last second. "Nathan! NATHAN!"

They reached the shattered front doors, the cool night air hitting them. Nikolai felt the victory in his grasp. He had his wife, and he had eliminated his rival. But as they stepped onto the porch, the world was suddenly flooded with blue and red light.

Wooo-wooo-wooo!

High-powered searchlights cut through the darkness, blinding Nikolai and his men.

"THIS IS THE POLICE! DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!" a voice boomed over a megaphone.

Nikolai froze. Dozens of police cruisers were swarming the driveway, and a SWAT team moved in from the trees, lasers painting red dots on the chests of Nikolai’s mercenaries.

Behind the police line, Duncan Brown stepped out from behind a shield. He had stayed in the panic room just long enough to call emergency services and give the exact coordinates. He had finally found his courage. "Let my daughter go!" Duncan yelled, his voice stronger than it had ever been in his life.

Nikolai’s men, realizing they were outgunned by the American authorities, dropped their rifles and hit the dirt. Nikolai held onto Fiona for a second longer, a look of pure hatred on his face, before a laser dot settled right between his eyes. He slowly raised his hands, releasing her.

The moment his grip loosened, Fiona didn’t run toward her father. She didn’t run toward the police. She spun around and sprinted back into the house, tripping over the debris as she rushed to Nathan’s side.

She collapsed next to him, her dress soaked in his blood. "Nathan! The police are here! You have to stay awake!"

"He’s hurt! Help him! Please, someone help him!" she yelled at the first police officer who ran through the door.

The police swarmed the room. They dragged Catherine out from behind a sofa where she’d been hiding, her expensive dress torn and her face a mess of fake tears. She was screaming that she was a victim, but the police just zip-tied her wrists and hauled her away.

Two medics in blue uniforms ran over to Fiona. "Miss, you need to move! Let us get to him!"

"Is he alive?" Fiona asked, her voice a tiny, broken whisper. She didn’t want to let go of him. She felt like if she let go, he’d disappear forever. "Please, tell me he’s still here."

Dr. Aris pushed through the crowd, looking like he’d aged twenty years. He knelt down next to Nathan, checking his neck for a pulse. His face was grim, his mouth a thin line. "He’s alive, Fiona. But he’s losing blood too fast. We need to move! Get the gurney over here!"

The medics pushed Fiona aside. She stood there, shaking and covered in blood, watching as they stuck needles into Nathan and put an oxygen mask over his face. They lifted him onto a rolling bed and started running toward the door, shouting medical codes that Fiona didn’t understand.

Duncan ran up to her and pulled her into a tight hug. "I’ve got you, Fiona. I’ve got you. I called them... I stayed in the basement and called the emergency line. I’m so sorry it took so long."

Fiona didn’t say anything. She just watched the ambulance lights fading into the dark as they drove Nathan away. She looked at her father, then at the police who were dragging Nikolai out in handcuffs. Nikolai looked at her, his face full of a sick kind of promise that he wasn’t done yet.

"He’s going to be okay, right Dad?" Fiona asked, her eyes blank. "He has to be. He saved me twice now."

"He’s a fighter, honey," Duncan said, his own voice cracking. "Let’s get you to the hospital. We aren’t leaving him."

Fiona looked down at her hands. They were stained deep red. She realized that the "fake" life Nathan had tried to give her was gone, and the "Viktoria" life was over too. Now, there was only the truth, and the truth was a bloody mess on the floor of a beautiful house.

She walked out of the villa, her father’s arm around her. As she passed the police cars, she saw Catherine being shoved into the back of a cruiser. Catherine looked at her with pure, poisonous hate, but Fiona didn’t even feel mad. She just felt empty.

All she could think about was Nathan’s voice calling her "cupcake" and the way he looked at her right before the bullets hit. She had to stay strong. For Nathan, and for the little boy in Russia she was finally starting to remember.