Page 75 of Mile High Ex's Dad
Sienna nods.
“No,” he says. “Use words. I’m a doctor, not a priest.”
“Yes,” she says.
“Good.”
He glances at me then, and the glance contains about fifteen years of private language.
You are overreacting.
You are not overreacting enough.
This is a mess.
This woman matters to you.
You are making that obvious.
I ignore all of it.
“Should she go to the hospital?” I ask.
Sienna turns to me at once. “No.”
Maksim lifts a hand before I can answer. “Not unless something changes. Right now she needs rest, water, and as little stress as this house is capable of producing.”
“That rules out the whole estate,” Sienna mutters.
Maksim’s mouth twitches. “Yes. I noticed. I’m going to the hospital. If the girl survives the transport, I’ll call.”
“If,” Sienna repeats.
He doesn’t soften it. “She’s critical.”
The room goes quiet again.
I walk him to the door. He pauses with his hand on the knob and looks at me properly for the first time since he came in. “Five minutes,” he says.
I nod.
He glances back at Sienna. “Rest if you can. And if anything changes, you tell someone immediately.”
“I will,” she says.
He gives her a brief nod and steps into the hall. I follow him out, pulling the door mostly closed behind me.
The corridor is quieter than before. Staff are moving at the far end in low, urgent bursts, but no one is close enough to hear us.
Maksim folds his arms and looks at me the way only old friends can, with too much knowledge and not enough patience. “Well,” he says, “that was interesting.”
I say nothing.
He waits a beat, then asks, “Is the child yours?”
I look down the hall instead of at him. He notices that too, of course.
After a moment I say, “No.”
