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Twelve
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Alexei awoke to a vacant bedside the following morning.
It shook all grogginess from his body as he looked around the empty cabin. The white shirt
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It was impossible to concentrate.Even with headphones on, sitting on her study desk with a bright lamp in her dim bedroom, Dani could not bring herself to focus on her reading.
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Dani awoke to a pounding headache.She kept her eyes shut, knowing as soon as sunlight hit her irises, her head would explode. She tossed and turned restlessly, finding at least some degree of comfort in the thick sheets and soft bed she was currently
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Dani paced restlessly in her bedroom.She had half a mind to pack up her things and leave. To where she had no idea, even though there was probably no escaping Alexei and his stupid men.
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Despite the gun aimed at his face, Andrei Nikolin laughed. If there was anything Alexei remotely admired about his father, it was that the man never seemed to fear his own mortality. “You come back from the dead only to face me in the dark like a coward?” Andrei cast a sideways glance at the other man standing at the foot of his bed. “What a shame, Viktor, but I’m not surprised.” Viktor used the tip of his pistol to scratch his head. “It was either my boss or my best mate, and the answer’s obvious. No hard feelings, Mr. Nikolin.” Andrei scoffed. “I hold out this long and for what? For you two idiots to burn everything I’ve worked so hard for to the ground?” “It was us ‘idiots’ who’ve been keeping everything afloat.” Alexei shook his head. “You bark incoherent orders
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Dani awoke with a jolt.The floor was cold and hard beneath her, and in the dark it was difficult to make sense of her surroundings.The back of her head throbbed with pain. She winced at the sore, damp spot on her head when she touched it, and blood came away at her fingertips.The sound of a gunshot echoed in her mind, and with it the flashback of Alexei bleeding on the ground. Dani sat up, eyes stinging with fresh tears at the reminder. No, no, no. All of this had to be one bad dream. Alexei couldn’t possibly be dead—A thin sliver of moonlight entered the window in a far corner of the room. Dani’s vision adjusted, where she found herself in an empty bedroom. It ha
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Dani remained wide awake past midnight.Perhaps it was the time difference, but even as fatigue from the jet lag left a heaviness in her body, she couldn’t fall asleep.
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Dani stepped out of the elevator doors and down the hallway towards her father’s room. Save for the nurses’ station at the center, most lights were already dim at half past ten in the evening. The nurses immediately recognized her, waiving the visiting hours rule with a nod. Her father had just woken up from a long coma. They could look the other way just this once.
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