Page 94 of Auctioned to My Bratva Boss

"Matvey..." I sat by his bed and pressed his hand to my cheek. "Wake up soon. I have so much to tell you."

For the next three days, I barely slept.

I learned to help clean him, using warm towels, carefully avoiding his wound. I'd seen and touched every inch of his body before. But looking at him covered in scars, I still felt the pain. He'd always lived in danger I couldn't imagine.

"You bastard," I whispered. "Wake up."

He never answered, of course. Only the green line on the monitor, rising and falling steadily. That was what kept me going through those three days.

On the third morning, I'd fallen asleep with my head on his hand. After who knows how long, something brushed my wrist.

I jerked awake. When I looked up, Matvey's soft gaze met mine.

"Matvey!" Tears spilled instantly. "You're awake... you're finally awake!"

"Don't cry." His voice was terribly hoarse. "I'm okay now."

Seeing him like this, my nose stung with a mix of heartache and lingering fear. I instinctively reached for the call button to get a doctor, but he grabbed my wrist, stopping me.

"Riley, I need to tell you something." He looked at me. "I know you still haven't truly forgiven me."

I didn't understand why he was bringing this up now.

"You don't trust me. That's why you didn't tell me you were pregnant on your own." He paused, his smile bitter. "I came clean to you before. Now I want to explain it all again."

"Victor reported my smuggling route. We were about to get intercepted. That's when Veronica showed up. She said if I helped her reclaim her inheritance, she could restore my channels."

"I had no choice but to pretend to agree, play along with her act."

"As for why I didn't tell you... The whole time, I just wanted you completely away from all of it."

He spoke slowly, breath uneven. I already believed him. Believed everything he said, believed that behind all that distance was this tangled mess I'd never seen clearly. I knew I should let it go. He'd proven with his life how much he loved me.

But that corner of my heart still ached, blocked by words I couldn't swallow.

"I understand your situation, Matvey," I spoke softly. "I know you kept things from me to protect me. But what happened? I still got kidnapped by Veronica. Still had a knife to my throat."

"From the moment you bought me at that auction, I could never walk away from your world unscathed."

"I didn't want you to get hurt."

"But I got hurt anyway, didn't I?" I tilted my neck slightly, letting him see the scabbed-over cut. "You took that bullet for me. I'll never forget that. But that's exactly why you should trust me, instead of shutting me out of everything."

"I know I'm ordinary. I'm not capable of much. But I'm not a porcelain doll, Matvey." I stared into his eyes, asking word by word, "How fragile do you think I am? So fragile I don't evendeserve the truth? So fragile I can only be hidden away like some object you protect, never standing beside you, never facing things with you?"

Once the words were out, I froze. Those misunderstandings and grievances weren't even the point—this was the real thorn buried in my heart.

He'd never treated me as someone equal, someone who could stand with him.

"It's not like that, I..." Matvey's expression faltered. He tried to sit up.

The movement must have pulled his chest wound—he sucked in a sharp breath.

"Don't move!" I panicked, quickly pressing him back against the pillow. "Are you crazy? Your wound hasn't healed!"

He panted heavily, a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead, but his eyes locked on mine, churning with emotions I'd never seen before.

"I was wrong." He grabbed my hand on his shoulder, as if afraid I'd vanish the next second. "Riley, I thought hiding you away was protecting you. But I never thought about it, never asked you—if you even wanted that kind of protection."