ANMELDENBy midday, there was no Sebastian.No Javier either.No broken jaws, no security, no wrinkled suits, no bleeding adult men suddenly appearing in the doorway to perform the director’s-cut version of masculine drama.Very strange.Peaceful, I mean.Almost suspicious.Poppy was sitting up in bed with pillows stacked behind her back, looking like a tiny queen after a coup. I’d brushed her long bangs off to the side with minimal effort, but of course five minutes later they had already fallen back across her forehead. Her face was still a little pale, but her cheeks were starting to get their color back. The color of life. The color of being ready to torment me again.There was an iPad in her lap.Not her iPad.Sebastian’s iPad.I had no idea how that man could hand it over so casually to a four-year-old who had once sent a diplomatic voice note to a contact named Handsome Uncle without permission. There was a small company logo on the back of the slim black case, and inside it there were
Sebastian spat a little blood to the side of his mouth.He lifted his head slowly, worked his jaw once, and before Javier could even pull in a second breath, Sebastian’s fist slammed back into my brother’s cheek with a dull crack that might have sounded almost elegant if it hadn’t involved two rich men who were very obviously too handsome to be acting like extras in a cheap action movie.One of the nurses at the end of the hall let out a small scream. “Monsieur!”I closed my eyes for one second.When I opened them again, Javier was already moving in. So was Sebastian. Shoulders, jaws, expensive hands, expensive watches, expensive leather shoes, all of it moving with an energy wildly inappropriate for the floor of a children’s hospital.Javier shoved Sebastian into the side of the table. Sebastian shoved back, his palm hitting Javier’s chest hard enough to drive my brother back half a step. Then another punch. One to the shoulder. One that nearly caught the jaw.Even years ago, back wh
Javier stopped in the suite doorway.Not many people could make an expensive room suddenly feel short on oxygen. Javier was one of them. His body was still, but his face hardened by degrees, shifting from older brother arriving with a crisis into something distinctly Belsky.His eyes moved from me to Poppy’s room.The door was still open.From inside, Poppy’s voice carried out, scratchy but cheerful. “Daddy, if the castle has a dragon, the dragon has to be vegetarian. I don’t want him eating the staff.”Sebastian said something back, too low to make out.Javier looked at me.Oh.No.I moved before he could take the breath that would start the explosion. My hand closed around the sleeve of his suit and yanked him aside.“Out,” I hissed.He didn’t move. Of course he didn’t. Dragging Javier Belsky with one hand was like trying to pull a vault with a Cartier bracelet.“Javier,” I said, a low growl in my throat. “If you make a scene in front of my daughter after she just finished a transfu
Sebastian had barely made it three steps into the room before Poppy turned into the clingiest creature on the Riviera.“Handsome uncaaaale,” she whined, her voice still scratchy from sleep but strong enough to sand down an adult’s patience and common sense. She lifted both her little hands again from on top of the blanket, her green eyes wide, her bangs covering half her forehead. “Where did you go?”Sebastian moved closer to the bed and stopped on the side I’d just left. He was still wearing that casual T-shirt from earlier, and his black hair was now even more rumpled than the average human being had any right to be. It was deeply irritating how the man still managed to look expensive after donating blood and not sleeping.“Meeting,” he said.Poppy nodded immediately, as if that made perfect sense. “Hmm.” Her face turned solemn. Very solemn. “Because you're very rich, right?”I closed my eyes.Sebastian looked at her. “Is that so?”“Yeaah.” Poppy pushed Bunny to the side, then point
[We’ll talk later.]Three seconds later, the read receipt appeared.Sure Javier didn’t reply right away. That was worse. A quiet Javier meant Javier was thinking. And Javier thinking usually led to one of two things: an interrogation, or a decision that made other people’s lives more difficult.Brilliant.I set my phone facedown on the marble counter, turned off the faucet, and dried my hands on the towel again. My breath left me slowly. Thin. Completely unhelpful.From the main room, Poppy’s voice came again.“This isn’t my spoon.”I closed my eyes for one second.The child had just finished a transfusion and still had the energy to start a cutlery dispute.I walked back into the room.Poppy was sitting propped up against the headboard, pillows stacked behind her small back like an emergency throne. Her long hair was still sweetly messy, bangs falling into one eye, her cheeks a little paler than usual but still round and adorable in that way that made adults lose all logic. Bunny sat
Sebastian didn’t pick her up right away.He only stepped closer to the bedside, then bent slightly until his face was level with the small one still puffy with sleep. His hand came up slowly, the back of his knuckles brushing Poppy’s cheek as he swept her bangs away from those green eyes that weren’t fully open yet.Poppy blinked lazily. Her little lips pushed out. “Up,” she repeated, clearer this time, her voice rough and spoiled in that way that always made the adults around her lose their integrity.Sebastian looked at her for two seconds longer than necessary. “Hello to you too.”Poppy lifted both arms again. “Hold me.”The nurse, who had been checking the monitor, cleared her throat softly. “Sweetheart, give me a second, okay? I need to check you first.”Poppy turned toward her with an insulted expression. “No.”“I just want to check your temperature, your breathing, and your throat if I can.”“I can be checked while being held,” she said quickly, as if this were perfectly obviou







