Page 87 of Unbroken

“I’m coming,” I say, already moving.

“No,” Vadka orders, stepping in front of me. “We’recoming. But we’re not bringing Luka.”

His voice is different now. Sharp. Cold.Dangerous.

“Rafail,” he says, his call already connected. “You’re taking my boy. Ruthie and I?—”

“We’re going in,” I finish, pulling on yesterday’s clothes with trembling hands.

The warmth is gone now.

But the fire between us?

Still burns. And now it has something to protect.

Chapter 15

RUTHIE

Mom's voicerises before I even round the corner. Slurred, frantic, a storm brewing behind the locked ward doors. My stomach knots the second I hear it?—

“Whore! You brought him here? You brought him?”

She sees Vadka and sees every man who ever ruined her. Doesn’t matter that he’s still as stone, jaw carved from control, arms crossed like he’s ready to end the building but won’t. Her rage isn’t about logic. It never was.

I move fast. "Mom?—"

She lunges, fingernails like claws, her voice splitting the air. I don’t flinch. Not even when her hand cracks across my cheek so hard my teeth clack together.

Then—he’s there.

Vadka lifts me like I weigh nothing. Not rough, not violent. But absolute.

He places me behind him, like a shield being sheathed, and turns to her with that death-quiet voice.

“You strike her again,” he says, “and I’ll make sure you’re restrained. You willnotlike that.”

“Fuck you,” she spits.

He steps forward.

She recoils.

“She's not your punching bag. Not anymore. She doesn’t owe you forgiveness just because your cage has padded walls.”

The nurse is calling security. Mom’s screaming now, but I can’t hear it. My cheek burns, but my ears are ringing with a different sound?—

Another slap. The same hand, less wrinkled. My mother’s voice. “Tears again? You think crying gets you out of this?”

I’m six again. The walls blur.

And then?—

Vadka turns. And everything fades but him.

He looks down at me, his hands clenched, trying not to touch me wrong. “Ruthie.”

My lip trembles.

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