178 Chapter four, 2016, the long, long night: 6 (1/2)

Silence.

Exhale.

Silence.

Inhale.

Apart from her breathing her world was silence.

She'd once seen those eyes in her earlier life. The eyes of doctors who hadn't given up but were too worried to answer straight.

'He might not make it. Ulf, stay with me!'

Tomorrow was school, and after school a photo shoot. She'd skip both. Normally the penalty for bunking could be quite harsh, but she doubted anyone would dare doing anything to her now.

'Coming down on the girlfriend at hospital when you don't know if the boyfriend will survive. No one would do that.' Christina shook her head. 'I did that. Crap what a disgusting person I was!'

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Cause she had. When she was the Billion Dollar Empress, and he hadn't survived.

It didn't matter that the boyfriend in question had it coming with drug-dealing and burglaries on the territory of another gang. Not even Christina was out of the loop enough not to know that was suicidal in Paris.

It still didn't matter, because the teenage model was a wreck, and could have used some help instead of being slammed by the hammer of God Almighty from Chag.

'Shit, I really did an awful thing. Is this my punishment?'

Five hours. Five hours since they rushed Ulf inside the ICU.

She hated being this helpless, being this scared, being this lonely.

Inhale.

Silence.

Exhale.

Silence.