The Mafia Boss’s Innocent Prisoner Chapter 08
I visited Bastian once in the hospital.
Not because he had taken a bullet for me.
Not because I had forgiven him.
I went because I needed to say goodbye while he was awake enough to hear it.
He sat upright in bed with his wounded shoulder bandaged beneath a black shirt. The doctors had
removed the bullet. It had missed every major artery and the bone.
Men like Bastian always survived.
Malcolm waited outside the room.
Bastian looked at the scar on my cheek before he
looked into my eyes.
“Does it hurt?”
“Sometimes.”
His face tightened.
“The doctor said I can arrange surgery. The best
plastic surgeon in the country is in Los Angeles.”
“You don’t get to decide what happens to my face again.”
He lowered his eyes.
“You’re right.”
It was the first time a Kane man had said those words to me without being forced.
The door opened behind me.
Theo walked in slowly. He was pale, but alive.
Vivienne had failed to kill every person she claimed to love.
“Tamsin,” he said.
“No.”
He stopped.
“I need to apologize.”
“You need me to forgive you. That isn’t the same Thing.”
“I loved you. I still do. Vivienne manipulated me.”
“She gave you a reason to hurt me. You chose how far
to take it.”
“I thought you cheated.”
“So you took my career? You put me on a stage and watched strangers throw money at my body?”
Theo’s eyes filled.
“I was angry.”
“Then live with what you did while you were angry.”
He looked at Bastian.
“Tell her. Tell her I can make it right.”
Bastian’s voice was quiet.
“Leave, Theo.”
“She’s my girlfriend.”
“She was never yours.”
Theo left without another word.
Bastian waited until the door closed.
Then he placed a folder on the bed.
My passport. My school records. A letter clearing every
false conduct charge. Proof that the Kane family had
withdrawn its pressure from the hospitals that
rejected me.
“Your apartment lease has been restored,” he said. “Your belongings are there. No one will enter without
your permission.”
“Thank you for returning the life your family stole.”
He took the hit without flinching.
“Vivienne will face the family court when she leaves
the hospital. Theo has been removed from every
position. He no longer speaks for the Kane name.”
“I don’t want to decide what happens to either of them.”
“Then I will.”
“That is what you always do.”
His hand went still on the folder.
“Tell me what you want.”
“Freedom.”
“You have it.”
“Freedom isn’t a gift you can give me. It was mine
before you stole it.”
He breathed out slowly.
“Then tell me what I can give you.”
“Nothing.”
Pain moved across his face.
“I can put your name beside mine. No one in this city would touch you.”
“You mean marriage.”
“Yes.”
“You think a Kane ring will make me forget the Kane basement?”
“No. I think I love you.”
Once, I would have given anything to hear those words.
Now they only made me tired.
“Your father taught you to hurt people before they
could threaten your family,” I said. “That explains
your fear. It doesn’t excuse what you did to me.”
“I know.”
“Do you? Because loving me now doesn’t change the
man you were when I begged you to believe me.”
He had no answer.
I picked up the folder.
“There is one thing you can do.”
“Anything.”
“Never decide my life for me again.”
Bastian looked at me for a long time.
Then he nodded.
“All right.”
I walked out of the hospital through the front entrance.
No guards stopped me.
No black sedan followed.
For the first time in months, every step belonged to me.