Chapter 41

Chapter 41
AURORA

I stepped out of the airport and stood there for a long moment. When the cold wind touched my skin, I absorbed the familiarity of the feeling. This was Chicago. This was home, even when the haunting memories kept me away, I longed for it. I just didn’t realize until now. 
I hailed a cab and headed for the first destination I had planned. It would not be an easy one, I knew, but I had to. I searched for the right words all along the cab ride, coming up with nothing when the cab came to a halt. Grabbing the small duffle, I paid and got out. 
I thought of calling or dropping a text, but I didn’t know how it would be received. Also, what would I say? What could I possibly say that would make three years' worth of the mess go away? So I waited around, lounging on the chair of the small room, and hoped for the best.
I had almost dozed off when I heard the door unlatch and turned around. Sammy, too, paused at the threshold, surprise etched all over her features before she blinked it away and closed the door behind her. 
All the things that I wanted to say to her for three years melted away inside my brain. She looked so fucking mature and beautiful that even the dull scrubs could not hide her elegance. But it was the cold look in her eyes that sliced through my heart, even though I made it clear to everyone that I didn’t have one at this point. 
“You are back,” she sounded nonchalant, averting her eyes to walk around the desk and lay down the stethoscope hanging around her neck. “For how long this time?” 
“I am not leaving.” 
She nodded like my words were mundane. “Okay.”
“Sammy—”
Her frigid gaze cut me off. “Spare me, please. You are three years late for an apology, if that’s where you are going.” 
I sighed, knowing I had nothing to offer but an apology. I was wallowing so long in my misery to I realized the depth of damage I’d done to Sam when she was expecting me by her side. Even though the knowledge lingered on my mind for years, it was the realisation that struck me hard. 
“I am still going to say it, Sam. I am sorry. I didn’t mean to leave you alone.”
She slammed her hands on the table hard, gritting her teeth, “Enough!” 
Sammy let out a laugh at the same time, swiping under her eyes. “You didn’t even have the fucking decency to inform me for decided to leave for good! Not even a goddamn text or a…” Her voice cracked, and she turned her face away. “God! You are really a bitch,” I heard her whisper. 
There were only a handful of moments in my life when I’d regretted, but nothing cut me as sharply as this one. I got up and walked over to her, trying to clutch her hands when she slapped it away. 
I stood there, leaning against the table while Sammy seethed and sniffled. I realised what a terrible person I have been. I had blamed Marco all along for being an insensitive bastard, but what had I done to the people who loved me and relied on me? I had wronged Sammy on so many levels that I wondered how many years it would take for me to reverse it, if at all, she would let me. 
She finally chose to break the silence, her voice soft. “Tell me, did it help?” 
“What?”
“Did it help you to forget Marco?” And before I could answer, she glared through glassy eyes. “And don’t you fucking dare to tell me that you went to Mexico to help Viktor.”
I wasn’t going to lie to her; I never had. She was probably the only one, apart from Marco, to see through me and never judge me for who I was. The only difference was that I was a terrible friend to her. 
“I am in a better place. I am no longer living and breathing under his shadow.” 
Sammy nodded like she understood the meaning behind my words. Her next words sounded like the old friend I had remembered. “He did quite a number on you. If I wasn’t so caught up with my own shit, I’d have kicked his ass.”
I could not help but smile. Yes, she would have exactly done that. Sammy shook her head, sighed, and finally, a soft smile crept out of her features like I had remembered from three years ago, before Stefan’s death. I almost felt a giant rock lift off me. 
“Am I forgiven?” I begged. 
She contemplated with a smirk and then shook her head. “You are not even close, bitch. But I missed my best friend.” 
“I missed you, too.” 
XXX
Sammy still had three hours of shift under her belt, and my stomach was growling. So I managed to grab something from the cafeteria while she was trying to take care of ER patients, while I gobbled on the kind of food that would exactly drag me to the hospital. It was a good thing I was already there, I muttered to myself before gulping down the stale sandwich with the Coke. 
I had even managed to catch an hour’s nap in a random room of the hospital before she came back and woke me up. We drove down to one of the old bars we frequented back in the day. It was one of the establishments owned by her family. 
“So what have I missed, apart from the fact that Viktor has a girlfriend?” I asked after the waiter brought down a tray full of tequila shots. We picked up a glass each, clinked, and chugged down while someone played random music, and cheerful music played in the background.
“We will begin with that,” Sammy began, discarding the slice of lemon. “Mia is sweet, nice, innocent, and…”
“…everything your brother is not?” I laughed. 
“Yes, precisely. But they are happy, so who cares?” 
Sammy went on to narrate to me about the day Viktor found Mia. Even though we both thought that it was some reminiscent undoing of Stefan’s memory, rescuing her from the throes of drug addiction, it surely blossomed into something no one saw coming. Viktor, as I had known him, was truly incapable of emotion, and if he had gone to the length to save her, it spoke more about his dark heart than anything else. In a way, I anticipated meeting this girl who someone managed to get Viktor Romano to love her. 
“And what else?” 
Sammy looked at me like she wanted to tell me something, and instead, she took the shot glass from my hand and gulped it down. 
“I slept with Lorenzo.” 
Great.
“One second,” I said and signalled the waiter to bring in another round because I had a feeling that we were going home wasted. “One night stand?” 
“Ugh. I wish,” she whined. 
I laughed, throwing my head back. “Viktor’s going to find out, and he’s going to explode. His little sister was sleeping with one of his soldiers. Classy.” I winked. 
Sammy made a face. The waiter came around with the tray, and no sooner had he placed it down, she grabbed two shots with both hands and downed them one after the other. Her fingers then reached into her hair, gripping miserably as she pouted. 
“What do I do, Aurora?” 
I shook my head. “You can’t do anything. Your brothers would eventually find out because knowing you, you are not very discreet. And then they are going to explode. At that point, we can come back here and drink to our death.” With that, I downed a glass and laughed again at her expense. 
Sammy threw the slice of lemon at me, muttering, “I shouldn’t have said that I missed you.” In response, I winked at her. 
My phone vibrated as I peered at the screen and frowned. “Great.” 
“What now?” Sammy asked, reading into my expression. 
“Viktor texted. He has slotted a job for me.” 
“Did he know you were coming back?”
“No, no one did.” 
Sammy furrowed her brows. “Then how did—never mind.” 
For someone who knew Viktor, I was not surprised that he had been informed of my return to Chicago. I didn’t know how, but I was not shocked to learn of it. He had his ways in the same manner I had mine. 
“He is paranoid ever since the attack on Dominic,” Sammy added. “Bad enough my brother was a control freak, and now he has got reasons to be.”
We ordered food at some point, realising empty stomach and alcohol were a bad combination as we had learned from our past experiences. We knew that we’d eventually end the night clutching the toilet, but we didn’t care. 
“So, where are you staying?” Sammy popped the question.
Chicago was home without a home, I had realised at that point. “I haven’t started looking for a house yet. So for now, I will stay in a hotel.”
I didn’t even finish answering when Sammy started shaking her head. “You are staying with me. At Romano Mansion.” She glared, pointing at me with a finger. “Let me remind you that you are still not forgiven yet.” 
I had never won an argument with her. Hell, her father and brothers didn’t win an argument with this conniving bitch. Sammy was just too good at manipulation. “How long are you going to blackmail me with this?” 
“As long as it suits me,” she answered unapologetically, popping a morsel into her mouth. 
“Bitch,” I muttered.
I didn’t remember much of the conversation from that night except for the fact that we briefly debated whether to order another bottle of whiskey or vodka. And then I remembered the waiter placing two bottles before us, but I couldn’t tell the vodka from the whiskey. The rest of the night was a blur. It had in a long time since I got sloshed, and given the way Sammy drank like a fish, I could say the same for her. 
At some point, my phone lit up flashing Viktor’s name on the caller ID, but tonight I wanted to forget all of that. 
Viktor Romano was going to be another day’s problem.