Billionaire Boss, M.D.

by Olivia Gates

  He didn’t know how he remained standing. He’d thought there could be no more pain than what he’d suffered in the past three days. He’d known nothing.

  This, what she believed, was true agony.

  “Per Dio, am I that big a monster in your eyes now?”

  “You’re a vigilante, and you do what needs to be done to achieve your goal no matter the price. You’re also a surgeon and you save patients regardless of their value to you.”

  “You think I considered you just another patient?” he choked out, unable to believe how horrible it had all become.

  “It’s a fact you no longer need me.”

  “I will need you, and only you, till my dying breath.”

  Her gaze emptied more. “You probably didn’t wish it to end this way. I do realize you must feel bad about my injuries—”

  He cut across her mutilating words. “I don’t feel bad, Liliana, I feel devastated.”

  “You shouldn’t. I’m responsible for what happened to me. I barged into clearly labeled danger zones, repeatedly.”

  Both the under-construction site, and his life.

  He gritted his teeth against the mounting pain. “What devastates me is that I destroyed your faith in me, in yourself, so completely. And it’s why you almost...almost...”

  “But I didn’t die, thanks to you.” She surveyed his agitation with a blank look, as lifeless as her voice. “And I do understand your need for exacting retribution on the family that threw you away. If only you’d told me in the beginning, I’d have helped you, if only for the possibility you’d find a peaceful and just resolution, and you wouldn’t have needed to go to these lengths to use me as your stealth weapon.”

  “You must believe me, mi amore. Whatever I intended to do, I abandoned it all after I first saw you. I wanted only you since.”

  As if she hadn’t heard him, she went on, “But now that you discovered you’ve misjudged your mother even worse than I have my father, I hope you’ll reconsider your revenge. The guilty ones are either dead or as good as. And I doubt no one else, no matter their faults, deserves your wrath. I hope you won’t destroy everyone indiscriminately for the crimes of some of their own. And that you’ll give your mother the chance she hoped for.”

  It agonized him more that even in her own devastation she was thinking of others.

  He dropped to his knees beside her, his hand trembling as he took hers. “I avoided even talking about your family, not only because none of them mattered anymore, but because I was afraid they’d hurt you. I only agreed to meet them when I realized how much you needed to settle their issue, and to be there to protect you from them. It turned out the only one I needed to protect you from was myself. And I failed. I failed you.”

  “I failed myself. And now I’ll have the scars to remind me never to do so again.”

  Before he took her hand to his lips, she pulled it away with surprising strength, as if she could no longer bear his touch. She turned her head away, closing her eyes. Her dry eyes.

  It was as if she had nothing left to say to him. As if she had nothing left inside her.

  He remained on his knees beside her as depletion claimed her again, at last learning the meaning of helplessness.

  * * *

  During the next two weeks, as Liliana recuperated, Antonio never left the center, always hovering around, trying again and again to get her to talk to him. But after that time when she’d first woken up, she’d given him nothing but silence. His presence seemed to plunge her into deepening despondency.

  Everyone kept telling him to let her bounce back from the trauma, that she was hurt that much because she loved him as fiercely and that he’d eventually heal her with his love. But the days had passed and Liliana seemed to be drawing further into herself.

  And today he couldn’t bear it anymore. He’d just entered her room, said he would stand there beside her bed, no matter how long it took, until she talked to him again.

  Then she finally did, and shattered his heart.

  Eyes no longer distant, raw, ravished, she looked up at him, her pain and betrayal skewering him to his vitals. “You lied to me, Antonio, when all I ever asked of you was honesty. Even if you’ve developed feelings for me, everything that you said or did, everything that happened between us, is tainted by this lie. Now I can’t trust or feel again. My emotions, my faith, like the body you’ve put back together, have been damaged and will remain scarred.”

  Before he could swear to her that he’d wait forever for her to heal, that he’d erase her scars, she sat up, swung her good leg followed by her casted leg over the side of the bed. “There’s no more medical reason for me to remain here. I want you to discharge me.”

  All he wanted to do was rave and rant and keep her there until she gave him another chance.

  But he couldn’t press her more in her fragile state.

  “I will. But please, Liliana, whatever you think of me or however you feel now, please, come back with me to our place, let me take care of you as you recuperate.”

  She shook her head, and for the first time since her accident tears started to fall. He hated himself more with every track of moisture that stained her pale cheeks.

  He wished she’d rave and rant. Her subdued misery was so much worse than any passionate display that would have given him hope he could revive her emotions.

  All he could do now was stop hurting her more, let her go and hope she’d heal enough one day to let him in again. Pray that she wouldn’t shut him out like her mother had her father, for the rest of her life.

  * * *

  The day that should have been their wedding day came and went in total silence from Liliana.

  She hadn’t gone back to Antonio’s mansion. And she hadn’t returned to the lab.

  He was hailed as the leading expert of mending catastrophic injuries, but he’d injured the one person he needed to live, an injury he was helpless to heal.

  It was during one of the surgeries he now buried himself in that he realized the truth.

  It didn’t matter that he healed her so she’d come back to him. It mattered that she healed for herself, so she could resume her life, her work. He and what he felt were of no consequence.

  Only she mattered.

  And because only she did, if her emotional health depended on letting her go, he would.

  Even if it destroyed him.

  Eleven

  Three months after the accident, though Lili had fully recovered physically, she hadn’t gone back to work.

  Among those who regularly came visiting, Brian had been the one who kept persistently trying to convince her to do so. She’d insisted right back that she’d decided to take all her missed vacations at once.

  Ever since Antonio had discharged her and sent her back to LA on his private jet, she’d left the house only for follow-ups and the intensive physiotherapy Antonio had scheduled for her, both performed by others under his command.

  She hadn’t seen or heard from him since.

  At times, longing for him made her unable to breathe.

  Her father, whom she’d told a severely edited version of the truth, had been adamant it meant she’d healed enough to believe in Antonio’s love again. But she knew missing him had nothing to do with being over the trauma. Missing him, with every breath, had always been her default.

  As for his love, after being dedicated to her after the accident, he had been silent since he’d discharged her. Whatever he’d felt for her, it seemed she’d pushed him away so hard he’d given up on her.

  She couldn’t heed her father’s fervent advice to contact him. She couldn’t impose on him if he’d moved on.

  She was indulging in what had become an obsession, driving herself insane again wondering if he’d ever really loved her and if she’d
killed his love, or if he’d discovered he didn’t feel enough for her after all, when her doorbell rang.

  Since everyone called before passing by, the hope that it was Antonio propelled her to the door the fastest she’d moved since the accident.

  But it wasn’t him on her doorstep. It was Sofia Accardi.

  After exchanging a long stare, Lili stunned and disappointed, Sofia discomfited and tentative, Lili invited her in. Questions flooded her mind, all about Antonio. Instead of asking them, she awkwardly offered Sofia something to drink.

  Over a cup of tea, Sofia finally started talking. “I would have come earlier, but Antonio said you needed space.”

  Was that what he thought? Was that why he hadn’t attempted to contact her?

  “He also said you’re healed completely.”

  “I...am.” Physically, at least. “Antonio is a virtuoso. Even my scars are negligible, and fading every day.”

  An exquisite smile adorned the woman’s gorgeous face, which now Lili could see was an older, feminine version of Antonio’s. “His scars are fading, too. He’s been letting me and his siblings closer, and it’s been...indescribable. I always felt my baby had survived, had grown strong and special, but Antonio surpasses my every fantasy.”

  As he surpassed Lili’s. So much so it was why she’d always felt she couldn’t possibly deserve his love.

  Sofia went on. “He told me you asked him to give me a chance. So I owe you the happiness of having my son back.” Her smile faded as she continued. “But he abhors many members of the family for being of the same school of thought that led my parents to deprive me of him, and toss him into the nightmarish fate he still won’t tell me about. These people owe you their lives, since you’re the one who stayed his hand.”

  She’d had that much influence on him? Or had he just considered none worth the trouble of revenge?

  Whatever the reason, she took joy in knowing that he was letting go of his bitterness and rage, letting his family heal him, accepting the love he deserved. If her role in his life had been to get him to this point, it was enough for her. She wanted him happy, even if she’d never be again.

  Sofia reached for one of her hands. “But I’m really here to express how sorry I am for everything that happened since I insisted you visit me when my house was such a mess. Antonio explained why overhearing us upset you so much, but he said nothing further. I feel so guilty.”

  Lili put her other hand on top of hers. “Listen, Sofia, the renovation was barricaded, and I stupidly barged inside it. I was an idiot to overreact and run away in the first place. You have nothing to feel guilty about.”

  Tears glittered in the woman’s eyes. “Even so, I felt terrible, and so helpless watching everything come apart. Your wedding...”

  Unable to hear another word about their aborted wedding, she interrupted Sofia. “That’s another thing that was all my doing. But I’m only happy that I brought you and Antonio back together.”

  “If only I could do the same.” Sofia hugged her. “I would have loved to have you as a daughter-in-law.”

  Stunned by the woman’s display of affection, distressed that her words meant Sofia thought a reunion with Antonio wasn’t in the cards, she numbly hugged her back. “I would have loved to have you as a mother-in-law, too.”

  From then on and until Sofia left, they diverted the conversation to less stressful areas. When she took her leave Sofia made Lili promise to keep in touch.

  As she closed the door behind her, Lili felt a new friend had entered her life. But what would that matter if she’d couldn’t bear having her in it, if she only reminded her she’d lost Antonio?

  Would her very life matter if she had?

  And she could no longer bear not knowing.

  She had to let him tell her. If there was still a chance, or if she should just surrender to despair.

  * * *

  The decision to approach Antonio was easier made than executed. All morning, fear held her back. Uncertainty, which she’d always been unable to handle, was now what kept her going. Because part of uncertainty was hope. If she killed the hope that she had a chance with Antonio, her life wouldn’t be worth living.

  But she not only couldn’t go on not knowing for sure either way, but something terrible roiled inside her, prodding her to seek him out today. Right now. It wasn’t the usual longing that gnawed at her. It was something ferocious that demanded action.

  Just as she was about to leave the house to go to his medical center where she knew he was every day, her cell phone vibrated.

  It was a number she didn’t know.

  Heart hammering, hoping against hope that it was him, she answered. The deep, dark voice that poured into her ear almost had her pile in a heap on the ground.

  Because it wasn’t Antonio.

  It took her a second to recognize the voice. Jakob Wolff.

  “Hello, Lili, it’s Jakob. I have Ivan with me and we were wondering if you could see us.”

  Trembling with worry, she croaked, “Of course. When and where?”

  “Right now. We’re parked right outside.”

  “Oh. Oh! Please, come right in.”

  Tripping in her haste, she rushed to the door, opening it in time to see the two men step out of an imposing Rolls Royce. Breath bated, she watched these two who were an intimate part of Antonio’s life walk up to her door.

  Inviting them in, leading them where she’d had Sofia just yesterday, Lili and Ivan were soon immersed in their first face-to-face meeting. He seemed as curious about her as she was about him. Until recently, Ivan had been the closest person in the world to Antonio. If they’d gone through with the wedding, Ivan would have been his best man, would have become the brother she never had.

  Suddenly Jakob sat forward, making Lili aware of his presence again, and of his impatience. “We’re not here for chitchat.”

  Ivan sighed, nodded, got a dossier out of his briefcase, handed it to her. “Indeed. We’re here to give you this.”

  Confusion deepening, she took it from him, and at his prodding, opened it and read.

  With each line, each page, her shock deepened.

  These were legal documents. Written in extensive, meticulous terms. Turning over Antonio’s R & D empire to her.

  When she finally raised flabbergasted eyes to them, Jakob’s lips curled in disgusted disapproval. “Antonio believes you’re better equipped to benefit the world with what he’s built. He also believes you’d probably want to segregate it from Black Castle and become your own independent business, which he believes would be best for you and for your nonprofit policies and pursuits.”

  “If you’re wondering what he’d do instead,” Ivan said, watching her closely as if to document her reaction, “he’ll turn full-time to what he’s best at. Surgery. But he says he’ll now emulate you, direct his skills and resources to nonprofit work. But as a surgeon, that would take him into the field of humanitarian work. He’s already organized his first mission.”

  Lili stared from one man to the other, as if they’d suddenly laugh and tell her it was all an elaborate joke.

  But from their grimness and their clear dismay at their brother’s bequest, and mostly from the wording in those papers, which she knew was Antonio’s, this was real.

  “Needless to say,” Ivan said, “we are extremely disturbed by his decision. We know no one could ever replace him, but since it’s you, the others have empowered us to extend you an offer. We will accommodate anything you wish, if you agree to keep the division part of our joint business.”

  She could only stare at them, totally numb.

  Jakob added, “He also said you’d have qualms on account of having no financial or management skills, but he assures you everything will be run by his deputies, while you orchestrate the scientific direction of the o
rganization. He himself will always be available to you as a consultant whenever you wish.”

  And it was as if a dam burst inside her, making her blurt out, “Is he insane?”

  Ivan nodded with another sigh. “Bonkers.”

  “It gets worse.” Jakob produced another file from his own briefcase. “These are the deeds to his mansion in LA, his penthouse in New York City, his best jet, and assorted assets and holdings with a collective net worth I couldn’t stomach registering.”

  She felt as if she’d been caught in an explosion, and the shock waves were widening, tearing down everything.

  All she could finally manage was a whisper. “I—I don’t get it.”

  “Don’t you?” Jakob tilted his head, a contemptuous edge creeping into his steel-hued gaze, making him look pretty sinister. “From where I’m sitting, you seem to have gotten everything you could have wanted and way more.”

  She shook her head, shell-shocked. “I only want him.”

  “Now that’s priceless.” Jakob scoffed. “You dare say that, when you put the man through a hell far worse than all his ordeals combined?”

  Ivan frowned. “Jakob’s right on this one. According to Antonio you had every right to punish him, but I kept hoping you’d stop your punishment before you finished him. When you went past even that, I wondered what kind of succubus could do that to him. Then I saw you and I don’t get it. You’re filled with marshmallows and rainbows. How could you do this to him?”

  “I didn’t do anything,” she cried out. “How could I punish him when I thought what he felt for me was...nothing like what I felt for him? When he left me alone after he discharged me, and I thought he’d realized he was better off without me, as I always thought he would be?”

  Ivan’s eyes narrowed before they shot wide. “That’s it. That’s my answer. You’re really that insecure, aren’t you?”

  A shudder of misery shook her. “Only when it comes to him.”

  Ivan huffed mirthlessly. “Then, boy, are you two even. He’s totally, explosively, inventively irrational when it comes to you, too. The man has been punishing himself for hurting you far more brutally than any of our abusers ever did.”