In Bad Faith

Chapter 12

"I hate hospitals," I heard Misha softly mumble next to me, as he was holding a tissue against his nose that was still bleeding. He was definitely not the only one. To me, this place brought me nothing but feelings of misery and sadness. "Who doesn't," I answered, handing him a new and clean tissue. The other one was soaked with blood, so he replaced it with a new one.

Somehow, Misha and I always seemed to get into situations in which I suddenly had to become his personal driver, in his car. Because this morning, out of all mornings, I had taken public transport to work. My car was at the garage due to a problem with the engine, and this meant that traveling by metro was the best substitute.

The car ride didn't take long, only around ten minutes. Because this time Misha did allow me to speed a little. He was in pain. Because even though he didn't admit it, I could tell by the way he closed his eyes when he was trying to take a deep breath, and through the way he winced when getting in and out of the car. He got beaten up very badly. And I know he would never tell me what actually happened to him this evening, but I could obviously tell he had been tied up by the way his wrists started bruising. People don't usually get tied up without a reason.

"Mr. Zaveri?" a voice interrupted my raging thoughts, and I looked up at the doctor that had appeared in the waiting room. "Yes," I answered quickly before Misha even had the chance to, which made the doctor frown a little. "I mean.." I told him and pointed at Misha, who now got up from the plastic chair, still holding the paper tissue against his now almost purple nose. God Nadezeya, why are you this nervous? Misha started walking toward the doctor, as I remained seated. I expected him to not want me there, since this had been caused by something that I could not know about. Besides, I was not his girlfriend, his mom, or his child. I was his assistant, and I had nothing to do with his personal life. At least, I shouldn't be having anything to do with his personal life.

I wondered what was up with him not wanting Maddison to know about anything. He got very defensive the second I talked about calling her, and it made me think that maybe she didn't know as much as you'd expect the girlfriend of a criminal to know. It made me wonder if maybe she was as superficial as she appeared to be.

The moment Misha went inside, I walked to the nearest coffee machine to get myself a warm drink. I was once again exhausted. The workload at this job was very heavy, especially with this upcoming event, and in the last couple of days I had been having many conversations with Floyd too, about the progress of this all. My life at the moment existed out of work, work, work, and studying the things my dad left behind.

—

"Miss? I think it's best if you join us inside. Since he fell on his head, it's better if there are two people listening to what I have to say. In case he forgets anything.." the doctor told me, with a friendly smile. I looked up at him and frowned a little. Misha had been inside for a bit longer than twenty minutes now. "Is that okay with him?" I asked the older man, who just shrugged a little. "I don't think he's okay with anything. That's why I need you inside," he told me, and I knew exactly what the guy meant. Misha could be like that.

By the way I was ushered inside the treatment room, he didn't quite leave any space for disagreement from my side. And as I got inside, I immediately saw Misha sitting on a chair, not looking any better than he did before he went in here. His face had bandages on the spots where he was bleeding from earlier, and his wrists were also covered in white bandages. He had taken off his blazer, which shouldn't be important to me right now, showing off the skin and muscles of his arms. I realized this was the first time in real life I'd seen him without long sleeves. It was definitely something I didn't mind seeing. Nadezeya, focus.