Never Judge

"Where is he?" Katerina asked as she rushed into the hospital.

She had been reviewing documents on Kashmere when Ram gave her a call, telling her about what had happened to Eric.

"Miss Sebastian, Mr. Chan is still in the operation room, Dr. Chan is doing his best to save his brother." The nurse told Katerina as she helped Katerina to the VIP waiting area.

"I need to see him." Katerina insisted.

"Kat!" Francesca Rocci called out as soon as she entered the room with Ram right behind her.

"Francesca!" Katerina called back as Francesca ran over and hugged Katerina.

For the first time since hearing about the attempt on Eric's life, she allowed herself to be vulnerable. She began to sob into Francesca's arms as Ram gently patted her back.

"He's a fighter, Kat." Ram told her. "He will fight for you and the baby, he promised he would marry you."

Katerina said nothing as she continued to sob and let herself reales all her worry and distress. She was among friends, she was safe.

These people were practically family. She had grown up around them, there was no need for her to pretend to be strong or unbothered by the events around her.

With them she could simply be Katerina Sebastian.

"Has Miguel given an update?" She asked as she lifted her head from Francesca's arms and whipped the tears from her eyes.

"Are you sure you want to know?" Ram asked, hesitant to tell her the truth.

"I'll be fine, Ram. I just want to know the truth." Katerina said in a determined tone.

Despite her confidence, Ram hesitated. He knew how much Katerina loved Eric and how long the couple had been fighting to be together.

It was a true tragedy that after fighting for so long the pair couldn't even catch a break.

"Remember, you have another human being to think of now." Ram said as he glanced at Katerina's protruding belly. She had been showing signs of her pregnancy now and avoided the public as much as possible.

"Tell me." Katerina insisted.

Ram sighed and shook his head.

"Miguel said that the bullet should have killed Eric, but for some reason he managed to hold on." Ram explained as he recalled what Miguel had said after he had read the preliminary findings. "He is stable, for now, so Miguel is operating on him to take out the bullet and stop the internal bleeding."

"Does Miguel think he will make it through?" Katerina asked as she looked hopefully at Ram.

"Miguel said he doesn't know. I'm sorry Katerina, I know you want to hear good news, but we don't exactly have a lot of it." Ram sighed as he frowned.

Katerina nodded as she placed a hand on her belly and looked down.

"Daddy will be fine little one, he promised he would always be there for us." She said as she gently stroked her bump.

Ram and Francesca sat in silence with Katerina while she slowly processed what was happening.

Suddenly several doctors burst into the room.

"What's going on?" Ram asked.

"It's fine Ram, I sent them here." Raphael Chan, the father of the Chan siblings said as he walked over to Katerina. "We need to make sure Katerina is fine. We don't want Eric to wake up worrying that Kat and the baby are unwell."

"Just some tests, Miss Sebastian." A doctor explained as she helped Katerina stand up.

"Kat, I've been stopping the press from releasing the news about the incident, but I will need to let  them report it." Ram warned as he looked at Katerina.

"Do it." Katerina said in a firm tone, much to everyone's surprise. "Make sure to put in every detail. Tell everyone who attacked him and why, the nation deserves the truth. No more hiding or protecting them. Let them decide."

As she said this, Katerina walked out of the VIP waiting area as the doctors quickly followed after her, worried that she would get hurt.

Ram sighed and shook his head as he dialed a number.

"Release version six. I'll face the consequences." Ram told his assistant as he dropped the call and dialed Alexi's number.

"She decided, and she doesn't want to keep anything a secret." He told Alexi Sebastian over the phone.

"Good, I have some men tracking Mr. Trent and Mr. Walker. It won't take us long to find them." Alexi told Ram. "I'll try to visit as soon as we wrap things up on the island. The story remains the same, it's just this time those two just got lucky and weren't on the island."

"Point the blame at Mr. Trent. The investigation should show that he got greedy and killed the other members of the Raja organization." Ram added as he thought of ways to forever block the group.

"Good idea, I'll do that. Don't forget to update me on Eric's condition and on my sister." Alexi reminded his friend.

"I will, and don't take unnecessary risks, we don't want to be worrying about two of you at the same time." Ram told Alexi.

"Yeah, I have to go." Alexi said as he dropped the call.

Katerina was gone for an hour as Ram and Francesca waited for news on Eric.

Soon, Cedric and the others arrived as well, and finally Nicole. She had the drivers drop off the children at home while she rushed to the hospital.

When Katerina finally returned to the room after the tests were done and the doctors confirmed that the stress of Eric's condition had not hurt her or the baby, Miguel stepped out of the operating room.

"How is he?" Katerina asked as soon as she spotted the doctor.

"I got the bullet out, but the damage has been done." Miguel said as he looked defeated. "I don't know what else I can do Kat."

"But it's out and he is stable, right?" Katerina asked desperately.

"It's not that simple, Kat." Miguel said with a sigh. "You should rest, Eric will be moved to the VIP room where we can monitor him and you can be with him."

Katerina nodded as Miguel guided her to the VIP room where Eric was already lying in bed, unconscious, with multiple equipment connected to him and monitoring him.

"I'll stay." Miguel told Katerina as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"You should rest, I'll watch over Eric. I'm a competent doctor too, in case you have forgotten, brother." Nicole told Miguel as she noticed how tired her brother looked.

The operation had not just taken a lot of physical and mental strength, but it also drained Miguel, emotionally.

The last thing they ever wanted to do was to conduct an emergency procedure on a relative, and it was even worse due to the story behind the attack.

"I'll be quick, update me." Miguel told Nicole as he hugged her tight.

He did the same to Katerina before leaving.

Katerina pulled up a chair to sit next to Eric's bed as she held his hand.

"Eric, please wake up, please keep fighting." She begged. "You promised you wouldn't abandon me again. I love you and our baby is waiting for you."

Cedric, who was standing behind Katerina shook his head.

"Let's go." He told Ian as he turned to leave.

"Where are we going?" Ian asked as he quickly chased after Cedric before he could exit the room.

"After those two, they have to pay for what they did to Eric. He was innocent in all of this and they went after him." Cedric said in a cold tone as he pushed open the door and walked out with Ian walking right behind him.

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