I raised my chin. My wedding ring felt odd and heavy on my finger. It was a solid white gold band, and he’d also pushed an engagement ring on there big enough to signal my non-single status to the moon and back. I twisted the rock around and around until my skin beneath hurt.
Doctor Petrov entered the room. I could see the hallway outside, bristling with Kirill’s security. I had a bad feeling his safety consciousness was about to reach another level.
“Well?” Kirill snapped at the older man.
Doctor Petrov nodded and turned a tired smile at me. “Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Chernov. You are going to be parents.”
That phrase struck me somewhere in my chest. It sounded exciting and terrifying all at once.
Kirill had frozen, staring at the doctor. “And the health of the baby?”
“Well, as far as we can tell, all is fine, but we can do a scan now and see if we can hear the heart beating,” Dr. Petrov said, snapping on gloves and coming toward me.
“I’ll need to pull the gown up, dear,” he said to me and frowned, looking over his shoulder toward the door. “This isn’t the right one for this exam.”
“It’s fine. I don’t mind. Please, let’s just do the scan,” I said, avoiding Kirill’s hot gaze as I yanked up my loose-fitting green and white print gown below my bra.
I was regretting the pretty white lacy wedding day underwear I’d put on this morning. I looked up at the ceiling, my face coloring at the thought of the doctor seeing everything I had downstairs, presented to maximum titivation in the underwear.
A weight slid up my legs and looked down to see Kirill had taken off his suit jacket and draped it across my hips, leaving the doctor plenty of room to move the doppler.
“What are we looking at here?” My husband crossed his arms and looked all business as he watched the black-and-white screen light up near my head.
Petrov moved the scanner through the cold gel.“This is the uterus, and somewhere nestled tightly in here, we might find—”
He cut off as a loud, alien-sounding rhythmic thump filled the room. Shock, awe, and a touch of terror filled me as I stared at the tiny shape on the screen surrounding the pulsing, tiny heart.
“And that’s it; your baby’s heartbeat.”
While I was staring at the screen, Kirill took my hand. He sank down in the chair next to me, his shock forgotten in the face of such wonder.
“Is it—healthy?” I stumbled through the question, unable to tear my eyes from the sight.
“It looks fine. Of course, there are some screenings we should run, and I hope you’re taking your vitamins and minerals.”
“I am. I have been,” I reassured him.
The rest of the scan flew by, and before I knew it, my belly was cleaned up and the doctor had gone. Kirill sat in the chair, one leg resting at the ankle on his other thigh and his fingers steepled as he watched me intently. A flush worked across my cheeks as I held out my arm, and the nurses took blood samples before leaving us alone.
“What is it?” I snapped, my patience growing thin.
“You knew you were pregnant the whole time you were in that shitty little town.”
“Yes. So what?”
“So, you never thought about getting rid of the pregnancy? I’m sure the chef with a crush would have paid for you,” Kirill said flatly.
My mouth dropped open, and I stared at him, stunned by his casual comment.“It’s not the baby’s fault that you tricked me.”
He swallowed deeply. A question worked its way up; I could see it coming, yet it still surprised me.
“Do you want my child, Molly? Have I really trapped you this time?” The question could have been mocking, controlling, or goading now he knew my secret, but it wasn’t. It barely sounded like Kirill at all. That wasn’t true—it sounded like Kirill Lewis, the boy who’d wanted me to have everything I dreamed of in life, not Kirill Chernov, the man who’d decided I’d have him, no matter what.
“You did trap me, but I never thought of getting rid of it,” I admitted. “Love made it, and it’s a tiny piece of us both.”
He swallowed hard at that statement, his brow creasing as he frowned so hard it was like he was trying to crack his own face.“Is that why you stayed when I got shot? Because of the baby?”
There it was, the fear he didn’t know how to work around. That maybe I’d stayed out of fear of a future alone.