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I look up as Danil walks in. “Hello, baby shithead.”
“Hello, big shithead.” I give him a pained smile.
“Arseny says they stretched you good and tall. You need those extra inches.” He looks me over and clicks his tongue. “Amateurs. I would have removed your fingernails and toenails first.”
“Get straight to it,” I say. “That’s how the Milovs work.”
“Sorry, sirs. We are struggling to work around you,” a nurse quips. Kervyn and Danil step back and talk quietly while I’m washed, disinfected, and bandaged. The painkillers kick in, and I relax once the buzz around me dies down.
Kervyn comes forward again and looks at me. “When you’re discharged, you’ll stay at Danil’s estate so we can keep a mass of guards on duty. No more driving anywhere without Monty.”
“You’ve got it,” I say with a sigh. “They need a lesson, Kervyn, one who has the power in this town.”
“I intend to give them that lesson, Luka. But first, I need you back on your feet.”
“Luka.”
Hannah’s voice calls from outside. Kervyn holds his hand up to stop me from calling her. He walks out, and I lie down.
Kervyn brings Hannah into the room, and she fidgets. She sees me and bursts into tears. “Luka, your face. Your body. They’ve hurt you so badly.”
“It’s okay, Hannah,” I say quietly. “I’ll be healed up in no time. No beating can keep this good boy down.”
“This is why you need to cut ties. You can’t risk getting hurt like that all the time.” She looks at Kervyn and then at me.
I look at Kervyn. “She doesn’t know what she’s saying, she’s hysterical.”
“I am…”
“Stop, Hannah,” I say forcibly. She falls silent.
Kervyn watches her wearily before he nods. “I’ll leave you to sort your affairs out. Come, Danil. We need to find some Italian boys to play with.”
Hannah waits until they’re gone, but before she can say anything, I hold a hand up. “You can’t talk about disloyalty like that in front of my brother. He’ll question whether he can trust us.”
“Can you trust him?” she asks. “Trust him to keep you safe. Look at you, Luka. How are you going to explain coming home like this to our child?”
“We have ways of explaining things. My father used to come home roughed up sometimes, too.” I wince, and she comes and takes my hand.
“What happened?” she asks softly. “Were they looking for you or me?”
“They mentioned you,” I say honestly. “They said they know you’re pregnant, so somebody has betrayed the family and told someone.”
“No one knew,” she says, looking horrified. “Except the doctors. The doctors here knew.”
I take her hand and squeeze it. “Stick by Asher and Penny. They’ll keep you safe. I promise. When I’m out of here, we’ll stay with Danil until the threat ends.”
“It’s always until the threat is over, but the threat is getting worse, Luka. What if they take me or our child when they’re born? What would you do then? Would you then cut ties with your family?”
“You have to realize our family is loyal as fuck and will do anything for each other,” I growl. “That means sticking by each other's sides through the good and bad times.”
“I admire that. I do, Luka. But I’m just a little girl from Ohio. I’m not built for this. You forced me into this situation because you wanted me, not because I wanted to be here. And I’ll admit I do feel something for you, but I don’t know what that is, and being pregnant is confusing the situation.”
She looks out the window and then back at me. “I need time, Luka. I need you to let me go, divorce me, and give me time. If we’re meant to be together, I will come back.”
“And if you don’t, what happens to our child?” I ask quietly. All the pain I’m in doesn’t come close to the pain of my heart ripping to pieces right now.
“If I don’t, you’ll obviously be allowed to see them as much as you like. We can be good friends and good parents without being together, but I need this to be my decision, Luka. I need to choose you or choose someone else. I know it’s scary, but that’s how true love works.” She sniffs, and I see the tears welling up in her eyes.
