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My second instinct is—hell fucking no.
I force my eyes to the doctor’s and my resentment of her suggestion ebbs slightly. All she’s seeing is a victim of domestic abuse with three children to raise. She’s trying to help me.
But she doesn’t know the whole story.
She doesn’t know that this baby was born from something real. That I happen to love the father of this child even if he doesn’t love me anddespitehow he has treated me. She doesn’t know that I’ve wanted this baby from the moment I saw my sister become a mother. She doesn’t know that I havealwaystaken my miracles where I can get them. Inconvenient or not.
“I’m gonna keep this baby,” I say firmly.
And I’m gonna save my other babies. It’s up to me now and there’s only one path forward.
We have to leave this city.
For good.
74
RUSLAN
Kirill bursts into my office, his cheeks flushed as though he sprinted all the way here. “I’ve got news!”
“You found Sergey?”
“No,” he pants. “This is about Emma.”
I scowl. “Why would I care about that news?”
“The security team is still on her. She ended up in the hospital with all three kids.”
Before I realize what I’m doing, I’m on my feet. “Are the kids okay?”
Kirill frowns. “The kids are fine. It’s Emma that’s hurt.”
“Can she walk?”
“Uh, I think so? She drove to the hospital herself.”
I sit back down and concentrate on the barrage of legal paperwork in front of me. “Then she’s not that badly hurt, is she?”
I’m being pulled in two directions. On the one hand, I fucking loathe that she might be hurt, badly or otherwise. On the other hand, her problems are no longer mine.
I’ve spent the morning dodging calls fromThe Brooklyn Gazetteasking if they can get an exclusive statement from me. A quote, maybe? Fuck them all.
And fuck Emma, too.
“Ruslan, I know you’re pissed at her—”
“‘Pissed’ doesn’t begin to cover it. I’m done talking about her.”
“There’s something you need to—”
“We need to double the number of men looking for Sergey. He can’t have just disappeared into thin air.”
“I got my hands on Emma’s files and—”
“I’ve managed to suppress news of the botched launch getting out there. So far, the incident has been printed as a ‘good time gone bad’ incident. Nothing has been traced back to Alcazar itself or to me by association, but rumors are circulating. We need to expedite the investigation so that we have a story we can spin to the press.”
Kirill is glaring at me with his jaw clenched. “That’s the third time you’ve cut me off.”
