Page 128 of Hidden Empire

They haven’t been this whole time?

Apollo

Would you be pregnant right now if they had?

Cheeky.

Me

I don’t know, I’ve gotten pretty good at sneaking around.

Apollo

Touche, little sister.

Chapter 33

Jade

After a day of rest, I’m back in my own personal hell. Except this time, I’m coming into my fighting course with a little note of freedom. No more running laps to avoid being hit, and no more sore knuckles from practicing how to hit.

Class is already getting started when I finally find the female instructor. She’s the first one who catches my eye, and her co-teacher is already in the ring, so she’s going to have to do.

I wait until she’s alone to approach her.

“Coach?” I ask, grabbing her attention.

She sighs before she even looks up. “What do you want?”

When her unwelcoming gaze meets my eye, I force a smile.

“I’m supposed to give this to you.”

Gingerly I offer her my note from my doctor and begin to worry as she glares at it right away. Taking it more aggressively than necessary, she huffs through her nose before starting to read. My stomach drops when she crumples the paper and stuffs it back into my open hand.

“You don’t want to keep it?” I ask, pinching my brows in.

She scoffs at the note and nods to the rest of the class warming up. “Get a move on, Moretti. I don’t have time for this shit.”

“You read the paper, right?” I ask, still confused. “It says I can’t participate in training. They’ll be pulling me out of the class?—”

“I read it,” she sneers. Her hostility is surprising. She’s never been rude before, never been overly kind either, but this venom in her voice is entirely new. “Nice forgery, did you learn that in class? Fall in line, Moretti. Sparring is about to start.”

My stomach plummets with nerves. I’m not in a forgery class, and even if I was, who would lie about this? It’s so easily fact-checkable, and she won’t believe me?

“Forgery? What? I got the note from Dr. Petrov, it’s very real. I can’t be fighting.”

Her eyes roll. “Yes, Dr. Petrov, the Russian physician. Do you think I’m stupid, Moretti? Get in line, you’re sparring one of The Thorns today.”

I most certainly am not! The day I show up with proof that I’m pregnant and can’t be getting into fights, she wants me to spar with boys? Is she nuts!?

“Dr. Petrov says that you can email him with any questions, I will not put myself at risk because you think I’m pulling some kind of trick.” Fuck this. “I’m going to find one of my brothers.”

“Svenson!” the instructor calls out to one of The Thorns with a growl. “We’ve got a runner, get her in the circle and get to work.”

Hearing her yell, the big blond man huffs, beginning to walk over to us. Without hesitation, I scream at the top of my lungs. The whole class comes to a halt, and I start to run for the stairs, remembering that Ivan should be down at the pool.

“Don’t just stand there, get her!”

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