Page 138 of Ivory Oath

His voice cuts off so suddenly that I look up. Somewhere behind the haze of panic and grief, I register that Anatoly looks sick.

His face is still pale from the news about Dante, but now, Anatoly is staring down at the floor.

At a smear of blood on the white tile.

I run the last few minutes back and can’t understand where it came from. Was Mikhail bleeding? Did I hurt myself when I fell?

I turn back to Anatoly and he’s looking down at his arm now. At a red spot on his forearm. The same arm he just curled underneath me to lift me off the floor.

“Are you hurt?” It comes out in a hoarse whisper.

Anatoly jumps. Like he was so deep in his head he forgot I was here. He shakes his head slowly. “It’s not mine, Viv.”

“Then whose?—?”

No.

Even as I stand up, I don’t believe it. I can’t. Life has been a bitch to me more times than I can count, but she’s not a monster. Surely, I’ve had enough slices of shit pie for a lifetime. I don’t need a double helping on the worst day of my life.

But I grab the back of my shorts and they’re wet. My fingers come away bloody. The stool I was sitting on is smeared with blood. It’s bright red. Fresh.

“No,” I whisper like that might make all of this disappear. “This isn’t happening.”

My eyes flicker back and forth over all the evidence, taking it in but not absorbing it. Meanwhile, Anatoly grabs his keys and loops his arm through mine.

We’re halfway to the garage door before I dig my heels in. “We can’t leave.”

“You’re bleeding, Viv.” He explains it slowly, sounding out every syllable.

“Dante is missing,” I respond just as slowly. “We have to stay here.”

“You need to go to a hospital. You could be—Fuck, I don’t know! But you’re pregnant and I know this isn’t good.”

“Not good” is an understatement. This is cruel and unusual punishment. My son is missing and now, I can’t even keep the child in my own womb safe? I’m a failure.

Guilt threatens to bring me to my knees again, but I don’t have time for that. It isn’t helpful now.

Anatoly pulls me towards the door. “We have to go.”

“We can’t leave. Mikhail told us to stay here!”

He did, didn’t he? I don’t remember what he said. Everything after “Dante is missing” is a blur.

“If he knew you were bleeding, he’d tell me to get you to a hospital,” he argues. “There is no way I’m letting anything happen to you or your baby on my watch. We need to go.”

I pull back, sliding my wrist out of his grip. “What if Dante calls?”

As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I know it’s ridiculous. Dante doesn’t have a phone. He wouldn’t even know my number if he had one.

“What if he comes back?” I try again, but… no. I blow out a shuddering breath. “He doesn’t know the address. He can’t—He’s too little to find his way back.”

He’s alone and helpless and he needs me and I’m not there.

Anatoly grabs my shoulders, dipping down so he’s looking in my eyes. “Dante doesn’t need to be able to find his way back, because Mikhail is looking for him. Mikhail is going to find him.”

My chest hitches with a sob. “I should be out there, too. He’s my baby, Nat.”

Anatoly’s eyes go glassy and he pulls me close, squeezing hard. I can tell he needs a hug as much as I do. But when he lets me go, his eyes are clear and his jaw is set. “Mikhail is going to find Dante and he’ll make sure whoever did this pays with their life. In the meantime, I’m taking you to the hospital whether you want to go or not.”

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