Page 154 of Ivory Oath

Viviana moans and clenches around me. I want to ignore the little voice in the back of my head telling me something is wrong. I want to silence it and keep fucking my wife.

But I can’t.

I pull my hand away. Viviana groans in protest and reaches for my wrist. “Don’t be a tease, Mik?—”

I barely hear her. I’m too busy staring at my bloody fingers.

My silence must catch her attention because she looks at me over her shoulder, her smile slipping. “What is it?”

“You’re bleeding.”

“What?”

I slide out of her and there’s blood on me. On her. On the mattress. Everywhere.

I’m out of bed in a second. I grab a towel from the bathroom and wet it under warm water. I come back and Viviana is staring down at the stain. Her cheeks are red.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know?—”

“Don’t apologize for bleeding.” I swipe the towel over her. She moves like she wants to do it herself, but I level her with a glare. “Sit still. Let me take care of you.”

“I’m fine,” she protests, but she lets me work.

I clean her up and then grab her hand, pulling her to standing. “Can you walk?”

“I’m fine,” she repeats. “The doctor told me this could be normal.”

“Could be normal. Which means it could also not be normal at all.” I lead her towards the closet. “We’re going to the hospital.”

She pulls on my arm. When I don’t stop, she spins around so she’s in front of me. “Mikhail, I’m okay. I’m sorry I got blood everywhere, but it’s probably just because we had sex. Really great sex. It can happen during pregnancy.”

“I’ll believe it when I hear that from the doctor.”

I fire off a text to Dr. Rossi and then Viviana lets me dress her. Her lips are twisted into a frown, but she doesn’t argue. She knows damn well it won’t change anything.

The sun is nothing but pale yellow light behind the horizon when we get on the road. We only slept for a few hours at most, but I’m not tired at all. My stomach is twisted in knots.

“Everything is fine,” Viviana says as if she can read my mind. “The baby is okay.” She reaches over and plucks my hand from the steering wheel. I let her twine her fingers through mine. “Everything is going to be just fine.”

Dr. Rossi arrives at the hospital five minutes after us. I’ve already demanded Viviana be given a private room and a nurse is rolling in a portable ultrasound machine when he walks through the door.

“You were at the emergency room yesterday,” he notes, reading from her chart. “The doctor who examined you didn’t call me.” He looks over the paper, eyebrow arched. “Nor did either of you.”

Viviana wilts. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. We panicked.”

Calling it “we” is generous. I wasn’t even with her. Saving Dante ranked high on the list of priorities. He’s safe in bed right now because of what I did, and I don’t regret it. But it’s another reason I need to let this world go. I want to be able to be there for Viviana whenever she needs me.

Dr. Rossi smiles and sets her chart aside. “All is forgiven, of course. Let’s take a look at what’s going on.”

“She’s bleeding,” I tell him. I’m sure it’s on his chart, but I say it anyway. “It started while we were sleeping.”

“After we’d…” Viviana’s cheeks flush. “Well, we had intercourse.”

Dr. Rossi is a professional and doesn’t react at all as he sets up the machine. “Some bleeding can be normal after sex.”

He presses the wand to her stomach. He pokes and prods for only a second before an image fills the screen.

Our baby.

---