Page 47 of Crowned

All the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

“Something to tell all of us?” Kirill asks. “Or just Kostya?”

“Just Konstantin,” she replies, gazing at ourPakhan.

He glowers back at her, his jaw set.

“There’s no point in pretending you want this child just so you can get the diamonds back. There are no diamonds. There’s no money, either. I broke the tiara into pieces and sold the diamonds months ago. The money is being sent to various accounts and you’ll never be able to touch it.” Her beautiful eyes flare with anger. “Now you know everything, so you can just get out.”

9

Lilia

Istare at the grainy image on the ultrasound screen. My baby.

That’s mybaby.

I’m seeing them for the first time, and I can’t tear my eyes away. I trail my fingers over the shapes of light and dark that are their head, their body, their little limbs, every single part of them precious. A miracle, so tiny and vulnerable and nestled within me.

“Do you want to know if it’s a boy or a girl?” the obstetrician asks, moving the scanner over the jelly on my stomach.

“No,” I whisper, still gazing at the screen.

“You want it to be a surprise?” she replies.

“I don’t care if it’s a boy or a girl. I just want it to be safe in my arms.”

A hand reaches for mine and squeezes it, and I know without looking that it’s Elyah. Still enraptured by the monitor, I squeeze back without thinking because it’s what eighteen-year-old me wants, that innocent girl who loved him with all her heart.

“Boy or girl,” he murmurs, his voice husky with emotion. “It does not matter.”

I don’t want to see his face, but a force stronger than I am impels me to look up. Elyah is staring at the monitor with an enraptured expression on his face. Feeling my stare, he smiles down at me, his bright blue eyes gentle and filled with love.

“They are beautiful, Lilia.”

For a moment, I can’t breathe.

Down by my feet, Kirill is staring at the screen with folded arms, his curls falling into his eyes and hiding his expression. I’m used to seeing him swaggering around, not a care in the world. Now, he’s rigid and so intent on the monitor that he doesn’t seem to be aware of anything else in the room. I don’t understand his outburst at the hospital last night, threatening to beat Konstantin if he kept stressing me out. Maybe he’s worried that if Konstantin and Elyah fight over the baby, it will tear his crew apart.

Konstantin is standing back against the wall and glaring at me, his gaze burning into mine. He hasn’t moved since the four of us entered the room with the obstetrician. After the bombshell I dropped on him at the hospital, I think he’s secretly planning my demise. A way to punish me using this baby.

A chill creeps over me as I wonder if he’ll try to rip the child from my arms the moment it’s born.

“You must come to all your appointments,” the obstetrician tells me, putting down her equipment and wiping the jelly from my stomach with a smile. “Especially now you know I don’t bite.”

We made up a story about me being terrified of doctors to explain why I avoided having a checkup and scan for so long.

“I—”

But Kirill is the one who answers. “She will.”

I give him a strange look. Neither Elyah nor Konstantin seem to think Kirill’s behavior is weird.

But it’sweird.

The obstetrician tells me I can get dressed. Elyah’s firm grip is on my hand and my waist, and then he’s handing me my underwear and leggings. I think he would dress me himself if I let him, and I have to be insistent about dragging the Lycra up my own legs. Before I can stop him, he settles the waistband over my bump. I stare at his tattooed fingers moving so gently against my skin.

“I can do it,” I say, feeling flustered, knowing everyone’s eyes are on me.

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