Page 64 of Crowned

“Where have you been? You come and go, treating this place like a hotel.”

I’m not a scared little boy anymore. I’m a man, and I owe this asshole nothing.

Instead of cowering or running away, I step toward him. I’m surprised to find that I’m taller than he is now. So is he by the way his eyes widen.

Just try me. Fucking try me.

Dad sidesteps me and swipes a bottle of vodka off the counter like it was his intention all along. “You’re not a man yet.”

“As long as I don’t end up like you,” I mutter as I head for my bed.

The next time I see Katya, she’s sobbing like her heart is breaking. Her stomach is huge now. There are just a few weeks until the baby is born.

“My parents have told me I have to give up the baby for adoption as soon as it’s born,” she chokes out. “I don’t know what to do. They’re so ashamed of me.”

Adoption. Take her baby away from her. Away from me.

Anger races through me. Those two assholes downstairs think they’re so perfect, but they’re monsters.

I take her shoulders in my hands. “Let’s run, now. Let’s just go.”

“I can’t go now,” she wails, both hands on her enormous belly. “Look at me, I’m huge. What am I going to do? I’m so scared. What if it hurts too much to have a baby? What if I die?”

“Nothing’s going to happen to you. When the baby comes, I’ll be right here. Whatever you do, don’t sign the adoption papers.”

She shakes her head, her teary eyes hardening. “I won’t. I already told them that. They were so angry with me, but if I don’t sign, they can’t do anything.”

I sigh in relief and pull her against my chest. Her stomach bumps against mine. “It’s going to be all—shit.”

There are footsteps outside Katya’s door and a key turns in the lock. I dive for the window and scramble through it just as the door opens.

An imperious female voice asks, “What’s going on in here? Who are you talking to?”

I’m away in the dark before anyone sticks their head out the window.

Three days later I’m heading to the west side of town to look at an apartment that’s advertised for rent when Artem’s blue sedan pulls up next to me. “It’s Katya. She’s having the baby.”

I stare at him in shock. Artem hasn’t acknowledged the baby since I first talked about it with him. I wonder if he’s started to wake up to the idea that this baby is real.

Fine. As long as he doesn’t start thinking it’s his. I already decided it’s my fucking baby.

“She’s not due for two weeks,” I reply.

“She went into labor an hour ago. Get in.”

I jump into the car and slam the door closed, and Artem roars off down the street.

“Where are you going? Her house is the other way.”

“She’s already been taken to the hospital. I was driving past the house as she was being loaded into the ambulance. Katya called out to me to tell you.”

Ah, fuck, poor Katya. She must be terrified. “Why an ambulance? Was anything wrong? How did she look?”

Artem shrugs, looking bored. “How should I know? She looked like a woman having a baby.”

Your fucking baby, I want to shout at him. My heart is racing. How can he act like this is nothing?

Ten or fifteen minutes must go by before I realize that we’ve headed out of town and we’re driving through the countryside. “Which hospital did they take Katya to?”

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