Page 180 of Cashmere Cruelty

Let them fuckingtry.

April lifts her head. When her eyes lock with mine, a wave of relief crashes over her pained face. “Matvey!” She tries to stand, but she sways.

The medic by her side holds her still. “Ma’am, you shouldn’t be upright. Take deep breaths and relax, alright? The ambulance will be here soon.”

I stop dead in my tracks.Ambulance?

“Okay.” April sits back down. Even with all the pain she’s clearly in, she still manages to offer the medic a polite smile. “Thank you.”

The medic squeezes her shoulder in reassurance. The familiarity of that gesture almost makes me snarl in jealousy, but I force myself to calm down. This isn’t the time to mark my territory.

After all, I wasn’t here for her, was I?

The medic’s gaze flits to me, then back to April. “I have to check up on the other guests. Can I leave you with your boyfriend?”

“Oh, he’s not?—”

“Yes,” I cut in. “I’ll take it from here.”

I don’t look at her then, or think about the words I just said. The weight of them. The implications.

All this time, I’ve been lying to myself. Telling myself that there was nothing between us, that she was nothing tome. That she was only mine in a way that wouldn’t make me hers.

But nothing opens your eyes to what’s yours like almost losing it forever.

“Alright,” the medic says to me. Then, turning briefly back to April: “Keep breathing like we’ve been doing. In through your nose, out through your mouth. Got it?”

“Got it,” she whispers. “Thank you.”

With that, we’re alone.

Well, notalone,exactly. The place is packed with people, all voicing their panic and/or outrage loudly. Whatever went down here, it’s left many guests unhappy.

But I couldn’t care less.

All that matters is in front of me.

If only it hadn’t taken me this long to fuckingseeit.

“Are you alright?”

April hesitates. “I think… I don’t know. I was fine, and then it just started to hurt.” She circles her belly with both hands and breathes, hard and deep, like the doctor said to do.

I’m powerless. All this strength, this money, this influence, and I couldn’t do anything to prevent this.“Does it still hurt?”

She gives a small, pained nod. “I’m scared, Matvey.”

Wordlessly, I take her hand in mine.

Yuri catches up to us. “What happened? Where’s Petra?”

Just hearing her name is enough to make me boil over with rage. “Nowhere near here, if she knows what’s good for her.”

But apparently, Petra doesn’t know what’s good for her. Because as soon as I say those words, the woman who put my childand its mother in danger rounds the corner in a rush with her bodyguard at her heel.

When she sees April, she speeds up.

Then she seesme, and she stops dead in her tracks. “Matvey.”

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