Page 182 of Cashmere Cruelty

Then she leaves.

“Wait!” Yuri calls after her retreating back. “Blyat’.” Then he goes after her.

I have no idea what the hell he’s thinking. Is he trying to salvage the alliance? Did he not fucking hear me?

The ambulance pulls up. “Ms. Flowers?” a paramedic asks.

April nods. “That’s me.”

I help them load her up into the back. But when I make to get on, the same paramedic stops me.

“Are you family? Because if not, I’m afraid I have to ask you to leave.”

I don’t know if he’s being brave or stupid. Every single one of his colleagues has already taken a step back, sensing the danger in my aura.

“It’s okay.” April tries to smile. “I’ll be fi—Matvey!”

“Sir!” the paramedic insists as I push past him. “If you’re not family?—”

“That’s exactly what I am.”

April looks shocked. I suppose a part of me should be as well. Shocked that I’ve allowed a stranger into my sacred circle. Shocked that I declared it to the world.

But the truth is, I’m just shocked it’s taken me this long.

“You want to keep me out?” I snarl. “By all means, go ahead and try.”

Then I take my place at April’s side.

57

APRIL

By the time we get to the hospital, I’ve already run through every possible worst case scenario in my head. And I meaneveryscenario.

What if I stressed the baby out too much? What if this is the fetal distress Dr. Allan’s been talking about? Worse, what if she wasright?

What was I thinking, keeping my baby inside me for so long?

The only thing keeping me from a full-blown panic attack is Matvey, his grip tight on my hand the whole way.

When the doctors finally whisk me away for tests, I feel Matvey’s hand give mine one last squeeze, as if reluctant to let go. “I’ll be right here.”

Boyfriend.That’s what the on-site medic called him earlier.Myboyfriend.

And Matvey didn’t say no.

I tell myself it was just a matter of convenience. As the doctors poke and prod at me, I repeat it in my head like a mantra:Matvey didn’t mean it.

But then why did he call me “family,” too?

There’s a lot of things I could picture Matvey bending the truth about: his business, our relationship or the feelings he pretends he doesn’t have.

But family’s sacred to him. He’d never lie about that.

So does that mean…?

I distract myself with those thoughts for as long as I can. But when the pain in my abdomen finally subsides, my fears roar back to life, amplified tenfold.

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