Page 89 of Ruthless Daddies

They’ve collapsed around me, arms and legs tangling with mine.

My hand moves absentmindedly over my belly, my fingers tracing light, aimless patterns on the skin.

I take a deep breath, steeling myself. I’ve been waiting for the right time, but the moment never seems to come. Now, with them here, still basking in the afterglow, it feels like I might finally have the courage to say it.

“There’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you,” I start, my voice quiet but steady.

Dmitri glances over, a faint smile playing on his lips. “What is it?”

I hesitate, my fingers stilling on my stomach. “It’s…about us.”

Ivan shifts slightly, his expression hardening just enough for me to notice. Nikolai, however, looks at me with something close to curiosity, his head tilting slightly.

Before I can continue, Nikolai speaks. “Alice,” he says softly, but there’s a heaviness to his tone that makes my chest tighten. “We’ve been talking…and there’s something we need to tell you too.”

I frown, glancing between them. “What is it?”

Nikolai hesitates, and I can see the conflict in his eyes.

“Things have gotten worse with Vadim. We can’t risk?—”

Dmitri finishes for him, crossing his arms over his chest. “We can’t risk you getting caught in the middle.”

Alarm shoots through me. My pulse jumps, and I sit up, clutching the sheets to my chest. “What does that mean?”

They exchange another look, and Nikolai exhales, running a hand through his hair. “We’re sending you away, Alice. Somewhere safe.”

I stare at him, my mind blanking. “Sending me…away?”

“It’s for your own safety,” Ivan says, his voice calm but resolute. “With everything that’s happening, you’ve become a liability.”

A liability. The word cuts deeper than I expect, and I feel a knot forming in my throat. “You think I’m a liability?”

Dmitri leans forward, his tone more gentle but no less firm. “Alice, it’s not like that. We just need to keep you out of harm’s way.

“You can’t risk it?” I repeat, my voice trembling. “You mean to tell me this has nothing to do with the fact that I doubted Sergei? You’re sending me away because you don’t trust me.”

“That’s not true,” Nikolai says quickly, reaching out as if to touch my arm, but I pull back.

“Isn’t it?” I ask, looking at him, then at Ivan and Dmitri. “If you trusted me, you wouldn’t be doing this. I see it in your eyes, you know? You can’t lie to me.”

The silence that follows is deafening.

“I’ve given everything to you,” I say, my voice breaking. “I’ve let myself fall for you—fall in love with you—and this is how you repay me? By sending me away? By telling me I’m a liability?”

Three pairs of eyes snap to me. I regret the words the moment they leave my mouth. Yes, I’ve fallen in love—with all three of them, something that took me a lot of time to admit to myself. And now it’s out in the open…like a festering wound.

Then they all look away. And I have my answer with a sinking stomach. They don’t feel the same.

My heart thunders in my chest, waiting—praying—for one of them to say something back.Anything.

But no one speaks.

My mouth feels dry, my cheeks hot with embarrassment and fury all at once. I realize, belatedly, what I’ve just confessed. I love them—all of them. And they have no reply. Not even a platitude or a half-hearted echo of what I feel.

I clap my hand to my mouth, as if I can take the words back. The silence is unbearable, a crushing weight that makes my stomach twist.

Nikolai finally meets my gaze, and I see the guilt in his eyes. “Alice, it’s not what you think. We just want to protect you.”

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