Page 59 of Knocked-up Bratva Bride
Roman was at her side before I got to her, and though he still had that wary gaze that could make anyone think she was insufferable, he held her steady, releasing her when Winter took over.
Elena’s face drained of color, and she brought a hand to her stomach. I looked away from Elena and faced Winter instead.
“Show her to one of the guest rooms and assist her in any way you can. She needs a moment.”
Winter nodded, moving without hesitation, and so did Elena, because she had no choice. But before they disappeared up the stairs, her eyes met mine. They were teary and uncertain, but I stared her down, unflinching.
I didn’t have to say the words to communicate the truth between us; Elena was mine, and she knew it.
Once they were out of sight, I went up to the study and pressed down on a lever that opened another passageway to my private office. I didn’t sit. Fedor already stood by the desk with his arms folded over his chest.
“Did you get it?
He nodded, producing the printouts I requested. I knew he had used the exit door to come in, but I was more impressed by his speed in completing the assignment.
“Are you that eager to know if you’re going to be a godfather?”
“You have it in you to crack a joke?” I raised a brow, and he dragged a chair over, sitting down. “Have you taken a good look in the mirror? I’m not sure why, but you look like you want to kill someone.”
“You want me jumping and clapping my hands under these conditions?”
“Conditions you created?” I glared at him, and he didn’t bat an eye. Speaking harsh truths was another one of his specialties. “The signs were pretty clear to me from the day Katya got into the hospital. The men have eyes that see and mouths that talk. I believe that says enough.”
“You, of all people, should know that doesn’t bother me. They can talk. It doesn’t change anything.”
I stood over the desk to scan the medical chart Fedor had pulled from the clinic’s server a while ago. Going by the date on the records, she had only checked in at the hospital recently for a pregnancy test, and it showed the confirmation that she was six weeks in.
“So, you’re the father,” Fedor stated once we were out of the private room and back in the study.
Collapsing into the chair, I poured myself two glasses of whiskey neat and grabbed the cigar box and a Zippo lighter from the top drawer of the desk. The butt burned a light cherry red as I inhaled and leaned back to gaze at the ceiling.
The chair swirled beneath me.
“Twenty-two fucking years, Fedor.” Smoke curled from my lips and nostrils up in the air. “Twenty-two years since Katya, and now I’m going to be a father again. Reach out to her boss. I guess she’ll be working for me now.”
I wasn’t sure how to embrace the revelation.
A strange feeling stirred in me, deep and ancient, something I hadn’t felt in over two decades. Not since my daughter was born. Twenty-two years since I held something so small in my arms and felt its weight mark me in a way no blade ever could.
Back then, I was younger, reckless, and caught off guard by the gravity of fatherhood. I hadn’t been ready, and I had failed in ways I can never take back.
Thinking about it now, I realized I wasn’t super excited to be a father again. To be fair, I hadn’t planned for it. But I’d heard something about second chances; not to be better but to do right on my terms.
This could be it for me. This time, I knew what I was doing, and I had never felt more in control of anything else.
The thought didn’t scare me. If it were a boy, he would be my legacy.
I could almost see him, a replica of me: smart, blue-eyed, and sharp, molded by my hands. He wouldn’t be weak. He wouldn’t be lost to the world like I once was. I would build him from fire and steel. And Elena would stay. She’d have to. The life I was about to offer her now wasn’t a choice.
A rapt knock on the door had Fedor on his feet, striding to open it. Outside, Roman stood with a grimace, and with a freshly showered Elena by his side.
“I ended up puking, and it ruined my dress. So, Winter got some extra clothes from only God knows where, and insisted that I take a hot shower. It was…relaxing. So, I can’t complain. Thank you,” she said.
Roman managed a subtle eye roll. “She insisted on seeing you, Boss.”
“You can leave.” I waved him off and gestured for Elena to take the chair Fedor had occupied. “Come, sit down. It’s a good thing you wanted to see me. I have news to share with you.”
She wrinkled her nose at the cigar in my grasp, like it was the most disgusting thing she had seen, and gasped animatedly while taking a seat. “You’re pregnant, too?”
