Page 64 of Shattered Cradle (Makarova Bratva Duet)

Maybe he’s right. Maybe this baby and how hard I’ve had to fight for it has already begun to change me.

“I don’t want you to judge them harshly,” I say, knowing even as I say it that I’m going to be met with resistance. “I know what they tried to do. A part of me hates them for it. But a part of me will always love them. They’re my siblings, and they did what they did because they thought it was what was best for me.”

“If only I could be convinced of the same.”

“Can’t you just trust me?”

He stares at me. I know it’s not in his nature to trust. It’s in his nature to hate, to fight, to demand what he feels is rightfully his. He hasn’t yielded a single day in his whole damn life.

And yet, he does what my siblings couldn’t do—he nods.

I wonder if he knows how much that means to me.

“Rob is still heartbroken over losing Isabella,” I continue, wanting to make Aleks understand. “And Mia, well… now that she’s engaged to Hargrove—”

“She’s what?”

I stop short. Only when I see Aleks's knitted brows do I realize that he didn’t know about the latest development.

“I forgot to tell you, they’re engaged. She told me right before they took me to the hospital. Mia claims their connection was ‘instant.’”

“That, or he’s just covering all his bases.”

I watch Aleks sift through this new information. But somewhere along the way, I stop scrutinizing him and, instead, I admire him. His lips are beautiful, elegantly shaped, sensual. But the rest of him is so masculine. All hard edges and stubble and muscle.

“This changes things,” he says finally. “You realize what this means, don’t you?”

I nod. “He’s pitting us against each other.”

“I doubt that was his original intention,” Aleks surmises. “He wanted you both on his team. It would have made the story all the more convincing. But the fact that you chose to come with me has thrown a spanner in the works.”

“He can’t claim that you abducted or raped me if I’ve chosen to stay with you.”

“Not just that. We’re married. You’re carrying my child,” Aleks says. “On the face of it, it will look like he’s trying to attack a picture-perfect family.”

Family.For my entire life, that word has meant Mom, Dad, Mia, Rob.

Now, my parents are dead and my siblings are as good as gone.

But I still have a family. I have the family I chose. The family Imade.

I have Aleks and our baby.

That’s good enough for me.

16

ALEKS

TWO DAYS LATER

“How’s she doing?” Demyan asks.

I glance towards the closed door of Olivia’s room. Despite the fact that I can’t see her, I know exactly what she’s doing. She’s sitting by the window, eerily silent, ignoring the breakfast tray I left for her.

“Quiet,” I tell him.

He nods. He looks uncomfortable in his dark suit and tie, but I’m not about to send my men to a funeral in tactical gear. “Don’t worry about anything, okay? I’m gonna make sure she’s safe.”

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