Page 33 of Secret Baby for the Mafia Boss

“Did you find out something else?” I asked, concern rippling through me. “Did he do something?”

“No, God no. If he had done something, I would have gone to Viktor myself. I still have a bad feeling and don’t want to brush it off as anything. Viktor is reasonable. He’s not going to go and kill my brother because of a feeling.”

Viktor may have been rational and fair with other people, but I’d seen firsthand how irrational he could be when I was involved in a situation. If Damien was a genuine threat to me, he would be anythingbutrational, and I thought that Nadia would have seen that, too. It felt obvious to me.

And I didn’t want to tell her I’d already gone to Viktor. Would she feel like I’d broken her trust if I told her that I’d done that?

“Do you want to tell him, or do you want me to?” I asked.

“It would probably be better coming from you,” she admitted, licking her bottom lip and furrowing her brows.

“I can tell him then.”

“I just—” she cut herself off. “I don’t want him to think it’s coming from a place of jealousy. If I tell him, I don’t want him to think I’m trying to get you out of the picture, you know?”

“I don’t think he’d think that at all.”

“He might, though.” She sat back on my bed, and I watched as she leaned back and stared at the ceiling. “We have a bit of a history.”

That piqued my interest. He’d never mentioned anything about him and Nadia in the past, but for the first time, I noticed how traditionally stunning she was. She had darker skin and ethnic features that matched Viktor’s. She had a lot of Russian blood, and I wondered briefly if Viktor preferred that—someone who could share his culture and bloodline. I didn’t know the first thing about the place Viktor was born. What if that was important to him—being with someone who knew about his heritage?

And Nadia… She had all the flawless features alongside that knowledge. If I didn’t have his kid, maybe she was the kind of woman he wanted, especially if there was already history there.

“What kind of history?” I finally asked.

“Nothing too serious.” The way she said it made me think that whatever was between them hadn’t been entirely casual either. “We never had a chance to delve too deeply into what we had, so you really don’t need to be concerned. It’s over between us now.”

What we had.

I wanted to ask a million questions, but I held my tongue. Viktor was technically my husband, and he made it clear that he wanted me. But for some reason, I still questioned how he could possibly choose me over someone like Nadia. And when she looked toward the ceiling with a dreamy look in her eyes, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was truly over for them, after all. She still seemed interested in him, even if he wasn’t in her.

“I don’t think you going to him would be construed as a threat, especially since you’d be going to him with my best interest in mind,” I told her. “You know that I mean a lot to Viktor. He’s not going to misconstrue anything.”

I hoped the hidden message in my words came across. I meant something to Viktor, and I knew that. But I had too much on my plate to fight off someone else who was interested in him. She shouldn’t have even mentioned the history between them if they were truly over as she'd insinuated.

I shook off my thoughts. None of them mattered. Viktor had chosen me, and no matter what had been between them in the past, it was over now.

She gave me a bittersweet smile and stood. “You do mean a lot to him,” she said. “And that’s why I care so much. I don’t want to see him hurt.”

I nodded, sourness creeping up my throat as she spoke. I’d thought she’d been concerned for my sake, but this revelation felt… wrong. It made the most sense, of course. Why would she throw her brother under the bus for someone she barely knew? But knowing the reason she was concerned irked me.

“Well, I’ll go and talk to him when I put Sean down for bed tonight,” I told her, my tone clipped. “Thanks for coming to me about this.”

“Of course, sweetie.”

When she walked out the door, I considered all that I needed to say to Viktor. I might have already told him about Damien, but there were other things that needed to be talked about now. I needed to know what kind of history he’d had with Nadia. Deep within me, I knew he wasn’t interested in her anymore—that he only wanted me—but I needed affirmation. I needed to hear him say it, and then I could let it go.

Maybe it was because Nadia still held a clear interest in him, and she was far more beautiful than I wanted to admit. Or maybe it was the sense of wrongness I felt in my chest, as I considered the conversation I’d just had with her.

Regardless, I needed to talk to Viktor, and I needed to lay this to rest.

And then, I needed to tell him about the pregnancy and pray he still saw me the same.

Chapter Nineteen

Viktor Nikolaev

I sat on the sofa of my office, staring at the canvas on the other side of the wall. The abstract bullshit was nothing like what I would have bought for myself, but Nadia had made the room appropriate for any business meetings I’d be conducting here. It seemed to work. The plush couch and matching ottoman, the expensive art on all the walls—every single piece tended to make people feel more at home during our meetings than on edge.

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