Page 108 of Midnight Sanctuary

“She talks to you about Ziva?” I ask grudgingly.

He shrugs. “I talk to her about losing Mother and Otets. She talks to me about losing her sister. It’s whatfriendsdo.”

I feel a tiny kernel of guilt for my earlier accusations like a shard of glass in my chest—but I’m still too pigheaded, too riled up, too muchmyselfto actually apologize for any of it.

I mean, I should be happy they’re close. He’s my brother and she’s my… my…

I turn towards Alyssa’s ward door as something deep and visceral stirs in my gut. Without saying a word, I push my half-drank coffee cup into Nikolai’s free hand and drift numbly into Alyssa’s ward. She’s holding her elbows tucked tight to her abdomen like she can’t get warm no matter how hard she tries.

“You okay?” I ask as I slip into the room.

She sniffles but doesn’t answer.

I venture closer. Every step in her direction is harder than the last. It’s like I’m being sucked into a black hole—I can’t tear myself away, no matter how much I try. It’s just blissful oblivion. Inevitable. Inexorable.

Alyssa looks like she feels the same pressure consuming us. Before I even get halfway across the room, frantic words burst from her lips. “If you’re coming back to try to talk me out of continuing with this pregnancy, don’t bother, Uri, because it’s not going to happen. I’ve—”

“That’s not what I came here to do.”

“Oh.” She looks surprised. “Okay then.”

“I’m here to tell you that we’ll do things your way.” Those words feel like acid coming off my tongue but I force myself to say them anyway. “I’m going to support your decision.”

Her face brightens with a smile. “Really?”

“Really.But—” The smile drops off her face immediately. “—only on one condition.”

“Which is what?”

“Marry me.”

She stares at me blankly for a moment. “E-excuse me?”

“I want you to marry me,” I repeat. “That’s the condition of my agreeing with your ridiculous and reckless decision to continue with this pregnancy.”

Her jaw drops. “Did you just propose to me?” She looks down at her hospital robe as though she should be wearing something else. “Here? Now? Likethis?”

“When better? Where better?” I cross the last distance and stand by her side. All I want is to touch her, to feel her warmth against mine, but it’s like there’s something invisible holding me back just a little bit longer. “I want to marry you. I want us to go into this together as husband and wife. I want you to be mine, Alyssa.”

Her bottom lip starts to tremble. “Uri…”

“I can have someone here within the hour to marry us. Hell, I can even get the ward decorated if you want things to look pretty.”

Tears accumulate like morning dew in those dazzling eyes of hers. “W-what about friends and family? Polly and Lev? Elle?”

“I’ll get all of them down here immediately if that’s what you want.”

“You want to do thistoday?”

I nod. “I refuse to wait another day to make you my wife. That’s my condition. Do you accept?”

She seems incapable of speaking for one long, breathless moment. But then her hand slips into mine. She blinks and a tear slips down her cheek as she smiles.

“I do.”

49

ALYSSA

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