Page 60 of Surprise Quadruplets for the Mob

“Believe what you know to be true.”

Except I’m starting to feel like I don’t know anything anymore. That’s the problem.

Chapter 27

Abby

I’m feeling completely overwhelmed and out of my depth as I sit here with my sister, staring down at the documents in front of me. I don’t have all the paperwork Maks threw at me a few days ago, but I have the bits and pieces I crumpled in my hand at the time, and it all looks bad.

Really bad. Like I’m one of the scammers. One of the bad guys.

“I don’t know what to do,” I say, my voice shaking a little. “How do I prove I didn’t do any of this? That none of this is real?”

“We’ll find a way,” Maggie reassures me, squeezing my hand. “We have to.”

“I feel like I’m in a nightmare,” I admit. “It’s like everything I’ve built with Maks, everything we’ve shared and experienced, is all crumbling down around me.”

“I know. But you can’t give up. You have to keep fighting.”

I nod, but I feel utterly defeated. I’ve never felt this kind of despair before, and I’m not sure how to climb out of it. “It’s not just the scammers either. It’s the DNA test and the accusations that I’d try to somehow trap him with the pregnancy.” I shake my head. “I didn’t think Maks was capable of doing this to me. To his own children.”

“It’s a lot,” Maggie says softly. “Too much.”

“But the babies.” I can feel tears welling up in my eyes, and I brush them away impatiently. “They miss him. They need him. I need him. How can he just walk away like this?”

“I don’t know, Abby. But I’m here for you.”

“I just feel like there’s no hope,” I confess, my voice breaking. “Like there’s no way out of this.”

“You can’t give up,” Maggie insists. “You have to keep fighting.”

I wish I had her optimism, but right now, all I feel is despair. “I’ll try,” I say, but even to my own ears, it sounds hollow.

I’m tempted to pick up the phone and call Maks right now, to tell him for the hundredth time that I’m innocent, that someone is setting me up for whatever reason. But I already know he wouldn’t believe me, even if he answered my call.

Which, judging by the last several attempts I’ve made at communicating with him, isn’t likely.

“I just wish there was somewhere else we could go,” I say, dropping my voice down to a whisper so the new security guards we’ve hired don’t overhear me. After a long conversation with her husband and a promise to properly explain everything once he came home from Singapore, Maggie managed to convince him to hire a security detail to stay with us at all times, but just two guys. Her husband has family money, not to mention what he makes as a foreign affairs politician…but apparently not as much as Maks, with the dozens of men at his disposal at any given moment.

“With everything else that’s going on,” I say quietly, “the last thing I want is a bunch of strangers around. Not just for me and my kids, but you and your family, too.”

She frowns. “I feel the same way, but what else are we supposed to do? We had to do something when Maks took his guys away.”

“I know, it just sucks. It all sucks. Everything.”

She nods, her expression sympathetic. “I’m sorry, Abby. I really am. You didn’t deserve this.”

“Neither did you,” I remind her.

“I know, but we’re in this together, right?”

I manage a small smile. “Right.”

Maggie stands up. “Let’s take a break and go for a walk. I think some fresh air would do us both some good.”

“Okay.” I agree, but I can’t quite bring myself to sound enthusiastic about it.

We slip out of the house, leaving the babies with one of the bodyguards and the nannies who have returned now that we’re back in the home, and walk along the street, our heads down against the wind, and a guard at our back. It’s cold and bleak, a perfect match for my mood.

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