“Who did you go to the opening with, Alexei?”
He glanced down at the phone once, saw what I had seen, and instantly shoved it into his pocket. “It wasn’t like that.”
Sighing, I let my head back on the sofa. “No, so you didn’t take the woman who tried to kill me and our baby to some fancy restaurant opening?”
“I didn’t take her. She was there.”
My eyes are open. “You are never going to be able to let her go, are you?”
“I have let her go, I don’t want Violet. I want you. I want our family.”
“I would like to rest now.” My voice was completely flat and emotionless because, honestly, I was tired of having this same argument and losing. It didn’t matter what Alexei said. Violet would always be in his life, and now I had to decide whether I could be.
“Please leave.”
Anger tightened his eyebrows and made a deep line appear between them. ”You would like me to leave my own house?”
“Yes, or I can leave.”
“I thought we could spend—”
I cut him off. He didn’t get it. I wasn’t the meek girl I had been when he first forced me to marry him. I had a backbone now. I kind of had to because I wasn’t just protecting myself. I had to protect my son as well.
“You haven’t wanted to spend the evenings with me since I woke up, Alexei. I don’t know why you would want to now. I am sure,” my voice dripped with sarcasm, “you have pressing business to get to.”
“Amy,” he groaned. “Please don’t throw our family away over one picture. Violet is not in my life anymore.”
“Are you still in contact with her?” I asked in a tired voice. “Are you still looking after her?”
He hesitated for a second too long, and it was all the answers I needed. “Get out.”
“Amy,” he tried again.
Jumping to my feet, the world around me spun. “Get the fuck out, Alexei,” I screamed. Spit flying from my lips to land on his face. He didn’t wipe them away. Instead, he just stared at me.
“I’ll leave tonight, Amy,” he said finally. “But I’m not going for good. I won’t let you break up our family. Get some sleep, and if you need anything, ring down to the concierge.” Like nothing had happened, he brushed his lips against my cheek and walked away again.
It was only when I heard the door shut that I let myself fall back onto the sofa and let the tears fall. Alexei wanted us to be a family. But not enough to get rid of the person who had tried to kill me, and I didn’t know what the hell to do.
Alexei was good at his word. He didn’t give up. He turned up with flowers and small gifts of paints and canvases. He sat on the opposite end of the sofa with me some evenings, even though I ignored him completely. We went to visit the baby together, or at least met there.
Everywhere I was, Alexi wasn’t far behind.
Five days out of the hospital, and I was beginning to soften towards him. Not enough to promise him that we could try again, butenough that maybe I was willing to talk things over. No matter what happened between us privately, we still had a son, and we had to be able to communicate.
That’s why, that morning, I stopped at the coffee shop on the way up to the NICU. One for me and one for him. It wasn’t much, but if we could sit and talk like adults, then it was a start.
“Mrs. Petrovov,” one of the nurses squeaked as I buzzed into the wing. Usually, she was the happy and friendly kind of woman, but this morning she seemed nervous, and one look down the hallway told me why.
The take-out cups almost fell from my hands when I spotted Violet sitting all prim and proper in one of the blue plastic chairs.
“What is she doing here?” I asked in a whisper. Violet’s head swivelled around at the sound of my voice. She began to rise from her chair, and at that moment, Alexei appeared, took one look at me, and came rushing forward.
“Amy.”
I’d already seen enough. He had brought her here. The woman who had tried to end our baby’s life was sitting outside our son’s room, and it didn’t take a genius to know who had invited her.
Turning on my heel, I had taken two steps back, the way I had come, when he caught my elbow and yanked me back.
