“You’re a big flirt, Nikolai.” Untangling my hands, I pulled up one of the hard, blue chairs towards his bedside. “The staff were telling me you’ve been acting out.”
His blue eyes widened. “They are all a bunch of—”
I flashed him a look, and he fell silent.
“My favorite nurse left to marry my grandson and live her best life.” Old eyes looked over me, and I quickly looked away.
“I see. So the rumors are true?”
I fell silent, twisting my hands in my lap.
“He’s spending a lot of time with her, huh?” Nikolai didn’t sound surprised at all.
“She needs him,” I said in a completely flat voice.
“And what about you? Don’t you need someone?” His old voice grew quiet. “At least tell me he’s helping you with your sister.”
I opened my mouth to tell him no. Alexei had messed up her first transplant so badly that the delay in a new heart would probably cost Alessia her life, and at the last minute, I changed my mind, and my lips thinned.
What good would it do to tattle to Nikolai? He had enough to worry about. He didn’t need to know that his grandson wasn’t holding up his end of the bargain. Plus, it felt a little absurd to be telling stories on a mob boss like we were on the playground still.
Not much got past the old man, though, and he shook his head. “I see, and what excuse is he giving this time?”
It might have been my imagination, but he sounded like he had been through this before. I looked away quickly, unsure if I should be honest with him or not.
“I will talk to him if he ever decides I am worthy of a visit again.”
I didn’t need to look at him to know he was rolling his eyes. For such an old man, he really did have a childish streak.
“Amy?”
I turned my attention to him at the sound of my name.
“Don’t give up on him, please.”
The pleas in his voice couldn’t be denied. Reaching out, I squeezed his fingers. “I don’t want to, but it feels like he has given up on me, Nikolai. Things are not good,” I admitted.
“It’s nothing that can’t be fixed. Alexei is a stubborn fool, but he needs you. He will realize that before too long, and then you can put all of this behind you.”
He truly believed that, and that was the heartbreaking thing. He so wanted his grandson to be in love with me that it blinded him to everything else that was going on.
“Please, Amy, I know it’s—”
I cut him off. “Violet is pregnant.”
I didn’t mean to blurt it out, but the words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them. Our hands fell to the bed by his side, and he loosened his grip.
“You are sure?”
I smiled sadly. At least he didn’t ask me to repeat myself. “Yeah, I’m sure. The staff told me first, but he later admitted to it.”
It was like the old man’s face fell in slow motion. Lifting his hand, he ran his finger through his thinning white hair. “I see. And you think Alexei is the father?”
I didn’t bother to answer that.
“Did he explicitly tell you that he was the father of that strumpet’s child?”
Strumpet? I couldn’t help but laugh. It was short-lived, though. “He didn’t need to. He didn’t deny it, and he’s spending every second with her. Even now with my sister—” I shook my head. “Forget it, I have. No matter what happens between us, I will always make time for you, Nikolai,” I promised. “You’ve become one of my favorite people in the world.”
