By 2:00 AM, the crying stops. Exhaustion replaces emotion.
"We should sleep," Maksim says. "You need rest."
"What I need is you."
He understands what I mean. Not sex for pleasure. Sex for affirmation. Proof we're alive, we survived, life continues.
He undresses me carefully. The sweats, the sports bra, everything. Until I'm naked and twelve weeks pregnant and exhausted and alive.
He undresses too. Then pulls me onto the bed, positions me on top because I'm too tired to support my own weight otherwise.
I sink onto him slowly. Connect. Still. Just breathing together.
"We survived," I whisper.
"We survived."
We barely move. Too tired for anything athletic. Just connected, affirming life, proving we're here.
When we finish—gentle, quiet, barely more than breathing together—I collapse onto his chest.
"I love you," I say.
"I love you too."
Anton is dead. The threat is over.
We survived.
And our baby, thriving despite everything, proving that life wins.
Chapter twenty-two
Resurrection
Maksim
Saturday, December 18th, 8:00 AM.
I wake to Sonya's phone buzzing incessantly on the nightstand. She's still asleep beside me, exhausted from last night's performance and aftermath.
I check the screen. Fifty-seven missed calls. Hundreds of texts. Every major news outlet, social media notifications exploding.
The media firestorm has begun.
I open the news apps carefully, not wanting to wake her, needing to know what we're facing.
The headlines hit like hammer blows:
"LINCOLN CENTER HORROR: Pregnant Dancer Survives Serial Killer Attack During Holiday Gala"
"Viral Video: Ballet Star Kicks Detonator From Killer's Hand, Husband Takes Fatal Shot"
"Anton Kozlov Dead: FBI Confirms 15-Year Manhunt Ends in Public Shooting"
"2,000 Witnesses Watch Real Murder During Holiday Performance"
The video footage is everywhere. Someone in the audience recorded everything—Sonya's grand jeté kick, the detonator flying, Anton staggering from my shot, his collapse. And then, most viral of all: Sonya completing her solo performance while paramedics worked on Anton's body in the wings.
