A sharp, aching pressure filled my chest, but before it could fully resolve, the doctor confirmed, “You’re pregnant.”
Kraven didn’t move, though something in him had changed completely.
His eyes were locked on me, then my stomach, before he demanded, “Say it again.”
The doctor smiled, probably thinking he was just a proud father. “You’re pregnant,” he repeated.
Kraven exhaled slowly, the confirmation hitting him harder that second time. “Okay,” he breathed out. “Okay…”
He wasn’t reassuring the doctor. He was reassuring himself. I watched him with a familiar twisting low in my stomach. Except this wave of nausea wasn’t from being pregnant, it was from the realization that this baby could truly be his and not Julius’s.
Call me crazy, but until then, I hadn’t given it much thought.
If the father is Kraven, what will that do to Julius, and vice versa?
This baby mattered to Kraven in a way I hadn’t seen anything matter to him, including me, and I didn’t know what to do with any of that.
The rest of the appointment passed in fragments. However, none of it stuck. My mind stayed fixated on one thing. Suddenly, the air felt different. It was heavier, charged with this uncontrollable electric current.
Until I announced what was in the forefront of my mind since I found out I was pregnant. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel.”
The immediate relief I felt finally confessing that didn’t change the fact that this baby would destroy whatever was left of their family. If I could even call it that at this point.
Is that what it’ll take for the other to back off?
The question stirred shivers to course down my spine and into my stomach. I waited for the other shoe to drop, and it did, exactly the moment thewhoosh-whooshof a fast-beating heart vibrated through the exam room.
The doctor smiled down at me. “That’s your baby. How do you feel now?”
I didn’t answer. I was held hostage, watching Kraven lean forward, softly pressing his lips to my stomach. It was when I stilled. He shut his eyes briefly, letting himself feel it fully, and I gave it to him.
Even though it tore me to pieces.
KRAVEN
I didn’t plan any of this, but the second I heard, “You’re pregnant,” it all changed for me. Something clicked into place that I’d been waiting for my entire life, and all I saw was her and my baby. I swore right then and there that I’d be nothing like my parents. I’d be the best father, the one I needed all my life.
Julius wasn’t there.
I was.
I didn’t think about it and simply moved on instinct. It was inevitable, I’d been heading toward this moment since the second Julius was taken away. I felt her freeze when my lips were on her stomach.
I exhaled slowly, this darkness settling deeper in my chest. Julius might’ve started this, but he wasn’t here to finish it.
I was.
I wasn’t walking away, not from her, not from this, not from the life growing inside her, even if it wasn’t mine. The truth was that biology didn’t matter to me as much as it should have. What mattered to me was that she wasn’t alone and that I was there for her no matter what. I wasn’t giving this up.
I wasn’t fucking this up.
She’s mine now.
This was finally my chance to have a real family with the woman I loved. Even if it meant destroying what was left of my brother and me. Even if it meant crossing every line that still existed between Julius and me.
And I dared him to try to fuck with me.
CHAPTER
