The doctor is careful. “We don’t know yet. But there are enough red flags that we’re treating it as a possibility while we stabilize her.”
My stomach drops so fast I almost throw up.Poisoned.
The pain is still ripping through me, but now there’s something worse underneath it. Betrayal. Violation. The knowledge that this wasn’t random, wasn’t bad timing, wasn’t my body simply failing me.
Someone did this. Someone put something inside me.
Insideus.
Aleksei moves to the bedside at once and takes my hand, and for the first time since I’ve known him, he looks like he might actually kill someone with his bare hands before the night is over.
His thumb brushes my knuckles once. Too gently for the look on his face. “Stay with me,” he says.
It’s not a request.
I nod, because speaking feels too hard around the next wave of pain.
They start another IV. More blood. More monitors. A nurse injects something meant to slow the contractions and another hangs a bag of fluids that drips too slowly for how urgent this all feels.
One doctor checks the baby again. “Heart rate’s still good,” she says. “Still good.” The words are for the room, not me.
I cling to them anyway.
Aleksei leans closer. “Look at me.”
I do.
His grip tightens when the pain hits again, like he can somehow hold me together by force. “Breathe.”
I try. I fail. Then try again.
The doctor returns with the first labs, scans them too quickly, and her face tightens. That is the worst expression yet.
“What?” Aleksei says immediately.
She hesitates.
He steps forward. “Doctor.”
She looks between us, then says it.
“There’s evidence of a toxin.”
Everything in me goes numb except the pain. My mind rejects it completely for a second.
No. This cannot be happening. Not in his house. Not after everything. Not now.
Aleksei’s hand leaves mine. That scares me more than the doctor.
Because I know exactly what it means when he lets go.
He turns to the doctor. “Will she live?”
The bluntness shocks the room.
The doctor doesn’t flinch. “If we keep her stable and get ahead of it, yes. But she’s in danger right now.”
There it is. No soft language. No comforting lie.
