Only then does Viktor start toward the terrace.
I push myself to my feet before I can stop myself.
Nadine says something, maybe my name, maybe sit down, but I’m already moving toward him, ignoring the ache in my abdomen, ignoring the way my legs still feel shaky.
He reaches me halfway. His hands are on my arms at once, looking me over with a kind of concentrated fury that makes my throat tighten. “Are you hurt?”
“No.” I can barely get the word out. “You?”
“I’m fine.”
He says it without looking at himself, without checking, as if his own body is the least relevant thing in front of him. I believe him anyway because I need to.
The baby kicks again, hard, and I suck in a breath.
Viktor feels the change in me immediately. His eyes drop to my stomach, then back to my face. “What is it?”
“The baby,” I say. “Just the baby.”
That’s not enough of an answer for him. I can tell.
His hand moves to my belly without hesitation, broad and warm and steady, and for one absurd second we’re standing on a torn-up wedding lawn full of crying guests and shattered chairs while he soothes my stomach like the rest of the world has gone very far away.
“Easy,” he murmurs.
It helps a little.
I look at him and finally ask the question I’ve been choking on since he disappeared behind the hedges. “What happened?”
His face changes.
Not much. Just enough.
“They’re gone,” he says.
Relief rushes through me, but suddenly there’s another sensation.
I feel it before I understand it.
Not pain. Not at first. Just a sudden warmth low between my legs, so strange and wrong in the middle of everything else that for one confused second I think I’ve imagined it. Then it keeps coming, a rush I can’t stop, and I look down.
The front of my dress is wet.
My breath catches.
No.
Viktor sees my face change before I say anything. His hand is still on my stomach, his eyes on mine, and I watch the exact moment he understands that something has shifted.
“Sienna?”
I try to answer, but my voice doesn’t come properly. I look down again, at the liquid darkening the fabric, at the grass beneath me.
Oh God.
Viktor’s hand tightens on my arm. “What is it?”
I finally force the words out.
