Page 16 of Wicked Brutal

“Have you seen a doctor?”

“No. I didn’t know how without my father finding out.”

“Okay.”

“I’ve been trying to figure it out.”

“Okay.”

“Can you stop saying okay?”

“No.”

She laughed, then cried again, and I rested my forehead against her stomach, and that made both of us go still. There was a baby in there. Our baby. And under the shock, cutting up through it, was the thing I couldn’t say to her yet, the thing my find-everything brain had already understood before the rest of me caught up: this wasn’t just a baby.

This was proof.

Physical, growing, undeniable proof that Ally O’Toole was not what her father had promised Victor Tremblay she was. The one term. The thing that made her worth it. Gone — and not gone quietly, not gone in a way anybody could hide, but gone in a way that would announce itself to the whole world in a matter of months whether we were ready or not.

I wrapped my arms around her. “I’m scared,” I admitted.

Her fingers moved into my hair. “Me too. I’m really fucking scared.”

“I know.” I looked up at her. “But I’m not mad.” Her mouth trembled. “I’m not disappointed.” Another tear. “And I’m not leaving.”

“Ryan—“

“I’m not.”

“I know.”

“Do you?” She nodded, and I stood and took her face in my hands. “I need you to know.”

“I do.”

I kissed her forehead, then both cheeks, then her mouth, and when I pulled back she was smiling through the tears. “I think I’m happy,” she said.

I laughed softly. “Yeah?”

“Is that horrible?”

“No.” I put my hand over her stomach. “So am I.”

Her eyes opened. “Really?”

“Yeah.” The fear was still there. So was everything else. But underneath it was something warm enough that I couldn’t pretend it wasn’t. Then I remembered. “Wait.” I grabbed the wrapped book off the table, and her eyes widened.

“You still got me something?”

“Obviously. Open it.”

She sat on the couch and I sat beside her, and she peeled the brown paper back carefully, because Ally couldn’t destroy wrapping paper like a normal person. When she saw the cover she stopped, her fingers moving over it. “No.”

“Yes.”

“Ryan. This is a first edition.”

“I know.”