Page 77 of Exacting Vengeance

“Are you sure?”

She nodded. “Years ago, I tried conceiving but never could. I went to a doctor, got tested, and found out I was sterile.”

“Were you and Kyle…intimate?” Victoria nodded. “How many times and how long ago?”

“Only twice.” She mentally calculated backwards on the calendar. “About two weeks ago. Not that there’s a chance I’m pregnant, but wouldn’t it be too soon to experience symptoms?”

“No.” Tracee shook her head adamantly. “These signs can show up as early as two weeks after conception. Trust me, I looked it up. Plus, you missed your period. That’s a biggie.”

“It can’t be true,” she whispered. “The doctor said so.” But the more she thought about it, the more a niggling suspicion took root. Deep down, her body was telling her something that couldn’t possibly be true. The memory of Yuri’s cruel words slammed into her as he’d viciously related the doctor’s diagnosis. “Could the doctor have been wrong?” If so, she should be angry at the misdiagnosis. Instead, hesitant elation bloomed inside her.

“Maybe,” Tracee said. “It does happen. What exactly did the doctor say was the problem?”

“Well, I don’t know.” Because Yuri had taken the call. She’d never actually spoken with the doctor. She sucked in a breath. “Oh my God.” Was it possible Yuri had lied to her?

Stupid question.

Looking back, when had he not lied?

In her few-and-far-between sexual encounters with other men since fleeing Chicago, they’d always used protection. Kyle was the only man she’d been comfortable enough with to make love without any form of contraception.

I might be pregnant with Kyle’s baby.

The ramifications were both exhilarating. And frightening.

Kyle had been devastated by the death of his wife and unborn daughter. Would he really want her child? After everything she’d done, could he possibly still want her?

She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she loved him with her whole heart, but there’d been no proclamations of love or commitment on his part. Likely, there never would be.

“You need to run across the street to the drugstore and buy a home pregnancy test. If it’s positive, you need to make an appointment with a doctor and have it confirmed.” Tracee smiled. “Tonight, I’m going to make you some of my mother’s famous morning sickness ginger chicken noodle soup.”

“First, I have to make a phone call.” Eagerness aside, confirming her suspicion with Doctor Forster took priority. He might not be in practice anymore, but she had to at least try and find out what her diagnosis had been. She flipped open the laptop and began searching for his office number.

“Victoria?” Tracee’s brow furrowed. “Is this a good thing?”

“Yes.” Her smile broadened. “But you have to promise me you won’t ever tell Kyle. If he comes here, it would be better if you didn’t even talk to him.” When Tracee didn’t respond but kept watching her with a growing frown on her face, Victoria repeated, “Promise me.”

Tracee sighed, as if she didn’t agree with her decision. “Okay, I promise, but you should think hard about this. You might change your mind.”

“Thank you.” While her decision to keep Kyle in the dark weighed heavily on her, she wouldn’t change her mind. If she really was pregnant with his child, having him in her life solely for the sake of the baby would be unbearable.

The rest of the day had dragged by at a snail’s pace. By the time Victoria’s last patient had left, her nerves were coiled and ready to spring in every direction.

She paced in the confines of her small apartment bathroom, waiting for the timer on her cell phone to announce the end of the prescribed three minutes it took for the pregnancy test to develop. Two lines if she was, one if she wasn’t. To keep from staring at the test wand for the full three minutes, she’d stuck it in a corner on the vanity. It was like waiting for water to boil, and it was killing her.

Unable to take the silence, she turned on the small radio she used to check the weather in the morning, turning up the volume and tuning it to a music station to keep her mind occupied. Not working. She couldn’t stop from replaying over and over again in her mind what Doctor Forster’s staff had told her.

Doctor Forster was still in practice in Chicago. After she’d emailed them back the medical information release form, they’d been incredibly accommodating and quickly sent over her old test results. “All reproductive markers within normal range” was the final sentence in the summary section. She’d read those words ten times before the full impact could sink in.

Victoria sat on the edge of the tub, gritting her teeth. Never before had she felt such anger at a human being.

Yuri had lied to her.

It would be totally in keeping with his cruel, narcissistic personality to hurt her like that and, at the same time, avoid having to acknowledge his own paternal inadequacy.

“Bastard.”

Other, more colorful words nearly flew from her mouth, but since Yuri wasn’t here, she kept them to herself.