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“I’m not judging you.” She pulled back, studying my face with fierce protectiveness. “I trust you even when I don’t understand, you know that. I just need to know you’re safe. That’s all I actually need to know today.”

“I’m safe,” I said, and meant it. I squeezed her hands back, grateful in a way I didn’t fully know how to voice for the fact that she’d shown up at all, no questions asked beyond the ones she couldn’t help.

She held my hands for a moment longer.

“Okay,” she said, nodding and wiping carefully under her eyes so she wouldn’t ruin what was left of her mascara. “Okay. Then let’s get you married.”

*****

The ceremony took place in a private room on the top floor of one of the Golovin properties, floor-to-ceiling windows framing the Strip in gold and neon exactly the way they had the first night I’d stood in Nikolai’s penthouse. The guest list was deliberately small. Mikhail sat at the front with the stillness I’d expect of the oldest Golovin brother. Beside him, Viktor was wearing an expression closer to amusement than solemnity, watching Nikolai the way a brother watches someone who’s finally lost an argument he swore he’d never lose. Sebastian sat further back, unreadable as always, with a stack of what looked suspiciously like work papers folded discreetly beside him. I also noticed Bianca angling herself carefully to avoid his direct gaze whenever their eyes threatened to meet.

Nikolai stood at the front in black, immaculate as always. The moment I started down the aisle, his composure cracked in a way I’d never once seen from him in public. Something raw moved behind his eyes, something possessive and unguarded. I understood as I moved toward him that whatever this had started as, it was not purely strategic for him anymore—and he’d admitted as much.

The vows themselves passed in a blur I still held onto afterward, even though they were the same generic words of most weddings. I remember his voice steady on every word. I remember my own voice shaking on half of them. I remember the dangerous permanence of standing there with Vegas glittering behind him through the glass, promising forever to a man I’d spent years trying to destroy. When he slid the ring onto my finger, his hand lingered, and something in his eyes told me he’d noticed exactly how strange that permanence felt.

The reception dinner that followed felt smaller and quieter than I’d expected. There were just a handful of round tables featuring low conversation and the restraint of a family more interested in strategy than celebration. Mikhail raised a brief toast that sounded more like a business acknowledgment than a blessing, and Viktor made a joke at Nikolai’s expense that earned a rare flicker of a smile from him, which was the first genuinely relaxed expression I’d seen on his face all evening.

I made it through the appetizer course just fine. Then, as I took the second glass of champagne, my stomach turned violently enough that I had to excuse myself, murmuring something about the heat as I pushed my chair back and walked as steadily as I could toward the hallway.

I made it to the bathroom exactly in time, throwing up into the toilet. Val entered a minute later, kneeling beside me on the tile without hesitation despite the dress she was wearing, holding my hair back the way a sister might.

“Nerves,” I said weakly, once I could speak again, wiping my mouth with the tissue she passed me. “It’s just nerves. Today’s been a lot.”

“Maybe.” She handed me a glass of water as we stood, and I flushed. “Or maybe it’s something else. How careful were you two, exactly?”

Heat crept up my neck. “We weren’t exactly… thinking about that.”

“Camila.” She said my name gently with the same patience I imagined she’d needed plenty of times herself in this family. “You should take a test. Just to know. Better to know now than to find out some other way.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing.”

“Humor me.” She smiled slightly.

She produced a test from somewhere in her bag, and I sat on the edge of the bathtub afterward with my hands shaking, waiting out the longest three minutes of my entire life. Val checked her phone once, glanced at me, and set it face-down without checking it again.

I told myself it would be negative. That the nausea was stress and the timing was coincidence. I counted the tiles on the floor to keep my brain busy, lost count twice, and started over.

The test came back positive.

I stared at the two lines for a long time, long enough that Val finally leaned over to look herself, her breath catching audibly beside me.

“Camila.”

I couldn’t answer her. I sat there on the edge of that bathtub in my wedding dress, the test shaking in my hand, and felt different emotions crashing through me at once—fear, disbelief, and something that might have been joy if I found room for it beneath everything else fighting for space in my head. Four years ago I’d hated this man enough to spend six months building a case designed to destroy his entire life. Tonight I’d married him. And now I was carrying his child.

Val squeezed my hand once, letting the silence stretch as long as I needed it to before she spoke again.

“You don’t have to know what to feel about it yet,” she said softly. “You just have to breathe.”

I nodded, though breathing suddenly felt harder than she made it sound. Beyond the door, I could hear the reception still moving forward without me, glasses clinking, someone laughing at something I couldn’t make out. Of course, it was an entire room of people celebrating a marriage that had just become considerably more complicated than any of them realized yet.

“Does he know?” Val asked gently. “Does Nikolai know you’re feeling sick?”

“No. I don’t—” I pressed my palm flat against my stomach, still not fully able to believe what that gesture now meant. “I don’t even know how I’m supposed to tell him something like this.”

“You’ll find the words when you’re ready. Tonight, you don’t owe anyone an explanation, not even him.” She helped me stand, steadying me by the elbow. She reached for a washcloth to press cool water against my face.

I simply had no words.