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“Ready?”

“I am,” I said, sounding confident for the first time in weeks.

With those words she squeezed, and a warming sensation hit my stomach. She moved the wand slowly around.

“I’m just checking around first,” she said, looking at the screen.

It was like looking at a foreign language you’ve never seen before. Nothing looked like anything but indistinct images and blobs. The images shifted and changed as she moved the wand around.

She turned the screen more towards us. Pasha had moved to stand beside me and took my hand.

“Well, there they are,” she said, pointing to the screen as she moved the wand with the other hand. “Two little ones, side by side. Twins.”

Time slowed. My gaze drifted to the ultrasound screen. And my entire world tilted. Air lodged somewhere between my lungs and throat. Beside me, Pasha’s fingers tightened around mine. I glanced down and his knuckles were white. Pain shot through my hand, causing me to flinch.

“Sorry, princess,” he breathed and loosened his hold.

My pulse hammered in my ears. I blinked rapidly as tears flooded my vision. When I looked at him, his entire body had gone rigid.

Amber-brown eyes remained locked on the monitor, as though looking away might somehow make them disappear. A full body tremor moved through him. Then the screen blurred.

I wiped away the tears and looked again. Two tiny forms filled the monitor. Two of them, nestled side by side. Their hearts flickered steadily against the darkness.

For one impossible moment, the room vanished. All I could see were those tiny beating hearts. My own lodged somewhere in my throat.

“Twins?” I breathed, feeling light-headed.

“Yes, two sets of everything. See this area here,” she said, pointing to the screen. “They are monochorionic or diamniotic twins. They share the same placenta, but they have their own thin amniotic sacs which separates them. Would you like me to check the gender?”

“Yes,” Pasha choked out.

His cheeks flamed for a moment, and he shifted.

“I mean. I would like to know. If you don’t, princess maybe she could write it down for me to look at later?” he ended it as a question.

“You can tell?”

“I can make a fairly accurate guess.”

She moved the wand around a bit, and her brow furrowed, making my heart clench in worry.

“Is everything okay?” I choked out.

“Everything is fine. I’m just trying to get a better look.” Her eyes flicked to Pasha. “Am I writing it down, or do you want to know as well?”

I assumed she was talking to me. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the screen.

Gulping, I answered, “Yes, I want to know, too.”

“You’ve got a nice, healthy set of identical girls.”

Holy shit. Two little girls. Identical.

Beside me, Pasha made a sound. It wasn’t quite a laugh, more like a sob or damn near close between. His hand found mine again. This time he was more gentle.

“Moi devochki, Isabella, posmotri na nikh.”

The whisper was barely audible. But whatever he said, it carried enough emotion to steal the remaining air from my lungs. I turned toward him. His eyes never left the screen.