AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Opening the box, I read the instructions just to give me time to process, to be ready so I can’t possibly misinterpret the results. Then I settle onto the toilet and take the test.
“How’s it going in there?” Katie asks after a minute, her voice muffled through the door.
“Well, I’m supposed to wait three minutes to get the results,” I say. “Wanna come in and keep me company?”
The door’s open before I’ve even finished my sentence, and Katie leans against the counter as I sit on the closed toilet lid, bouncing my knees nervously.
“Do you know what you’ll do if…?”
“If I’m pregnant?” I finish her question for her, looking up at her with knots in my stomach.
She nods, crossing her arms over her chest.
“I can’t stop asking myself that question. And honestly, even though it’s probably the worst possible situation for me to end up in, I think I would keep it. I just… can’t imagine choosing not to, you know?” I chew the inside of my lip nervously, trying to picture myself going to a doctor and asking for an abortion.
As terrifying as the idea of telling my parents I’m having a baby might be, I don’t think I could face the alternative. Still, I’m petrified, so scared that I don’t dare look at the test before my time is up.
Katie releases a low whistle, her expression impressed. “You’re amazing for having figured that out within, what, an hour of thinking about it?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. I guess I always thought I’d like to have kids someday. And even if it’s messy and completely horrible timing and circumstances right now, I would rather not regret making a decision out of fear when I’m actually ready for a family sometime down the road.”
She nods, her eyes thoughtful as she looks at the floor. “And this guy? The father? You think he’ll be ready for a kid?”
Mishka’s face fills my mind, the brooding sense of seriousness he carries with him so often. The softer side he’s shown me since the night he saved my life. We’ve never talked about a family before, but I suspect that he would make a sensational father—if he wants to be one.
Guilt knots my stomach as I consider what it might mean for Mishka, though, if I’m pregnant. Man, if I thought our relationship might put him in danger, getting knocked up by him could easily result in some kind of bounty on his head. I don’t see my father taking the news well, and I can just imagine him losing a gasket and deciding to kill the man responsible.
Suddenly, the crushing weight of my decisions comes crashing down on me. What if I get Mishka killed? I don’t think I could live with myself. And what’s worse is that he tried to stay away. He pushed me away for as long as he could, and I insisted that we could make it work. That we could keep it secret.
I don’t think I can bear this burden alone any longer.
“Katie, I have to tell you something,” I breathe.
“Anything,” she insists, dropping onto the floor at my feet and peering up at me.
“Mishka, the guy my brother brought with us on my birthday…”
“Yeah?”
“He’s the one who saved my life that night my family was attacked… and he’s the one I’ve been seeing.”
Katie mimics the sound of a bomb exploding as she gestures that I just blew her mind. “I honestly did not see that one coming. He seemed so dead set against having fun.”
“Yeah, well apparently, that’s because Viktor told him to stay away from me if he wanted to live…”
Katie’s eyes grow wide. “Which is why you’ve been keeping this all hush-hush. But do you actually think your family would kill Mishka over dating you?”
“I honestly can’t be a hundred percent sure, and I didn’t want to risk it. But if he got me pregnant…?” I let the answer go unsaid.
Because I really do think they might kill him for that.
My phone alarm goes off, making me jump as it announces that my test is ready. Katie takes my hand as I drag in a fortifying breath. Then I take the plastic test from the back of the toilet and read the small window containing my results.
Tears well in my eyes, and my breath hitches.
29
ALINA
