Page 78 of Lord of Justice

"He's sharing an apartment with five other guys, it's all he can afford," Rose says happily. "Roman was kind enough to send me a report. It looks like that broken leg of his should heal up soon."

"Good," Violet snarls, always unwilling to forgive a slight against her sisters, which is something I love about her. "Then maybe he'll think twice about running awayscreamingwhen his girlfriend is in danger next time." I think I'm off the hook but she circles back. "Iris, honey, what are you going to do?"

"I'm... going to tell him," I say,finallyfeeling the certainty I've been grasping for. "It's been almost a month since I found out. It's been too long to waffle around with this. The man fathering my child should certainly know, huh? Andrey cares for me. I know he does. He'll care for our baby, too."

"Well, then get your ass up. Put on your shoes, andgo," Violet says sharply, sliding back into her stern 'mother to my sisters' era.

"Fine!" I snap, feeling like I'm eighteen again.

Rose gives me a big sloppy kiss and shoves me off the couch. "Get going, then!"

"I am!" I shout back.

"Then why are you still here?" Violet says. She's looking stern as hell.

Giving Avros a long, squishy hug and many kisses, I unwind his fat little baby fingers from my hair and head out the door, Melina following me to the car.

I can do this. Andrey won't be a typical father, but he's going to be a great father. I know it.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

In which nobody is happy with this.

Iris…

As the elevator doors open, I'm ready. I practiced a few openings on the way home.

"Hey, have you heard the joke about the Morozov Super Sperm? Turns out that's not a myth."

"Imagine the joy of having your life completely upended and baby drool on your Balenciaga suits?"

"Hey, Andrey, you knocked me up after all so maybe that stylist was on to something."

I'm ready.

I'm going to tell Andrey.

Sure, he doesn't seem interested in other people's kids, but that doesn't mean he'd feel the same about his own. I can't hide this any longer, not when it feels like I'm lying to him. I'm going to tell him I love him, and we're having a child. Also,that it seems that I'm appallingly fertile.

Shaking my hands, I blow out a breath. I'm shaky. I'm excited. I don't care that I'm only twenty. Sure, it's stupidly early. But this is Andrey's baby and Iwantthis child.

"I know he loves me," I reason with myself as I walk up the stairs towards his study. "Maybe he can't say it, but he shows it in little ways, every day. Like the flowers."

Now that I don't have the "You shall not pass!" admonition to never enter Andrey's study (and boy, did I love giving him shit about it when he finally invited me into his sacred domain.) he often leaves the study door open. Walking down the hall, I can hear him talking.

Andrey has such an incredibly deep, commanding voice. I can tell he's trained a bit because it becomes even more so in public appearances and when he's in the courtroom. I sat in the back row and listened to him make the closing arguments on his last case before he took the judgeship. His stern face, how he used his hands and thatvoice,I was weak in the knees for the rest of the afternoon.

He won, of course.

Someone's talking on speaker. "I'm glad you warned me to go through any inquiries for a record on your wife," the man says. "There werethree pings, someone was trying to dig through the police files and they must've had pretty good clearance to get that far."

"Thank you, detective, I know we deleted the attempted murder charge and the others I'd put into the arrest warrant. They were easy enough to remove, but I wanted to make doubly certain that the Long Island charges had disappeared as well."

The hallway feels like it's moving, like an earthquake. I put my hand on the wall.

"I heard the news about your wedding, so I'm assuming the fake charges did their job," the other man says, sounding slightly amused. He is immediately shut down by Andrey's glacial tone.

"We willnevertalk about it again," he says sternly. "I would like you to speak with Kolya, our best tech expert. He might be able to trace those inquiries."