Page 22 of The Bratva Stalker and His Pregnant Bride

A sharp, heavy knock suddenly echoes through the quiet house.

I look down at Ethan, who stirs slightly but doesn’t wake. I slide out from under his warm weight, gently placing his head on a pillow and pulling the knit blanket up to his chin.

I ease off the sofa, my bare feet making no sound against the hardwood as I walk down the short hallway toward the front door. Maya is notorious for dropping by late at night because she doesn’t live very far away. I swear she has no concept of technology.

Assuming it’s her, I don’t bother checking the peephole. I just reach out, unlock the deadbolt, and wrench the door wide open with a familiar smile on my lips.

“Maya, I swear, if you brought more—”

The words die in my throat. My smile vanishes instantly.

Standing on my porch, his broad shoulders damp from the rain and his icy blue eyes fixed directly on mine, is Samuel.

Shock, white-hot and paralyzing, grips me for a fraction of a second. Then, it instantly mutates into a blinding, defensive rage.

“How did you find my address?” I demand, my voice a fierce, trembling whisper. “Get the hell off my property!”

Without waiting for him to reply, I throw my weight against the heavy wood, attempting to slam the door shut in his face. I’m entirely unwilling to let him breathe the same air as my sanctuary, to let his chaos contaminate the one place I’m safe.

But Samuel is faster.

With a lightning-quick reflex, his large, scarred hand shoots forward, his palm planting flat against the wood. He doesn’t push back with violence, but the sheer, unyielding physics of his strength stops the door dead in its tracks.

“Ashley, wait—” he begins, his deep voice rough.

“Let go of the door!” I hiss, straining against his weight, my knuckles turning white as I try to force it closed. “I swear to God, Samuel, I will call the police!”

“Mommy?”

The small, sleepy voice cuts through the quiet struggle like a physical blow.

My heart stops. My blood runs entirely to ice.

I look back over my shoulder. Ethan is standing at the end of the hallway, rubbing his eyes, his blue-and-orange dinosaur pajamas bright against the dim light. He has his teddy bear clutched by the ear, his face tilted up in innocent curiosity at the commotion.

“Mommy, who’s at the door?” he asks, his little feet pattering down the hallway toward us.

“Ethan, go back to bed!” I panic, my voice rising in a pitch I’ve never used with him before. “Right now, baby, go to your room!”

But the timing is abrupt, cruel, and completely irreversible.

In my distraction, my leverage on the door slips. The gap widens by just a few inches.

Samuel’s resistance suddenly vanishes, but he doesn’t push his way inside. Instead, he freezes. His entire body goes rigid.

Through the opening, his piercing blue eyes slide past my shoulder, bypassing me entirely to lock onto the little boy standing in the hallway.

The silence that descends on the entryway is absolute, heavy, and suffocating.

I watch Samuel’s face, and my stomach drops into a bottomless, terrifying void. I see the exact second the air leaves his lungs. I see his gaze trace the shape of Ethan’s face, the dark hair, and finally, those brilliant, unmistakably familiar blue eyes.

The anger, the stubbornness, the armor—it all drains out of Samuel, leaving his expression completely raw. I can see the brutal, mathematical calculation happening behind his eyes as he pieces together the dates, the timeline, the age of the boy, and the face staring back at him.

Before a single word of confirmation is even spoken, the truth is laid bare between us. And as the realization hardens on Samuel’s face, I know my fortress has just completely collapsed.

Instead of walking away like I said, Ethan comes closer, bridging the physical distance between him and a father he never knew.

“Hi,” Ethan chirps, breaking the suffocating quiet. He steps right up to my side, completely oblivious to the silent earthquake shattering the doorway. He tilts his head back, looking up at the towering man in front of us with wide, curious eyes, and holds up his worn teddy bear.