Page 77 of Obsession of the Bratva

Pregnant.

I stared down at myself as if somehow looking would make it real. Or make it impossible. I wasn’t sure which of the two I wanted it to be. I had always wanted children and a family, but I had not thought it would happen in this manner.

“I...” My voice cracked. “I didn’t know.”

Nico remained silent, and I looked back at him.

“I swear I didn’t know. I hope you believe me. If I had known, you would have been the first person I would have told about it.”

Shock surged through me so hard it almost made me nauseous. I thought back over the past weeks. I had been stressed and exhausted, with constant anxiety bugging me at all times. These preoccupations had been so extreme that I had missed all signs. If there had even been signs.

God.

I genuinely hadn’t known. A hand moved to my stomach without permission. Without thought. Without conscious choice. It was my baby. The realization hit me so hard my eyes immediately filled with tears. It was not fear but something much bigger. Something overwhelming. Something I couldn’t even begin to name. A laugh escaped me, broken and shaky, which was immediately followed by a sob.

“Oh, my God.”

The tears came next, fast and uncontrollable. I pressed a hand against my mouth, trying to regain control but failing completely.

“Nico...”

His expression shifted, and something in his face softened just slightly. He held me as I cried, not once asking me to stop as if he understood the need I felt to sob it all out. Nico had always understood me. He remained quiet, watching and waiting. Then he asked the question. The one I should have anticipated. The one hanging between us from the second the doctor had spoken.

“Who does the baby belong to, Vera?”

The words were calm. Too calm. My head snapped up, and for the first time since waking, I truly looked at him. There was fear in his eyes, but it wasn’t much. Most people wouldn’t have seen it, but I did because I knew him. I had always known him. And suddenly I understood that it wasn’t the pregnancy that had shaken him. It was the uncertainty. My chest shattered.

“Nico.”

I said his name softly, the way I used to before. The way I hadn’t allowed myself to for months. His eyes closed briefly as if he was savoring the sound of it, and then opened again.

“It’s yours.”

There was no hesitation in my voice. No room for doubt.

“It has always been yours.”

Something happened to his face. Something painful. Raw. Almost impossible to witness.

“So you really never slept with him?”

I shook my head immediately. “No. I never slept with Adrian. Not even once.”

He nodded. “I know.”

His gaze dropped to my hand, and for the first time since I’d met him, Nico Romanov looked lost. Completely lost. And suddenly I couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t keep protecting everyone. Couldn’t keep carrying everything alone. Couldn’t keep lying to him and, most importantly, to myself.

Not now. Not after all of this. Not after almost dying. Not after discovering there was a child involved.

So I told him everything. Every ugly piece of it.

“I know you asked me earlier if I have been hiding something from you and there has been something,” I replied with a deep sigh.

The words landed like a gunshot, and Nico froze. I continued before I could lose my nerve.

“On the day that I came to break up with you, my father had returned from a business trip. He had somehow found out that I was dating you, and he told me all about your involvement with the bratva and tried to convince me that you had been lying to me since day one. None of that mattered to me and I didn’t pay my father any heed. However, he then asked me to spy on you for information, but I refused.”

“And then?” Nico asked, fully invested.