Page 78 of Exacting Vengeance

She glanced at her phone propped against the radio. Still a minute to go. Another sixty seconds waiting to find out if her life was about to change in the most unexpected and joyous way possible.

If she wasn’t pregnant, then nothing had been lost, since she’d never believed she could conceive anyway. But if she was pregnant, then maybe it was divine intervention giving her a second chance.

Being pregnant would mean her life was no longer just about her. There’d be her baby to think about. What would happen if she went to prison? Putting herself in a position where she might be separated from her baby⁠—

Not gonna happen.

Should she run?

Conviction in absentia was possible. If that happened, she’d never be able to stop running, and that went against everything she’d been striving so hard to achieve. Like her hard-earned self-respect. If that’s what it took to keep her baby safe, she’d do it. Ironically, she’d be running more from Kyle than from Yuri. Never again would she let Yuri dictate her life or frighten her into emotional submission. Kyle, however, could put her in jail. Whatever she decided, her doctorate was officially on the back burner. Her baby came first.

The cell phone dinged shrilly. Reaching over with a seriously unsteady hand, she stopped the timer. For a long moment, she couldn’t move, too afraid to get her hopes up. Finally, she stood and picked up the test wand, staring at the results and allowing it to sink in. Regardless of what she’d learned today, the ramifications were unbelievable. Two pink lines stared back at her.

I’m pregnant!

At least, this preliminary test said she was. The box stated it was 99% accurate. Still in disbelief, she sat back down on the edge of the tub. Laughter bubbled up from her throat. She really was going to have a baby.

Kyle’s baby.

What should have been a moment of celebration wasn’t, not entirely. Even if by some miracle she didn’t go to prison, remaining here was no longer possible. Loving Kyle as desperately as she did and never having that love returned would destroy her.

With a surprisingly steady hand, she set the test wand back on the vanity.

Kyle had essentially abandoned her. Again.

This morning when she’d woken up, she’d felt utterly alone. She placed a hand on her abdomen. Now she never would be. She could do this. Things were different now. She was different—stronger, capable of standing up for herself and her baby.

She tugged a washcloth from the rack and turned on the bath water to wet the cloth. After wiping her face, she wrung out the cloth and watched the water spiral down the drain. There’d been another day when she’d sat on the shower floor in her Chicago home, thinking how the whirlpool of water disappearing down the drain was symbolic of her drowned hopes for the future. Now there was a future. Not the one she’d expected but one that would bring her the joys of motherhood she’d so badly wanted to experience.

Single parenthood would be difficult, but she’d be the best mother a child could ever have. No matter how badly her relationship with Kyle had ended, this baby was conceived in love, and she vowed silently to raise it with a never-ending supply.

I will love you always, and I will never abandon you.

There was only one way to ensure she could keep that promise.

With a mixture of conviction and dread, she draped the washcloth over the edge of the tub, then went into the hallway and grabbed her mother’s photo.

In her bedroom, she tugged the small suitcase from the closet and took her time filling it with only the bare essentials and leaving just enough room for toiletries. After adding her mother’s photo to the suitcase, she headed back into the bathroom.

Rather than packing up her toiletries, she sat on the edge of the tub, second-guessing her decision. For what she was about to do, Kyle would hate her, probably more than he did already. But it had to be done.

She took a deep breath and wrinkled her nose.

A wisp of smoke filtered into the bathroom. She hadn’t started dinner yet, so nothing could be burning.

She stared at the smoke. It wasn’t the smell of burned food. This was cigar smoke, and she recognized the distinctive odor. Cuban cigars.

The kind Yuri smoked.

She gasped, clutching at her throat and nearly collapsing backward into the tub.

“Hello, Vika. Miss me?”

Chapter Thirty-One

At least twenty origami figures sat on the dining room table. A Frog. An elephant, swans, cats, eagles, and butterflies. Kyle put another fold in the rhinoceros he’d been working on, waiting for the soothing effect to kick in. It didn’t.

“Kyle.” His mother rested a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong? You’ve been at this for over an hour.”