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He shakes his head sadly. “I should have seen it. I was so focused on Rodion being Emily’s killer that I never even guessed it could be Sergey.”
“Because you trusted him,” I say gently.
He snorts. “That was my mistake, too.”
“Trusting people isn’t a mistake. If they lose your trust, that istheirmistake. It’s one I almost made,” I whisper. “I can see now why you didn’t trust me when you found me in Noelle’s apartment.”
“What were you doing there, anyway?” For the first time, his question doesn’t sound accusatory. He’s genuinely just curious.
Finally.
“Looking for evidence. It sounds stupid now, I know. I should have just called the police. But I wanted to make sure that I found enough evidence to lock her away for good. I wanted her to go to prison. At least in prison, she’d be safe.”
Timofey’s mouth twists to the side. “Safe from me, you mean.”
I shrug. “Yeah. You didn’t make a secret of the fact that you’re willing to kill my friends.”
“For you and Benjamin,” he clarifies. “I would kill anyone for either of you.”
I should be horrified, but my heart swells at the sincerity in his voice. “I know you would. But do you think…maybe we could not threaten my loved ones anymore? Like, Gram and Ashley—they’re safe, right?”
Timofey grabs my hands and folds them up in his long fingers. “They’re safe. You can trust that.”
I press a kiss to his knuckles. “I know I can. I do trust you, Timofey. I trust you. And that’s why I need to be honest.”
His head tilts to the side almost imperceptibly. A strand of dark hair falls across his forehead. Timofey is a strong, intimidating man, but he is also remarkably beautiful. I focus on his ocean blue eyes as I find my courage.
“So when I was in the hospital… after passing out in Noelle’s closet…”
He winces. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s fine,” I say quickly. Truthfully, it was more than fine. I’ve thought back on it more than a few times in the last couple of days. “But when we got to the hospital, a nurse told me that I was dehydrated and had low iron. Apparently, anemia is really common…during pregnancy.”
I tiptoe to the edge of the truth, but I can’t quite make the plunge.
“Okay.” He nods and then waits.
“And pregnancy is really common among pregnant women. Of which I am one. I mean, a woman, yeah, but also a—” I grimace at my graceless delivery. I tried for humor but it feels like I didn’t stick the landing. “I’m pregnant.”
He blinks slowly. “I know.”
I expected Timofey to be stunned, but I’m the one gawking at him wordlessly, trying to process. “Come again?”
“I know,” he repeats. “I figured it out yesterday.”
“You—You figured it out yesterday. Okay. Well, uh, how did you figure it out?”
He rattles things off on his fingers. “You passed out in the closet, you didn’t eat your pancakes on the plane, you didn’t take the bottle of champagne from Ashley yesterday, and you keep touching your stomach.”
I glance down at my hands folded over my stomach even now. I slide them away, but Timofey catches my wrists and places both of our hands back where they were. He leans forward, looking into my eyes.
“I’ll raise this baby, Piper. With you. Without you, if that’s what you choose. No matter what, I’m going to be here for this baby. And I’m here for whatever you want, too.” He sighs. “I know this world isn’t safe. If you want to leave, then I’ll do this alone. I want—”
“I want to be here,” I interrupt. “I want to bethere. Here and there. God, I’m really bad at making speeches.”
He laughs. “I think you’re doing fine.”
There was a time when I didn’t know if I’d ever hear Timofey laugh. I didn’t know if he was capable of it. There was a time when I wanted nothing more than to get a child away from him.
