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“I think you just got your period,” she says wearily, as though I’ve just sprung an irritating inconvenience on her.
I slide down the seat and realize that I’ve smeared blood on the black cushion. “Oh, God,” I gasp, realizing what might be happening, as another jolt of pain lances down my side. “This can’t be happening…”
“What do you mean?” Mila asks. She glances towards the driver. “For fuck’s sake, Anton, step on it, will you? Taylor, is there something I should know?”
I should be telling my own family about this. Not this violent, random stranger who threatened me at gunpoint. But the words slip off my tongue, fueled by fear and the growing realization that Idowant this baby. More than I thought I did.
And that, if I don’t speak the truth now, it might be too late.
“I-I’m pregnant,” I gasp, clinging to the edges of my seat. “And I think…I think I might be miscarrying.”
I close my eyes and lie back against the seat. I spent so much time worrying about this pregnancy that I hadn’t stopped to consider everything else that came with it. I’ve been worrying about the consequences, the reactions—so it’s ironic that it takes something like this to make me think of thebabyat the end of all of it.
“How far along are you?” It’s a thoughtful question, but I know she’s not asking to be sweet. She’s like Ilarion in that sense: gathering info, cold, calculating, always assessing the angles and weighing the odds. I’m just a variable in her equations. My baby is, too.
“Ten weeks,” I whisper.
Her eyes meet mine, rife with suspicion. I can practically hear the gears whirring in her head.Please don’t ask me, I think to myself. I don’t have the strength to lie today.
She nods crisply. “We have a doctor on staff. He’ll meet us at the Diamond.”
“The what?”
“It’s another one of the Zakharov family properties,” she says. “You’ll get the help you need there.”
I want to scream, but I don’t have the strength to do any more of that. Doesn’t she get it? The only thing I really need is to know that my family is okay. The only thing I need is to get out of this fucked-up world as soon as I can.
And take my family with me.
21
TAYLOR
As it turns out, the Diamond is just like Zakharov House, but miniaturized. The same lush wilderness swaddling it from the rest of the world, the same ornate sandstone blocks rising into gargoyles and spires and flanged spikes on the walls. The only difference is the huge diamond shape laid into the tile floors in the foyer. Very subtle.
Not that I’m in the mood to appreciate architecture. I’d rather be in hell, if it meant that I was assured of my family’s safety. Surely,surely, Celine couldn’t have known about all this. She couldn't have known that her fiancé was some kind of crime boss.
I mean, the likelihood that a man as young as Ilarion Zakharov could have amassed so much wealth without doing something illegal is slim to none, and slim just left town. But like I said before, my sister chooses to believe the best in everyone.
Even when she shouldn’t.
The car comes to a stop, but I don’t move to get out. I feel like I’m floating inside the confines of my own body. My limbs are dead and numb and my mouth tastes like ash. The blood smeared on the insides of my thighs has cooled to a scab.
It’s not until Mila pulls open my door that I’m forced back into my body.
“Come on,” she says, a bit gentler than she’s said anything else to date. “Let’s get you inside.”
“I don’t want to come inside.”
She sighs audibly, then bends down so that she’s at eye level with me. “If you’re miscarrying, Taylor, you need a doctor.”
“Then drive me to a hospital so I can see one.”
“We have a doctor right here.”
“I’m not letting your morally corrupt voodoo mob doctor poke and prod me and then pronounce me ready for euthanasia,” I snap, ignoring the pain in my stomach that accompanies my rising temper.
Mila arches one skeptical eyebrow. “So you’re okay with losing the baby then?” I flinch, and she nods. “That’s what I thought. Dr. Baranov delivered both Ilarion and me. He’s a family doctor, not a—what was your word choice?—a ‘morally corrupt voodoo mob doctor.’ And considering everything I just went through to get you out of that disaster, letting him kill you is not high on my list. Same goes for your child. So unless you decide you don’t want this baby, I’d suggest you get your ass out here and follow me.”
