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I toss off the blanket and leap to my feet. “What was he saying?” I demand. “On the news, I mean, what was he saying? Who interviewed him? Did they—you know what, it doesn’t matter. What did he say? What bullshit did he go with?”
Phoebe sighs. “The whole bereaved father schtick,” she admits. “It was truly nauseating. He cried and everything.”
Apparently, my morning sickness is triggered by assholes, because this is the moment it hits. I drop back to the couch and put my head between my knees.
“This is bad, Pheebs. This is so, so bad.”
“Hey now, calm down. Ruslan will be able to get you out, right?”
“Until he deals with this threat to me and the kids, he’s not gonna let me go anywhere. He asked for a month to make things right and I stupidly agreed. But now, I don’t even have a day to spare. Especially if Ben’s out there spinning bullshit about me.” My pacing slows as something else hits me. “Wait—did he mention me in the interview today? Were the words ‘kidnapping’ and ‘bitch sister-in-law’ bandied about?”
She hesitates for a second. “You were mentioned only in the context of another missing person—”
“My parents’ doing,” I deduce. “They won’t want a criminal daughter to have to explain in their snobby society circles.”
“They’re not gonna be able to control the narrative forever, Em. In any case, Ben’s a loose cannon. They’re gonna have a tough time reining him in once he gets a taste for the spotlight.”
Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse.
“I have to leave, Phoebe. I have to leavenow. If he even suspects that I’m pregnant—”
“Jesus, Emma! Take a breath—”
“I can’t take a breath! I don’t have the time. They’re after me. They’re all fucking after me and if I don’t move now, they’re gonna catch me. They’re gonna take my kids. Ben will take Josh, Caro, and Rae and Ruslan will take my baby! I can’t let them do that, Phoebe.”
“I know. I know.” Her voice is soothing but I can sense her panic. Or maybe it’s my own. Who the hell knows at this point? What difference does it make?
All I know is that I can’t stay here in this gilded prison. I can’t allow myself to be jailed, no matter how much I may care about my jailer.
My kids trump everything and everyone else.
“I’ve got to go.”
“Emma, please—be careful.”
“I love you, Pheebs.”
I hang up abruptly and turn to the door. My blood runs cold when I see who’s standing in the threshold, his piercing eyes fastened on me.
“K-Kirill—how long have you been standing there?”
10
EMMA
HOW LONG HAS HE BEEN STANDING THERE?
The answer is clearly“too fucking long.”
He walks in and sits down on the edge of the new bed that I haven’t broken in yet. For someone who’s potentially just heard all my secrets, he looks pretty damn composed.
Maybe, by some miracle, he didn’t hear the part where—
“Don’t look so scared, Emma. I already knew.”
Since I’ve given away enough already, I decide to make him say it. “Knew what?”
He smirks and crosses his leg in a figure-four. “I know you’re pregnant. I know you’re carrying Ruslan’s baby.”
