AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“She died from heartbreak.”
I pulled my brows, confused. “Care to explain?”
She forced a smile. “Sure. My mother spent all her life waiting for my father and I was forced to watch her wither away year after year. One evening, I came home, and she was sitting in her usual spot, staring out the window.”
She paused and blinked back her tears. “When I walked up to her and called her name, she wasn’t there anymore. She’d died staring at the rain and yearning for him.”
“Where is your father?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never met him before. Never heard his name, and I don’t care if he’s alive. To me, he died the same day my mother did.”
For some people, sharing something in common was a great way to bond, but it wasn’t the same for me. Hearing the crack in Giselle’s voice shattered something inside of me.
I reached for her hand and squeezed it in mine. “I can’t bring your mother back, but I want you to be happy from now on. I’ll do everything to make you happy, and I know it’s selfish, but I can’t let you go.”
Her big, brown eyes sparkled when she looked at me. “Anything?”
I nodded. “Anything.”
“I’ll think of something then, but you have to keep to your promise.”
“I’m part of the Bratva, and we don’t make promises we can’t keep.”
“Good.” She moved closer and rested her head on my arm. We spent the next several minutes discussing each other’s lives until I noticed she was starting to fall asleep beside me.
I laid her gently on the bed and covered her with our blanket, then I lay beside her and watched her as she slept. She was a serene sight to take in, so beautiful.
Her dark hair fell over her face, and she stirred in her sleep, pouting her pink, plump lips. A thought crossed my mind, I wondered if our baby was a boy or a girl.
If he was a boy, I hoped he would be as strong as I was but with a bit more of a conscience. If she was a girl, I wished she would look just like her mother.
An emotion I’d never felt before bubbled in my chest. Longing. Desperation. I’d always wanted to have something to myself, but this time around, I wanted someone.
Giselle.
I wanted her to want me and be by my side forever, but not because I was forcing her to. I longed for something deeper than anything I’d ever experienced. Sincerity perhaps.
Chapter 13 - Giselle
God, I hate mornings.
I held a pillow to my face and stirred on the bed. I’d never been a morning person, but my hatred for mornings had worsened a hundred times more since I became pregnant.
I either woke up hating the smell of everything, or I woke up so hungry I could eat a whole cow. Some mornings, I woke up hungry and nauseous, and I hated those days even more.
Starving and not being able to keep anything done.
Argh.
Fortunately, I wasn’t feeling nauseous this morning or hungry, but I needed a little more sleep. What was the point of waking up early when Nikolai wouldn’t be here anyway?
Restless from the brightness trying to stream through my closed eyes, I tossed again but collided with something warm and hard.
Nikolai?
I removed my pillow from my face and squinted. It was Nikolai, and he was peering at me with lovestruck eyes. Yeah, I was exaggerating, a man like Nikolai could never look at me that way. Still, his eyes were pinned on me in a way that made me flush.
They weren’t dark or blank like they usually were. No. They were soft, mesmerized…fuck me, I was probably hallucinating. I robbed my eyes and opened them wide, and he was still there looking at me.
