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I shook my head.
"I can take care of myself, Dad," I told him. "I need you to trust me with that. I know it’s hard for you to believe, but I...I have to know that you trust me enough to do this alone, without you overseeing every detail."
He sighed heavily, eyeing me, and shook his head.
"That’s not going to be easy for me," he warned me.
"I know," I assured him. "I know. But you’ll try? For me? For the baby?"
He let out a long breath but nodded.
"I’ll try," he replied. I knew it wasn’t going to be as easy as that, of course – I knew he wouldn’t be able to just switch off the protectiveness he felt towards me, and I got that, I did. But I didn’t mind.
All that I cared about was that he was willing to try. Because, with the new life laid out in front of me, I knew that was the only thing I could ask from him – that he tried. That’s all I could ask from myself, too, from Solomon and Alex. Trying. Effort. Being willing to take the highs and the lows as they came, no matter what they looked like.
"Thank you," I breathed, and he smiled at me. And I knew, at that moment, that this was the best I could hope for from my father – a chance, a new opportunity to make things right.
And I was going to embrace it. I wanted him to be there with me when this baby came into the world, and I wanted to build a new generation of our family, with him by my side.
A new generation. A better one. One full of love, care, and support – free of control and command. This baby had a whole world opening up right in front of them, and they didn’t even know it yet.
And I couldn’t be happier for them.
Chapter Twenty-Two – Alex
I paced back and forth next to the door, shooting glances at it every now and then.
"Hey, it’s going to be okay," Solomon tried to assure me, but I shook my head.
"I’m not going to believe that until I hear it from her," I told him. "You know how Maxim is..."
Solomon grimaced. He did, just as much as me. The two of us had been hired to take care of Olya, and instead, we had gotten her pregnant? I had a bad feeling about how this was going to go. Shit, I wouldn’t have been surprised if, instead of her, he sent some assassins to take us out and get revenge for what we had done...
Finally, the door opened – I tensed, spinning around to face it, preparing myself for whatever was about to walk through it.
And, when I saw her on the other side alone, I breathed a sigh of relief. Alright, so she’d gotten out of there in one piece, without her father being a total psycho about it. I grabbed her and pulled her into a hug, squeezing her close to me, and pressing my face into her hair.
"You okay?" I murmured to her, and she nodded, extracting herself from my arms and smiling over at Solomon.
"He actually took it...pretty well?" she admitted. I raised my eyebrows.
"He did?”
"Well, not at first," she replied, as she dropped a kiss on Solomon’s cheek. This easy expression of affection, it had started to become more common between us since she had found out about the pregnancy – I found myself warmed by the sight of it, the sight of her being so sweet and open with him.
"But he got there," she continued. "I still think it’s going to take some time for him to get used to the thought of it, you know because it really makes sense to him, but he’s willing to give it a try. That’s the best I can ask for, for now, at least."
"Thank fuck," Solomon muttered, slipping his arm around her waist and pulling her in nearer to him. "I thought...well, I didn’t think he was going to take it that well, I’ll say that."
"Yeah, me neither," she replied. "And I think you’ll need to keep your distance for a while, just give him time to wrap his head around it. But he’s open to it, at least. That’s more than I could have imagined."
"I think this calls for a celebration," Solomon remarked, dropping a kiss on her temple as he got to his feet. "You want to get some takeout?"
"I’d love to," she replied. "God, I’m starving..."
"Well, you’re eating for two," I pointed out. She laughed.
"I don’t think I really get to use that as an excuse for at least a few more months," she replied, but I grinned and shrugged.
