AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Really?” I had to make sure I heard him right, that my ears weren’t deceiving me.
He nodded. “Yes, really. It won’t be easy, but the reward will be worth it.”
Wow, he did love me like he claimed. “I thought for sure...”
“Katerina, I’ll do anything for you.” He said as he leaned over and kissed my lips softly. “For you and our child.”
And he was proving it.
Guilt stung my heart as the weight of what I’d just forced onto him hit home. I’d just asked him to deny his instincts for me. To give up his family and everything he was familiar with. To move to a foreign world where he knew no one and had nothing else but me.
Lucian loved me enough to do it.
I should have been elated, but instead I felt like a horrible person. I’d just demanded he do something that I myself would never do for him.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I—”
“What are you apologizing for?” he asked, frowning. “If you feel this is the best way for us to be together, I am going to trust that instinct.”
His confidence in me helped and I moved forward to snuggle into his arms. But the weight of that conversation was going to haunt me. I could already tell.
Chapter 12.
KATERINA
Time passed, and we lived together just like any other human couple. I went to work, and Lucien remodeled the bathroom to make it more efficient for me and the baby.
He continued to make my backyard gorgeous, installing in a swing and building a playground. He drew up plans to fix up my kitchen but hadn’t gotten around to actually doing the work just yet. Construction was how he kept busy while I was away, and when I was at home, he waited on me hand and foot.
I had mixed feelings about that, though. I loved how attentive he was to my needs and to those of the baby. Lucian was all in, in that regard. However, as the weeks passed, our interactions began to feel hollow. Like he was with me in body, but not in spirit. He listened to me talk but didn’t say much in return.
I thought maybe he was just being broody, but then I noticed he’d had an entire shift in attitude, in general. Lucian didn’t seem like the man I’d met the night of the wedding, and I wasn’t quite sure what to do about it.
I was in week sixteen of my pregnancy and was feeling a lot better. Once I’d gotten out of the first trimester, my appetite had returned, and life had gotten a little easier. However, now I was growing a bump, and becoming increasingly more uncomfortable and irritable. I had no idea how to tend to Lucian’s emotional needs, or what the problem even was.
He wouldn’t open up to me. How did I get him to?
Not that I was any better, I supposed. I was going to my third doctor’s appointment to check in on the baby, and I didn’t tell Lucian that’s why I was leaving for the day—only that I had errands to run for a few hours. He hadn’t gone to any of my appointments, actually.
If I told him ahead of time, I knew he’d want to come with me. For the time being, I needed to go on my own.
I went to the clinic and sat in the lobby to wait. This appointment was the big one—the sonogram. I’d get to see our baby for the first time, and I was scared. What if it had wings or talons? The doctor would freak out. I would freak out. It’d be a mess.
A mess, I didn’t want Lucian to see.
