Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Alexei
Amy wasn’t in her sister’s room, and neither was she in the cafeteria. I even looked for Micah’s car in the parking lot and came back blank. She wasn’t here.
Did that mean she had left to come home, and somehow our paths hadn’t met? It was feasible but unlikely. It wasn’t like Amy had been home at all since her sister’s operation. She spent all her time here in the hospital.
Standing in the middle of the icy corridor, I tugged at my hair and looked around like I was half expecting her to appear out of thin air. Where was she?
Maybe she had gone to see my grandfather? I honestly couldn’t think of anywhere else she would be. Amy wasn’t the type to leave the people who depended on her, so she wouldn’t have met Gabriella. Although if I didn’t find her soon, I would call Misha’s wife and ask if she had heard from her.
It wasn’t like she could just vanish into thin air, and Amy wasn’t the type of woman who would walk away from her vows without talking to me first. Not that I made it easier for her. I’d realized that over the last few days.
I’d been making this whole situation more difficult than it needed to be.
I hadn’t been completely honest with her, and that made her suspect the worst. That needed to change now.
It had been almost a week since our fight, and I had stayed away from her for as long as I could, but I couldn’t any longer.
I missed her.
Things with Amy were always so easy and natural. Things with Violet were, well, different.
“I knew it,” a nurse said in passing, talking quietly to one of her colleagues and not even giving me a second look.
“I said to her earlier that she looked like she was getting sick, and then she got rushed in here after passing out five times, according to her driver. And as usual, her husband is nowhere to be seen.” She shook her head.
Driver? Absent husband? Were they talking about me? A sinking feeling opened in my gut.
“I just hope she’s not got the same thing as her sister. I mean, it’s clear that heart problems run in their family. I hear they lost their parents young.”
“Some families have no luck at all. She is the sweetest woman I have ever met. Always trying to help other people. I heard she wanted to be a nurse.”
I lashed out with my hand and caught the passing nurse by the upper arm. “Are you talking about Amy Petrovov?”
She shook my hand off angrily. “And who are you?”
I swallowed down my own anger. She had every right to be pissed because I had grabbed her. “The absent husband,” I couldn’t help but say. “You are talking about my wife, right? Amy?”
Both of them stared at me like I had grown another head, and who could blame them? I was literally bristling with barely contained rage.
“Has something happened to her?”
“She passed out a few times,” the younger of the two said quietly. “She is being seen downstairs by Alessia’s doctor and,” her eyes swept over me, “a few others.”
She wasn’t telling me something, that was clear, but I didn’t have time to ask what it was. I just ran. My designer shoes made squeaky sounds on the floor as I pelted down the hallway. If she was being seen by that particular doctor, then it was heart-related.
My own heart lurched with every step I took, panic making it hard to breathe. I found her in a private room just inside the main doors, which meant I literally walked straight past her. Micah stood up as I approached. “I’ve been trying to ring you.”
Skidding to a stop, I eyed him. He looked worried, and that terrified me. “What happened? where is she?” I asked in a rush, not waiting for him to answer. I barged into the room.
“You can’t just—” The doctor turned to me in alarm. Seeing it was me, he forced his face into a professional smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
“What happened?” I bellowed at my wife, ignoring him completely. She looked so pale, like all the color had been drained out of her face. Next to her, holding tight to her hands, was a woman I didn’t know. “What the hell, Amy? Where were you? I have been looking for you.”
“Mr. Petrovov,” fluidly, the doctor stepped between my wife and me. Barring my view of the bed. “This isn’t good for the—”
Shit, sweeping a hand through my hair, I sucked in a deep cleansing breath. Her heart. It had all to do with her heart. She had whatever her sister had.
“The baby.”
I did a double-take, physically taking a step back before I could help myself. “What?”
Surely, I hadn’t heard him right. I must have been imagining things because I was sure I had heard him say baby.
“You’re pregnant?” My voice shook.
“Oh, I—” The doctor stuttered. “I thought you knew.”
I wasn’t angry. There were no words for what I was feeling.
I shook in shock. “How long have you known?” Side-stepping the man who separated me from my wife, I speared her to the narrow hospital bed with my eyes, and she shrank back like she thought I was going to hit her.
She literally wrapped her arms around herself and turned her face away.
“How long, Amy?” I asked again, my voice even more strained.
“I don’t know anything for certain. The doctor was just going over some of my test results,” she said finally. “Again.”
“But you must have known or at least suspected?” I looked around at the others. “Leave,” I ordered. “I would like to speak with my wife alone.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Petrovov, but I still have some questions and tests to run.”
Whirling, I took a threatening step towards him, drawing my body to its full height. “You’re a cardiologist. Is there something wrong with my wife’s heart?”
“Well, no.”
“Then you aren’t needed here. If Amy is pregnant, I will arrange her care with the best doctors in the city. You may leave.”
“She is pregnant. There is no doubt about it,” he muttered as he shuffled out. “And she needs rest, not this stress.”
At my side, my hands balled into fists. I didn’t know who he thought he was, but usually men who spoke to me that way ended up in the ground. Not that I had time to dispose of Alessia’s doctor just because he called me out on my treatment of my wife
After all, he had a point.
Glaring at him, I waited until he moved out. The woman next to Any shuffled out after him, but threw glances at my wife like she was reluctant to leave her with me. I ignored them both.
Waiting until the door clicked shut, I turned my attention back to her. “When were you going to tell me?” I looked away
“I didn’t know. I didn’t even begin to suspect until Nikolai—”
My head whipped back around. “You were with my grandfather?”
“Yes, Alexei. He had the staff call me and ask if I could visit.” She said it like she was explaining to a child. “So I went. I didn’t mean to get sick there and cause such a fuss.”
“You didn’t get sick. You got pregnant.”
This time, when she met my eyes, hers were full of anger. “I didn’t get pregnant by myself, or are you saying I cheated on you?”
The thought didn’t even enter my mind. “No, I didn’t think that for a second, Amy. But Jesus.” Again I tugged at my hair. “How did this happen?”
She looked at me like I was stupid.
“I know how it happened, but why weren’t you careful?”
“Me? You weren’t careful either. We didn’t even discuss it, Alexei. Believe me, this is as much a shock to me as it is to you.”
“I doubt that. I thought.” I trailed off as she glared at me coldly. “This is all coming out wrong. I just assumed you were on some kind of birth control,” I finished lamely.
“You presumed,” she corrected me, “that I was on birth control. But remember, Alexei, I was virgin until you took me to your bed. I had no need for birth control.”
Of course, not. I knew that. “Its just a shock.” Lowering my voice, I perched on the edge of her bed and scrambled around for her hand. My mind going a million miles an hour. Amy was pregnant with my baby, and it changed everything. I just didn’t know in what way yet.
“I’m here for you, Amy,” I said softly. My thumb swiping over the back of her hand. “Whatever you decide you want to do.”
She snatched her hand back. “I’m keeping this baby, Alexei.”
I’d never heard her sound so determined before.
“You don’t have to be involved.”
“I am the father. I will be involved, Amy,” I said firmly. And I meant every word. I hadn’t known my rapist of a father, and I’d lost my mother as a very young child. There was no way I was going to let my child grow up without me being in his life.
Or her life, I mentally corrected myself. My child would have both parents in its life. It would be loved and cared for. And the start of that would be looking after my wife as she grew and nurtured the precious cargo in her belly.
“So, you don’t want a divorce.”
Amy’s words were so small I barely heard them. I reached for her hand again, this time bringing it to my lips. I kissed the back of it.
Her skin felt clammy. “I‘ve told you before, Amy,” I said as patiently as I could. “You are my wife, and you will remain my wife.”
She opened her mouth to say something and closed it again with a small shake of her head.
She was going to bring up Violet. And truthfully, that was going to be a whole new situation. Violet would not be happy with the news, but I knew she would be happy for me. She was having her own baby after all, and she knew I always wanted to be a father.
With the right woman. My eyes found Amy’s pale face, and I smiled.
I wasn’t sure if Amy was the right woman or not, but I knew she would be an amazing mother. She was so caring. Even as I watched, I saw her rub her hand over her stomach. Caressing it without even realizing.
Yes, she would definitely be an amazing mother.
“We are going to have a baby,” I whispered.
“Yes,” she murmured back. “I guess we are.”
“Can I take you home to rest now?”
Her lips curved up in a smile that looked more tired than happy. “I’d like to sleep in our bed, but I can’t stay away from my sister for too long.”
“We will discuss that when I’ve spoken to the doctor some more and made arrangements. Let me look after you and our unborn baby, Amy.” I begged, and her eyes softened even more. “For once in your life, let someone look after you for a change.”
She nodded softly and closed her eyes.
“I’ll be back in one minute, so wait,” I paused. “Did you say Nikolai was the one who first suggested you were having a baby?”
She nodded silently.
I couldn’t help it. “I bet the old man is over the moon.”
Nikolai would take the fact she was pregnant as even more proof that we were meant to be together, and I wouldn’t say it out loud, but I was beginning to suspect the old man was right.
Damn him, he was always right.