Chapter 40
Chapter Forty
Amy
I was a little unsteady on my feet, but it felt so good to be out of the hospital.
One thing that didn’t feel good was leaving little Nikolai behind.
Luckily for me, Alexei had arranged for an apartment in the city not far from the hospital, so even if I had to walk, I could go and be with him every single day, which was exactly what I planned to do.
“Do you like it?” As attentive as he had been since the moment I had woken up, Alexei turned and offered me his arm. I took it with trembling fingers, grateful for the muscles that steadied me. Again, my legs wobbled. Alexei shot me a look that was full of worry.
“Are you ok?” Not letting me speak, he moved beside me and wrapped a heavy arm around my waist. “Maybe this was a bad idea. I don’t think you are strong enough yet. It’s only been ten days since you woke up. I should have insisted you stay in bed for a little while longer.”
“Alexei,” I sighed. “I’m fine. Just a little wobbly, that’s all.”
As if to prove my point, I pushed myself out of his grasp and took a few steps into the massive open-plan apartment. My eyes instantly went to the huge floor-to-ceiling window with the panoramic view of the city.
“Wow.” Even if the apartment had been empty, the view from those windows would have been everything. “This place—”
Alexei came up behind me. His hands slid around my waist, and his chin came down to rest on the top of my head. I stiffened, but just for a second, before I leaned against him.
He kept doing things like this, little intimate touches like we were still a couple, and even though he wasn’t phishing for a decision regarding our marriage from me, I knew that he wanted us to be together as a family. Part of me wanted that as well.
“It’s just one of many.” He murmured. “Not a penthouse, but this one is closest to the hospital, and the doorman is on my payroll. You will be safe here. No one can get in or out without my say so.” Alexei dropped his lips to my cheek, and I smiled before I remembered that his words were kind of moot.
No one but his old lover had tried to hurt me. The thought made me frown, and he caught the look on my face that reflected back to him instantly. Turning me in his arms, he tilted my face upwards.
“No one will ever hurt you or Nikolai again,” he promised.
My lips twitched in a smile. “Talking about Nikolai—”
“Which one?” He grinned down at me.
“You’re grandfather. He’s been coming to see me and the baby a lot. I don’t think the care homes are very happy about his little trips, so I was thinking I would go and see him.” My eyes searched his face.
A flicker of unease swept across his face. So fast that I almost missed it. My frown deepened. “You don’t want me to?” His look of unease was quickly replaced by a wide smile. “Of course, I want you to have a relationship with him. You are family, but—”
My eyebrows shot up. “But?”
“Sometimes I wonder what you speak about?”
“Worried that he is telling me all of your secrets?”
I meant it jokingly, but again his face closed down.
“He just wants me to know that he will take care of us if this,” I motioned around the bright white, sun-filled room, “doesn’t work out.”
Alexei stepped away. “Why wouldn’t this work out, Amy?” There was a note of desperation in his voice. “We are married. We have a son. Why wouldn’t this work out?”
Wearily, I moved around him to fall onto the edge of the white sectional with a sigh. “Can we not do this now, Alexei? I’m tired and away from my baby, and I just want to relax.”
Instantly, he was on his knees in front of me, his hands trapped my cheeks between them, bringing our faces so close together that I was sure he was going to kiss me.
The real question was, did I want him to?
If Alexei leaned forward and brought our mouths together, would I push him away or kiss him back?
Honestly, I didn’t know. Things in the last ten days had been good, but there was something niggling at me, and I knew exactly what it was.
Every single time I brought up Violet, he changed the subject.
It wasn’t that I wanted her dead, but I did want to know that Nikolai and I were safe. I didn’t think it was a lot to ask.
“Forgive me,” he moved even closer, but instead of finding my lips with his, he brushed them against my cheek. “I know I shouldn’t push. I know I have a lot of things to make up for. You’ll let me do that, right?”
My eyes swept over his face. He looked ernest. Hopeful. Silently, I nodded.
“How about starting with some dinner? Anything you want?” Straightening, he pulled himself up to his full height and grinned down at me. “How about sushi?”
I shrugged. Sushi sounded good, but it wouldn’t have been my first choice. His smile grew even wider. “Great, I know just the place. It’s new and really exclusive. It only opened two days ago, but I think you will love it.”
Pulling out his phone, his fingers flew over the keys until he passed it to me.” Choose what you want, and I’ll go and get it for us. I am just going to freshen up.”
I scanned the screen. The place had only opened two days ago, so how did he already know about it? Alexei spent every waking minute with me and the baby. My heart lurched as I scrolled down the website.
He didn’t spend the evenings at the hospital. He didn’t spend evenings with us, he spent them at sushi restaurants with—
Using two fingers made the screen bigger. A picture of my husband was proudly displayed. It was him on his own. Looking like a male model. The people on either side of him had been cropped out, but they had forgotten to crop out the hand on his arm.
A feminine hand with a very distinct diamond and sapphire ring.
“Two days ago?” I whispered.
“What?”
“You went to the opening?” Holding the phone with trembling fingers, I lifted my face to his. “Two days ago?”
I wanted to make sure I was correct and not jumping to conclusions.
“Yes, but—”
“I’m suddenly not hungry.” Holding the phone out, I watched his face twist with confusion.
“You need to eat.”
“Who did you go to the opening with, Alexei?”
He glanced down at the phone once, saw what I had seen, and instantly shoved it into his pocket. “It wasn’t like that.”
Sighing, I let my head back on the sofa. “No, so you didn’t take the woman who tried to kill me and our baby to some fancy restaurant opening?”
“I didn’t take her. She was there.”
My eyes are open. “You are never going to be able to let her go, are you?”
“I have let her go, I don’t want Violet. I want you. I want our family.”
“I would like to rest now.” My voice was completely flat and emotionless because, honestly, I was tired of having this same argument and losing. It didn’t matter what Alexei said. Violet would always be in his life, and now I had to decide whether I could be.
“Please leave.”
Anger tightened his eyebrows and made a deep line appear between them. ”You would like me to leave my own house?”
“Yes, or I can leave.”
“I thought we could spend—”
I cut him off. He didn’t get it. I wasn’t the meek girl I had been when he first forced me to marry him. I had a backbone now. I kind of had to because I wasn’t just protecting myself. I had to protect my son as well.
“You haven’t wanted to spend the evenings with me since I woke up, Alexei. I don’t know why you would want to now. I am sure,” my voice dripped with sarcasm, “you have pressing business to get to.”
“Amy,” he groaned. “Please don’t throw our family away over one picture. Violet is not in my life anymore.”
“Are you still in contact with her?” I asked in a tired voice. “Are you still looking after her?”
He hesitated for a second too long, and it was all the answers I needed. “Get out.”
“Amy,” he tried again.
Jumping to my feet, the world around me spun. “Get the fuck out, Alexei,” I screamed. Spit flying from my lips to land on his face. He didn’t wipe them away. Instead, he just stared at me.
“I’ll leave tonight, Amy,” he said finally. “But I’m not going for good. I won’t let you break up our family. Get some sleep, and if you need anything, ring down to the concierge.” Like nothing had happened, he brushed his lips against my cheek and walked away again.
It was only when I heard the door shut that I let myself fall back onto the sofa and let the tears fall. Alexei wanted us to be a family. But not enough to get rid of the person who had tried to kill me, and I didn’t know what the hell to do.
Alexei was good at his word. He didn’t give up. He turned up with flowers and small gifts of paints and canvases. He sat on the opposite end of the sofa with me some evenings, even though I ignored him completely. We went to visit the baby together, or at least met there.
Everywhere I was, Alexi wasn’t far behind.
Five days out of the hospital, and I was beginning to soften towards him. Not enough to promise him that we could try again, but enough that maybe I was willing to talk things over. No matter what happened between us privately, we still had a son, and we had to be able to communicate.
That’s why, that morning, I stopped at the coffee shop on the way up to the NICU. One for me and one for him. It wasn’t much, but if we could sit and talk like adults, then it was a start.
“Mrs. Petrovov,” one of the nurses squeaked as I buzzed into the wing. Usually, she was the happy and friendly kind of woman, but this morning she seemed nervous, and one look down the hallway told me why.
The take-out cups almost fell from my hands when I spotted Violet sitting all prim and proper in one of the blue plastic chairs.
“What is she doing here?” I asked in a whisper. Violet’s head swivelled around at the sound of my voice. She began to rise from her chair, and at that moment, Alexei appeared, took one look at me, and came rushing forward.
“Amy.”
I’d already seen enough. He had brought her here. The woman who had tried to end our baby’s life was sitting outside our son’s room, and it didn’t take a genius to know who had invited her.
Turning on my heel, I had taken two steps back, the way I had come, when he caught my elbow and yanked me back.
“Amy, it’s not what it looks like. I didn’t bring her. She came on her own because she wanted to apologize to you personally.”
My lips thinned. I didn’t want to hear a word that women had to say. Not here and not anywhere.
“Amy, please,” Violet whined.
I watched her come towards me, head down and hands twisted before her. She looked so sad and lonely, and I didn’t buy it for one minute.
“Get her out of here, Alexei.” Turning to the nurse, I spoke more loudly. I didn’t care who heard. I wanted the whole hospital to hear. “If she turns up again, I want the police called. She is not to be anywhere near my son, is that understood?”
Mutely, the nurse nodded. Jerry darted between all of us, and I could tell she was ready to call security at any second.
“There is no need for that, Amy,” Alexei said in a hissing whisper.
“Oh, isn’t there? Are you sure about that, Alexei, because I think they would be very interested in knowing who shot me, don’t you?”
His face went dark. It was a dangerous thing to say to a feared mob boss, but I was tired of playing by his rules. If he wouldn’t use his power to protect us, then I would do it for him.
“I just wanted to say sorry, but I’ll leave.” Tears dripped from Violet’s eyes.
God, she was a good actress, good enough to win an Oscar.
“You never have to see me again,” Violet cried. “I will leave you all alone, but I didn’t mean for anything bad to happen. It was Kristoff.”
My head snapped upwards. “Your lover, you mean?”
She shook her head. “It wasn’t like that. He made me, Amy. He made me do so many terrible things, and I don’t expect you to forgive me because what I did was unforgivable. But don’t break Alexei’s heart. Please give him a chance.”
Was she really begging for me to give my cheating husband another chance? I didn’t know what new game she was playing, but I knew she was playing one. Only this time I was ready for it.
Straightening my shoulders, I nodded, but not in agreement. “Here.” I passed the two coffee cups to them. “You two look like you need this more than I do.” Without looking at either of them, I stepped on them and walked towards Nikolai’s room.
“If she turns up again, phone the cops,” I said again to the nurses. I wanted to spend the morning with my child, but after that?
Well, Violet could play her games. I would be ready for her this time.
It was time, I figured out what was really going on, and I knew the perfect person to help me.
So this afternoon, I would go back to the place where this had all started.