Chapter 40 Claire
CLAIRE
Two weeks later…
“Claire?” Martin called out from the front foyer.
I paused while walking by from the kitchen, where Mikhail and Anya were still finishing up lunch.
“Yeah?” I detoured to go back to the butler. He seemed less like hired help and more like a friend with every passing day. Living here was a work in progress. Getting used to the staff, the wealth, the luxury, and the armed presence of guards wasn’t a simple adjustment.
But so far, it was going well.
“Where would you like these?” He stepped aside to indicate the boxes that had been delivered.
“Oh.” I frowned, not sure where to put the excess supplies.
Since I’d made my choice to stay with Mikhail, I had become the de facto doctor on the premises. I wasn’t a pawn or a service provider. I was merely an idle mind and a skilled physician with a need for patients.
I disliked why the Orlov men needed medical assistance, but I never shied away from being able to help.
“I don’t know. Where could they go?” I asked him, since he was the most familiar with the layout of the building. “Those boxes are backup supplies.”
I wasn’t going to designate a room or floor to be an urgent care clinic.
No surgeries—nothing in depth, at least—would be happening here.
With an ultrasound machine, I felt equipped for assessing anyone who had been hurt.
But I drew the line at ever attempting surgery without the right tools, no X-rays without setting up a proper room for that kind of exposure.
“It can go to storage, then,” he said of the boxes of gauzes, wraps, splints, and even cast materials. Whatever I couldn’t handle, we “outsourced” to another hospital. Not the one I used to work at. Even then, once I had the correct scans or diagnostics, I could cast whoever needed anything here.
Seeing all the supplies had me pausing for a longer moment, though. Martin asked men to move the boxes and glanced at me. “Is there anything else you’d like with this delivery?”
“Oh, no.” I shook my head, snapping out of my thoughts. It was strange to see it all and remember that I sort of was working. Not officially, but still staying busy.
But I’ll be even busier soon.
“Is there anything else you’d like me to arrange for your office?” he asked.
I smiled sweetly. Maybe… put a raincheck on that whole thing? “Nope. I’m good.”
Mikhail explained a few days ago that he wanted me to feel free to do anything I wanted in my downtime, which could sometimes be lengthy when he was busy.
When he expressed worry that I’d regret giving up my career, he was eager to help me set up a telehealth service, a private practice run by me.
Just when I couldn’t imagine loving him any more, he had to go and do something like that, to go overboard and prove that he valued me and wouldn’t dismiss my goals.
I went along with the plans to start a business here, to virtually offer medical advice. It wouldn’t be the same as contributing in person, on a chaotic emergency room floor with a full staff, but then again, I had hands-on experience patching up the Orlov men here.
No expenses were spared. I had an office. I had new computers and tech gear. Mikhail’s legal team was assisting me with all the documents and filings I would need to practice. It was a big project, one that would take a while, but I wondered if I even wanted it anymore.
If I’d have time to juggle starting up my own gig when another, much bigger “project” loomed in my future.
I pressed my hand to my flat stomach and smiled as I walked back to the kitchen where I’d left Mikhail and Anya, realizing I’d left my water in there.
Just last night, I gave in and took a pregnancy test. We’d been gambling all this time with the chances that I could be pregnant. Sure enough, my missed period wasn’t a fluke. The pregnancy test was positive, and I wondered how everyone would react.
Standing at the doorway as I watched Mikhail and Anya talk at the table, I crossed my arms and smiled. They were slowly opening up to each other, acting more like father and daughter instead of enemies in the same residence.
If Anya had come here as a young girl, I bet she wouldn’t have been so hard to win over. As a teen, already rebellious and opinionated—and scared—she was a tougher nut to crack.
I felt the impact of my guidance on her when she tagged along with me, asked me questions, and invited me to spend time with her. We were no longer only friends, but more like family. And it warmed my heart to see the evidence of Mikhail and Anya both finding a common ground to be closer.
How will you react to another member of the family, though?
It could derail the progress they’d made. Perhaps Anya would resent having a baby here, taking all the attention from her. Maybe Mikhail would panic and not know how to split up and share his love that much further.
No, that’s nonsense. Anya would adore having a child in the family. She had such a hidden maternal instinct, likely because she’d been motherless for so long.
Mikhail said he wanted to grow our family. He’d admitted it out loud, and I saw every day how he included his family and the members of his organization in his regard.
But how will they react? This will change everything right when things seem normal and sane.
I gave away my presence by sighing heavily.
It was sweet to watch these two act more like family, but I had to dispel this worry that I was intruding, that a baby on the way could be trouble.
“What are you doing, hiding back there?” Anya said. She patted the table and indicated I should join her again.
“I was just thinking,” I admitted, wishing I could at least have an idea of how to tell them both that I wouldn’t be the last one to enter this family. Mikhail got up and took more plates to the sink, vacating a chair for me to take.
“Me too,” Anya admitted. “I’ve been thinking more about whether I want to continue tutoring or if I’d like to attend an actual school for once.”
“I vote for trying it out, and then you can decide after a trial period,” I told her. They’d been debating it for a couple of days now. “Do what makes you happy,” I advised.
Because that was my new mantra. Screw the worry about what was right versus wrong. Forget the labels of what was good or bad in life. So long as we had a goal to be the best versions of ourselves that we could, then all would be well.
“Will you?” she asked.
I raised my brows. “Huh?
“Will you do what makes you happy?” she asked again.
“Like… am I going to start that telehealth consultation?” I shrugged. Now, in light of knowing I was pregnant, I wasn’t sure. “That was the plan,” I replied, since it technically was true.
Plans sure are changing now, though!
Anya smiled wider, almost cryptic about it.
“I am happy,” I told her. Choosing Mikhail and embracing our forbidden love had shown me the clearest path to happiness.
“How about now?” Mikhail asked behind me.
I spun on the stool, confused when he wasn’t there. He was, but too low.
Lowering my gaze to find him on one knee, holding up a ring box, I gasped in surprise.
“Is this… a proposal?” I asked as giddy glee and surprise streaked through me. I’d asked him that before, but this time, I felt like it was an unnecessary question.
“It is,” he replied. “I didn’t want to ask until I checked with Anya and got her approval.”
I smiled back at her as I set my hand on Mikhail’s shoulder. She beamed at me, cradling her chin in her hands as she set her elbows on the table.
“Dr. Donovon, will you marry me? Will you complete this family and be my wife?”
I laughed once in joy, secretly amused by his wording. Complete this family? Little did he know I was growing it, not wrapping it up.
“Yes!” Dropping toward him and landing in his embrace, I almost smacked the ring box out of his hand. The ring didn’t matter. The carat of the diamond wouldn’t persuade me. His love was all I needed to know that I was his partner, but being able to call him my husband would be a wonderful bonus.
As we kissed and Anya congratulated us, I fell under the magic of being so quintessentially happy that tears of joy leaked from my eyes.
Mikhail helped me stand and didn’t delay in slipping the ring on my finger.
I held my arm out to encourage Anya closer for a side hug, and it warmed my soul when I saw her smiling up at Mikhail as well.
“I will gladly be your wife,” I told him as I admired the ring, resting against him.
“And… my mother?” Anya asked.
“Yes! And… well, I’ll be a mother,” I said.
Watching Mikhail’s eyes widen in surprise was a moment I’d never forget. I took his hand and placed it on my stomach, reveling in the beauty of my new ring sparkling from my finger as I held my hand over his. “Because we’re not completing this family…”
A grin slowly took over his sexy face as I clarified the bombshell I was dropping on them both.
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” he asked.
I nodded.
Yep. My life is officially starting now.
And I couldn’t be more over the moon about the adventure it would be with this Mafia boss who completed me.