Chapter 31
THEA
Two days later…
It’s time. I want to put it off even longer, but I know I can’t.
I have to tell him. But I need to see a doctor first.
I find Gabriel in the study, hunched over documents spread across the table before him. Classical music plays softly on a speaker system I can’t see, and a fire crackles in the fireplace.
I knock once on the open door and walk in without waiting for permission.
He looks up, startled. “Thea, I thought you were resting.”
I take a deep breath.
“I need to go out.”
“What?” He looks confused.
“I need to get out of the house today.” I cross over to his desk. “I need to run errands, need to feel like a human being instead of a prisoner. And I need to see a doctor.”
“A doctor? What for?” His confusion turns to worry.
“Just girl stuff,” I say with a casual shrug, hoping that’s enough.
“Thea, what’s going on?”
“I just need to go,” I say. “Assign me a bodyguard. Two bodyguards. Whatever you want. I just can’t stay locked up in here anymore.”
He sits up straight in his chair.
“You want to leave suddenly to go see a doctor? What’s really going on?”
“I’ve been feeling under the weather. It’s probably just stress, but I want to be sure. I figured going to see a doctor would be a good reason to get out for a while.”
He shakes his head. “No, not a chance. If it’s a doctor you need, I can have one brought here. But there’s not a chance you’re leaving, not until we know how the Bratva is going to handle Kolya.”
“I haven’t left the house since the council meeting,” I reply. “I’ve been sitting here stewing while you plan my future and make decisions about my life, still treating me like property.”
“It’s not like that. I’m keeping you safe.”
“You’re keeping me controlled.” I place my palms on his desk and lean forward.
He takes a slow, deep breath. Then he sets down his pen.
“Kolya wants you. He has men all over this city—just waiting to catch you off-guard. The game changed completely when we revealed to everyone who you are. He’ll stop at nothing until he gets his hands on you.”
“I know the risks.”
“No, you don’t. Do you know that he has a $5 million bounty on your head?”
“He… what?”
“Five million. That kind of number isn’t just meant for hit men.
When a man like Kolya offers a bounty that size, it’s intended for people close to you, like Oscar, Maria, Liza.
He’s testing their loyalty, hoping that one of them will decide that $5 million is worth a betrayal.
And he wants you alive. You understand what that means, no? ”
I take my palms from the desk and slowly straighten.
“You don’t get to make decisions for me about whether or not I’m allowed to leave. It’s my life.”
“You won’t have a life for very long if I let you out of this house. What don’t you understand? I’m responsible for keeping you alive. I take no pleasure from keeping you locked up. You are my responsibility. And that means I’m the one who decides what’s safe and what isn’t.”
I realize standing there that I hadn’t really thought this plan through. I was hoping that I’d be able to make my case, that he’d let me leave to see a doctor. I need to get confirmation about the pregnancy. Then I can tell him the truth.
But he’s not going to let me leave. And as much as I want to pretend he’s being a tyrant, I can’t. It’s for my own good, and I know it.
“I just… I can’t live like this.”
He stands and comes over to me. I want to be mad at him, but his nearness calms me in a way I hadn’t expected.
“I can’t be a piece of property that you lock away.”
“That’s not what this is.”
“Isn’t it? You bought me and lied to me. You’ve been controlling every aspect of my life ever since I was a little kid. And now here I am, not even allowed to leave the house. Your house.”
“I’m keeping you alive, Thea.”
“By treating me like a prisoner?”
I’m acutely aware of how I sound, but I can’t help it. I feel like I’m being crushed from all sides.
“No,” he says, “not a prisoner. I’m treating you like someone whose life matters. I’m treating you like someone whose life I can’t afford to lose. Cristo, Thea—do you have any idea what I’d do if something happened to you? If Kolya got his hands on you?”
He goes on.
“This is a world that you’ve been hidden from, one you still barely understand. I hate treating you this way, taking your freedom, locking you up. But it’s the only way I can keep you sa—”
“I’m pregnant.”
The words tumble out without any thought on my part.
He pauses mid-sentence, looking at me with an expression of total bewilderment. I’ve never seen him look so completely caught off guard.
“You’re what?”
I take his hand and place it on my stomach.
“I’m pregnant,” I repeat.
Silence.
He stares at me. His hand is warm against my stomach, and it feels good to have his touch there, his palm flat over the place where our child is growing. I can see his mind working, processing, trying to catch up with what I’ve just told him.
His mouth opens slightly.
“You’re pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“With my—”
“Yes.”
“How far along?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I want to see a doctor. But I took a test. Two of them, actually.”
“Thea…”
I wait.
I wait for him to be angry or overwhelmed, or whatever it is he’s feeling.
I wait for him to tell me this complicates everything, that we can’t possibly have a child right now, that it’s too dangerous, that it’s not the right time.
I wait for him to tell me this makes his job of keeping me safe that much harder.
I wait for him to pull away.
But he doesn’t.