Chapter 35
Vulcan
It’s been three weeks since the “she’s not my mother” bombshell and a month since the cabin trip, and Karina has continued to let me in and drop her guard around me. We’re stronger than ever, yet I hear her muffled cries when she thinks I’m asleep.
She does it almost every night. Just like clockwork, at three a.m., she slips out of the room and walks to the kitchen. I follow her, usually wait in the hallway and listen, but lately, I’ve been getting bolder and watching the woman I love break apart from the shadows.
Could I go to her? Yes.
Could I comfort her? Yes.
But she’s chosen to soothe herself away from me, and I know it’s because she wants to heal. I can only continue to pour all my love into her, and hopefully, these late-night crying sessions will come to an end.
“Knock, knock.” I’m pulled from my thoughts and look up from the pile of paper on my desk to see Val walking into my office with a box of pizza. “You’re a sight for sore eyes, big brother. But I come bearing gifts.”
“You’re a lifesaver,” I say, pushing the folder aside and making room for the much more appealing box of cheesy goodness.
Val sets it down and plops into the chair across from me. She smiles at me, and just like that I know she wants something. “What’s the catch? You don’t usually grace my office with your presence just to feed me.”
“Can’t I visit my brother?” She leans back, shrugging nonchalantly.
“Val,” I warn.
Her grin widens as she opens the box, and my stomach growls. “I just thought you’d need something to eat.”
“Why are you really here?” I ask, taking a slice of pizza.
She takes a bite of her slice, chewing slowly before she answers. “Well, since you asked. You know my birthday is coming up soon, and I want to throw a party in your penthouse. Since Karina is leaving in a week, I thought—”
“Excuse me? Karina’s leaving? Where?” I pause mid-bite, my heart skipping a beat.
I’m not an idiot to think I didn’t play a part in this. I overstepped, and the woman I love with every fiber of my being is paying for it.
She’s leaving me.
She’s been planning to leave me and hasn’t said a fucking word.
Val’s eyes widen slightly, realizing she’s just dropped a bomb on me. “Oh. I thought you knew…” She fumbles with the crust of her pizza.
“No, Val, I didn’t know.”
She sighs. “I think it’s for a job opportunity, somewhere in Boston, for about three months? She, um, mentioned it in passing when we bumped into each other at the coffee shop this morning. I didn’t get all the details; I assumed she’d told you.”
Boston?
“I need to talk to her,” I say abruptly, standing up so fast my chair screeches against the hardwood floor.
“Hey, take it easy. I’m sure there’s a good explanation. Maybe it’s not definite yet. But, well, can you give me a yes or no about my party?”
I’m already grabbing my coat and heading for the door. I’ve never visited her at the hospital, preferring to maintain the boundary between work and personal, but I don’t care.
“Wait, Vully!” Val calls out. “You didn’t let me finish.”
“There’s more?” I stop in my tracks. What the fuck?
“My party!” Val swallows a bite of her pizza.
“Yes, fine,” I snap, my mind already racing ahead to what I need to say to my wife.
Val nods, seeming satisfied. “Good. And second, before you storm the hospital like a man possessed, she also mentioned she turned it down.” Val smiles and I want to choke the living shit out of her. She waits a beat, clearly enjoying my sudden change of expression.
“What the hell, Val? You couldn’t lead with that?” Relief floods through me so fast it makes me dizzy.
“And miss that look on your face? Not a chance.” She winks, taking another bite of pizza. “Calm down and sit. Your food’s getting cold.”
I collapse back into my chair, wiping a hand down my face. “Jesus Christ. Don’t play with me when it comes to my wife.” I glare at her, but can’t maintain any real irritation. “Why did she turn it down?”
“That’s for her to tell you, not me.” Val points her slice at me like a weapon. “Also, she didn’t tell me why.”
Maybe I should make an impromptu visit to her job anyway. I close the box of pizza and stand back up. “Thank you for lunch.”
“Hey, where are you going with the pizza I paid for?” Val protests, but her eyes are twinkling with amusement.
“Consider it payment for nearly giving me a heart attack.” I tuck the box under my arm.
“Shithead,” she calls after me.
The drive to the hospital feels both too long and too short. I’m rehearsing what to say to Karina, searching for the right words—ones that won’t come across accusatory or controlling. I don’t want to fight. I just want to understand why she wouldn’t tell me about something so important.
I park in the visitors’ lot, grab the pizza box, and head inside. The hospital’s antiseptic smell hits me as soon as the automatic doors slide open.
“I’m looking for Dr. Montgomery,” I tell the elderly volunteer manning the desk.
She smiles up at me. “Are you family?”
“I’m her husband.” The words still feel new on my tongue, but I like the way they sound.
Her eyebrows shoot up, and I can practically see her reassessing me. “Well, isn’t that nice. Take the elevator to the basement level and follow the signs to the ER.”
Downstairs, the ER is exactly what I’d expect: controlled chaos. Nurses and doctors move with purpose, patients wait with varying degrees of distress, and through it all, there’s a strange sense of order. I scan the area for Karina’s familiar form.
A nurse notices me and approaches. “Can I help you, sir?”
“I’m looking for Dr. Montgomery.”
The nurse, whose badge reads Tanya, gives me a curious once-over. “She’s with a patient right now. You can wait in that area.” She points to a small alcove with a few chairs. “I’ll let her know you’re here.”
I nod my thanks and settle in to wait, pizza box balanced on my knees.
Ten minutes later, I spot her—hair pulled back in a practical ponytail, stethoscope around her neck, focused expression on her face as she reviews something on a tablet.
She hasn’t seen me yet, and I take a moment to just watch her.
Even in scrubs, she’s the most striking woman I’ve ever seen.
Tanya says something to her, pointing in my direction, and Karina’s head snaps up. Our eyes lock, and I see surprise and confusion flash across her face. I stand as she approaches.
“Vulcan, what are you doing here?”
I hold up my offering. “Thought we could have lunch.”
“That’s—thank you. I just need to finish up with a patient.”
“No rush. I’ll be here.”
“I’ll have Tanya show you to my office.” She smiles, gesturing to Tanya. “Do you mind?”
Tanya nods and leads me through a maze of hallways until we reach a small office with Karina’s name on the door.
There are stacks of medical journals on a small table, a collection of framed certificates on the wall, and a small potted plant that’s somehow surviving despite what I assume is irregular care.
“She shouldn’t be too long,” she says with a smile. “It’s nice to finally meet you. She talks about you a lot.”
“Good things, I hope.”
“Very good things.” Tanya’s expression softens. “She’s been working herself to the bone lately. This is a nice surprise. Lunch with her husband.”
After she leaves, I set the pizza on the desk and take a seat in Karina’s chair.
The office feels like her; practical but with touches of warmth, like the photo frame tucked between reference books.
I pick it up, surprised to see it’s a picture of us from our wedding.
She’s laughing, head thrown back, while I’m looking at her with an expression that reveals everything I felt even then.
The door opens and Karina slips in, closing it behind her. She leans against it for a moment, studying me.
“Sorry to ambush you at work,” I say, standing.
“No, it’s… nice.” She stops near the hand sanitizer wall dispenser.
I watch her rub her hands together, the chemical scent reaching me.
There’s tension in her shoulders that wasn’t there this morning.
She glances at the pizza box. “I have about thirty minutes before I have to go over the lab results with my next patient,” she says, opening the box. “Did you already eat two slices?”
“Actually, Val stopped by the station.” I take my already bitten slice, buying myself time.
“Hmm.” She sits on the edge of her desk, close enough that our knees almost touch. “Lunch with Val.”
“Yeah, she mentioned running into you.” I watch her carefully, trying to gauge her reaction. “She also mentioned something about Boston?”
Karina freezes, and it’s confirmation that Val wasn’t just spreading gossip. She stares at me, her expression shifting from surprise to something that looks remarkably like guilt.
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
She sighs, running a palm over the end of her ponytail. “I was going to tell you. I just… I needed to think it through first.”
“Think what through, exactly? Whether you want to move to a different state without discussing it with me?”
“It’s not like that.” She runs her hands up and down her thighs. “Massachusetts General has offered me a position on their trauma team. It’s the kind of opportunity that doesn’t come around twice.”
“But you turned it down. Why? Did you think I would stop you from furthering your career? You know I will always support what you do.”
“Are you mad that I didn’t tell you, or are you mad that I’m not going?” Her eyebrows knit.
“Both,” I say, then shake my head. “Neither. Hell, I don’t know. I just want to understand what’s going on with you. You’ve been so distant…”
She looks down, fidgeting with her watch. “It’s complicated, Vulcan.”
“Then uncomplicate it for me.” I move closer, placing my hand on the desk next to her. Not touching her, but close enough that she could reach for me if she wanted to. “Talk to me, Karina. Please.”
Her eyes meet mine. “After everything with my mother, I’ve been questioning a lot of things. Who am I? What do I want?”
“And what do you want?”
“I don’t know.” She runs her hand through her hair again, tugging slightly at the roots in frustration. “The Boston job is incredible. The team there is doing groundbreaking work in trauma care. Part of me wanted to jump at it.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
She takes a deep breath. “Because it would mean leaving you. And I’m not ready to make that choice.”
“Who says you have to choose?” I ask finally. “We could make it work. I could come with you, or we could do long-distance for a while.”
“Just like that? You’d uproot your whole life?”
“For you? Yes. You are my whole life.” The words come without hesitation.
“That’s not the only reason I didn’t take it.”
What more could it be?
She stands up and walks to her closet. I watch as she rummages through her bag. She turns around, hiding whatever it is behind her back. She lets out a deep breath and places four pregnancy tests on the desk between us.
I stare at the plastic sticks, the pink plus signs unmistakable on all four. The world seems to stop spinning for a moment as realization crashes over me.
“You’re pregnant,” I whisper.
Karina nods, tears welling in her eyes. “I found out three days ago. I’ve been trying to figure out how to tell you.”
I reach for one of the tests, holding it carefully between my fingers as if it might disappear. A child. Our child. The thought fills me with so much joy.
She sinks into her chair. “I couldn’t imagine starting a pregnancy in a new city, at a demanding new job, without my support system.” Her voice drops lower. “Without you.”
“Karina…” I move to kneel in front of her, taking her hands in mine. They’re trembling slightly. “We’re having a baby. How far along are you?”
“That, I don’t know. Maybe two or three weeks. You made it your mission to knock me up during our cabin getaway.” She quirks a brow, and I almost pass out from relief. She’s teasing me; she has to be okay. We’re okay.
A grin spreads across my face as memories of that weekend flood back. “I don’t recall hearing any complaints at the time.”
Karina blushes. “None whatsoever.”
I cup her face in my hands, searching her eyes. “How do you feel about it? Really feel?”
She takes a deep breath. “Terrified. Excited. Overwhelmed.” Her hand moves instinctively to her still-flat stomach. “I never thought I’d be here, Vulcan. After everything with my mother, I wasn’t sure I’d ever want this. But with you…” Her voice breaks. “With you, I want everything.”
I stand, pulling her into my arms, and breathe her in. “We’re going to be parents,” I whisper, the reality of it sinking deeper with each passing second.
“Are you happy?” she asks, vulnerability lacing her words. “I know we talked about it briefly, but with—”
“Happy doesn’t begin to cover it.” I lean back to look at her.
“You’ve given me the greatest gift imaginable.
A family of our own. Now, you need to eat.
” I peck her forehead. “You have only twenty minutes. Unless you want something else?” I pull my phone out and tap the delivery app.
“What are you in the mood for? Sandwich from Moretti’s?
That Thai place you like? Name it and it’s yours. ”
She laughs, wrapping her arms around my waist. “The cravings haven’t kicked in yet.”
“Doesn’t matter. Whatever my pregnant wife wants, she gets,” I say, and I can’t stop smiling.
“You know, since day one, it’s always been whatever I want, I get.”
“You’re not wrong.” I kiss her forehead. “And I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.”
She melts into me, her body relaxing against mine. “I need to call Dr. Patel. Set up a proper appointment.”
“I’ll clear my schedule.” My hand rests over hers on her stomach. There’s nothing to feel yet, but knowing our child is growing there makes my heart race.
“You don’t have to—”
“I’m going to every appointment, Karina. Every single one. I want to hear the heartbeat, see the ultrasounds, hold your hand through all of it.”
Her eyes glisten with unshed tears. “Val’s going to lose her mind when she finds out she’s going to be an aunt.”
“God, she’ll probably start shopping for baby workout outfits right away.” I run a hand down the back of my head, chuckling. “Now, enough chitchat, you need to eat.”