Chapter 28 Elena
CHAPTER 28
ELENA
It was a wave of nausea that woke her up. She dashed out of bed and made her way into the adjoining bathroom. A quick glance from the corner of her eye had revealed Viking hadn’t come home tonight. She suspected he was about to wake up to a massive hang-over. Part of her felt sorry for him. She felt his pain as if it were her own. Another part of her, told her a headache was just a paltry inconvenience compared to her morning sickness from carrying his baby. A baby she still hadn’t been able to tell him about because he’d been avoiding her for the past few days.
After the worst of the bile in her throat was gone, she took a quick shower and went into the kitchen. Already, the thought of eggs or bacon made her feel queasy, so she went for toast and a banana. Her thoughts were racing a million miles an hour. She needed to go see a doctor; she needed to tell Viking, tell Vicky. Most of all, she needed to know her daughter was safe from Pedro. Somehow he was still freely roaming this earth while he had a whole Bratva after him.
She had just grabbed another piece of toast and settled onto the couch to check out some local clinics when the doorbell chimed.
She opened the door only to come face to face with her brother and Giorgia. Her cousin looked stunning as ever in a green pencil skirt and white silk top that hugged her figure. Elena knew it was all a facade. Behind the nice dress and perfect French manicure hid a beautiful python, ready to swallow anyone in its vicinity as long as it got fed.
“Why is she here?” She wasn’t in the mood for any small talk or to pretend to play happy family.
“Can we come in?” Ricky looked worse than the last time she’d seen him. The buttons of his shirt looked ready to snap at any moment.
“You can; she can stay outside.” Her chin jerked to Giorgia.
A pink flush emerged on her cousin’s cheeks. She looked miserable, but Elena didn’t miss the flicker of anger that crossed her face. If she hadn’t known her so well, she might have missed it. Except once someone betrayed you, nothing that person said or did would ever change that. Every time she saw her cousin, that same image played out in front of her: Giorgia in bed with Viking.
Ricky frowned. “This is important, sis. Giorgia has something to tell you I think you need to hear.”
She highly doubted that, but in the spirit of turning over a new leaf with her brother, she didn’t slam the door in their faces.
She turned around and walked back inside, not bothering to see if Giorgia followed. Giving Loki a pat on the back, she sat on the couch, not bothering to offer Giorgia do the same.
Her brother took a seat across from her, and Giorgia just stood there. Her high heels sunk into the plush carpet but, of course, she didn’t go down.
Pity. Elena sighed and, without giving it another thought, she took a cracker from the side table.
Two pairs of eyes watched her closely. Then her brother and cousin exchanged a look that churned her stomach. Whatever it was they came to tell her, it was bad.
No longer able to keep the loaded silence, Elena spoke. “So, what is it that you so desperately need to tell me, Giorgia?”
Her hands were clasped together, her lips thinned. “Screw your attitude, Lena.”
“Giorgia!” Ricky’s eyes blazed with fire, leaving Elena stunned. It had been ages since her brother had come to her defense.
“What?” Giorgia’s nostrils flared. “I’m putting myself out there to help her and she looks at me like I’m scum underneath her shoes. And I’m supposed to just take it?”
Elena smiled. “Well, you got the scum underneath my shoes part right.”
Giorgia’s eyes turned a catlike vile. “You’re pregnant.”
Crap. “How did you…I…”
Ricky waved that away. “I told her when I suspected it the last time we spoke.” She gave him a dirty look, but he shook his head. “There’s no time for that. Whatever happened before, we’re still family. The good and the bad. We still help each other out. It’s what Mom would have wanted.”
She was ready to tear him a new one when he dropped those last words. Yes, it was what mom would have wanted.
Family is everything. They’re the foundation you build your life on.
Her mom’s words echoed through her mind, calming her enough to swallow her hateful remarks.
“You say that as if you mean it,” she croaked, feeling vulnerable that they knew about the secret she had yet to tell Viking. She had yet to tell anyone.
Ricky sat next to her and held her hand. “I do, Lena. I’ve told you before, you can count on me. Always. I’ll protect you and the baby from Viking.”
She pulled her hand away. “What makes you think we need protection from him?” Viking would cut off his right arm before hurting his own child.
Sensing he’d made a mistake, her brother backtracked. “I don’t mean it like that.” He nodded at Giorgia, who rolled her eyes.
“I can see you’re still as blinded by love as before. It’s sad, really. Worse, you got knocked up by him, again.”
“Get to your point,” Elena grounded. “I’m just one step away from kicking you out.”
Giorgia put her hands on her slim hips and leaned over as if she was about to tell a big secret. “I was at Flux the other day and overheard Viking talking about you. Long story short, he means to get you pregnant and then take away your baby. I believe he said you owed him one.”
Her stomach churned, and she clamped her mouth shut, desperately fighting the urge to puke. All those times he told her he’d take his revenge came rushing back to her. The moment he’d called her a backstabbing, baby-stealing bitch. The times he vowed he’d keep her locked up for the same amount of time he hadn’t been in Vicky’s life. Of course. Viking was an eye-for-an-eye kind of guy. Why hadn’t she realized that before?
Because you love him and trust him.
Because, so far, his big revenge plot has been mostly bluster.
And because Giorgia can’t be trusted.
“I don’t believe you.”
Giorgia shrugged. “I don’t care what you believe. I told Ricky because we’re still family. Do with it what you want.”
It didn’t make sense. Viking wasn’t some loose-lipped man who would discuss his private life for anyone to hear.
“So you’re telling me Viking was just sitting around the table at the club discussing his baby-snatching plans?”
Giorgia flushed. Then her eyes turned cynical. “Come on, read between the freaking lines. When I said ‘overheard,’ I meant ‘pillow talk.’ I was trying to spare your feelings, but you didn’t really think I only slept with him that one time, did you?”
Naive as it may have seemed, yeah, she kind of did. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Giorgia might be a vicious snake, but she was drop-dead gorgeous. What man wouldn’t come for seconds?
After that little tidbit of poison Giorgia spewed, she walked out leaving Elena alone with her brother.
She felt as if the floor had dropped away from underneath her feet.
“I can get you out of here,” Ricky said.
“I’m not leaving.”
“Lena…”
“I said no.” She’d walked out on Viking once, she wasn’t doing it again. She pulled up her knees and held them tightly. Once again her world had turned into a dark and scary place, but this time she wasn’t running away from it without getting some answers first.
Ricky sighed. “Fine. But at least ask him, okay? Call me when you need me.”
When, not if. He seemed so sure of himself, and she hated him a little for that. Unfair as it was, she hated him for being the bearer of bad news and for possibly opening her eyes.
She watched her brother leave through a curtain of tears. She wasn’t sure how long she stayed rooted to that spot on the couch, not moving an inch.
***
Viking came home close to dinnertime. By then, a million thoughts had jumbled through Elena’s mind. It felt like an epic battle inside her head, where darkness fought against the light, and hope tried to trump despair. When Viking walked into the living room, put his gun on the mantle, and went into the kitchen to grab one of his energy drinks, Elena still didn’t know what to say.
The man that sat on the recliner across from her wasn’t the same shell of a man from the night before. His ripped jeans hugged his muscular body and he looked more collected.
There was an odd softness in his eyes. “Lena…”
“I’m pregnant,” she blurted at the same time.
He blinked. Then a huge smile spread across his face. It was everything she ever wished would happen and simultaneously everything she dreaded. She felt conflicted. Was he happy he was having a baby with her or was he happy he was having a baby, period? Was there any truth to what Giorgia had said? Did he intend to steal her baby as an ultimate act of revenge?
He dropped to his knees before her and placed a hand on her belly. “I’m glad,” he said in a throaty voice.
The softness in his gaze didn’t deter her from the suspicion that had crept into her mind and was spreading like cancer.
“You are?”
He frowned. “Of course I am. I’ve always wanted kids with you. You know that.”
Except that wasn’t really true, was it? He had wanted kids with the old her. The Elena who hadn’t betrayed him. The Elena who hadn’t stolen his first child from him. The girl he would have bled, lied and killed for. That wasn’t her anymore. Not in his mind.
“You’ve said a lot of things,” she reminded him. “I remember you locking me up, telling me I wouldn’t see the light of day again. You said you’d make me pay…”
“Lena.”
No, she wouldn’t be moved by her calling her by that name. Even if the loving way he said it made her bleed a little from the inside. It was almost the same way as he’d said it before. Back when he loved her. When the world had been beautiful, and simple, and all they lived for had been each other. But nothing had changed between them. Not really.
“I know you, Viking. You may think I don’t anymore, but I know you better than anyone.” She took his hand and pressed it to her heart. “I can feel you better than anyone. Right here, where it matters. So, I need to know. In your quest for revenge, did you ever think about knocking me up and keeping my baby away from me?”
A shadow crossed his eyes and she read the truth on his face. Tears pricked the edges of her eyes. Fear coiled up inside her stomach, like a snake, hissing, and spreading venom inside her veins, shooting straight to her heart. This could not be happening. Not again.
“Tell me it isn’t true. Tell me you never thought about getting me pregnant and taking this baby from me as payback?”
He stilled for a moment, but she could see it in his eyes. The ugly truth that he hadn’t told her. He was going to steal her baby. A crushing weight settled on her shoulders. A boulder so big she didn’t think she could ever get out from under it. She grabbed the first thing she could get her hands on: a vase. She threw it at his head.
He ducked, and glass shattered against the wall behind him.
“I hate you,” she whispered.
“Calm down.”
Oh no, he didn’t. “Calm down? You want me to calm down?” She grabbed another glass and threw it. “How is this for calm!”
Viking put up his hands in a placating gesture and stepped back. “Calm down.”
His soothing voice felt like oil on the fire burning in her heart. History was repeating itself and there was nothing she could do about it. Once again, she was becoming collateral damage in a man’s pursuit of vengeance and personal gain. But this time, somehow, it was different. This time, with darkness shrouding her vision, came clarity. It was her mother’s words that pierced the murky thoughts in her mind like sunlight.
Lovers are blind, my child. Love fears a woman, for she will do anything for it. But if a woman both loves and hates a man, woo to him twice.
She wasn’t going to allow another man to steal her baby.
“I gave up my life for you! And this is how you repay me? By knocking me up, again, and then trying to steal my baby?”
Then her eyes settled on Viking’s gun on the mantle. Memories of him screwing Giorgia in the same bed where she’d had her first time, popped back into her head. Suddenly she wanted to kill him, over and over again. Unfortunately, murder wasn’t an option here. So she did what any sane woman in her position would do: she pulled a gun on him.
His eyes narrowed to slits. “You really need to quit that bad habit of taking my gun.”
“Then don’t make me want to pull it on you!”
“Put that gun away. We need to talk.”
With shaking hands, she raised the gun at him. “I want to kill you, but I can’t. Because as much as I hate you right now, I love you more.”
He blinked. “Elena, wait.”
“No.”
She was done waiting. Done hearing people out. This time she was going to do what she wanted, what was good for her. This time she chose herself and her baby, who deserved to be raised with a mom.
“No,” she repeated. “You know what’s the worst part? The thing that breaks my heart? You never asked. Not once did you ask why I married Lorenzo. You just assumed I was a gold digger ready to whore myself out. Maybe it was a good thing we never made it. Maybe you just don’t deserve to be a father. I’m not even sure you deserve to be called a good lover. Because guess what? Loving someone more than you love yourself requires sacrifice. It means placing that person’s needs before yourself, even if it kills you.” She grabbed his car keys and her bag from the counter. “Now, I’m going to get my pregnant ass far away from you. Go find another sucker for a surrogate you can steal babies from. I’m out.”
Hardening her heart, she shot him.