Chapter 40
Anya
Dr. Sokolova squeezes the cold gel onto my belly, and I feel Maksim lean over the exam table, his shoulder pressed against mine, as if he could see the baby through my skin.
“You’re on top of me,” I complain.
“I am.”
“You’re not going to see any better from up close.”
“Yes, I will.”
“We have an anxious daddy here,” the doctor comments, holding back a laugh as she presses the transducer against my skin.
A month ago, we were in this same office, the day after the kidnapping.
Maksim was quiet, just listening to everything the doctor said and asking about every detail of my bed rest instructions.
He didn’t dare get close or even speak to me—now it’s the complete opposite.
I think he’d do the exam himself if he could.
“Let’s see how this hematoma is doing.” Her voice is the same as always—calm and patient. “Last time you gave me quite a scare, Svetlana.”
“Imagine how it was for him.”
I jerk my thumb toward Maksim, who’s still crowding in beside me. He just huffs and grumbles something like “this woman is going to be the death of me,” making the doctor stifle another laugh.
None of us says anything more as the doctor meticulously slides the transducer across my still-flat belly.
My whole body is tense, and when I reach for Maksim’s hand, I realize it’s as cold as mine.
After that night in the reading room, when he confessed he was scared, we started talking about the baby every day.
Talking with Maksim helped make this pregnancy feel increasingly real and pushed away the fear of having to deal with everything alone. Maksim would never abandon me.
Another fear, however, has never stopped looming over us—the fear that something could shatter this new happiness.
“There.” Dr. Sokolova breaks the silence and points at the screen. “Do you see?”
This time I can see clearly.
It’s no longer a blurry spot or a faint flutter in the darkness. There’s a head too big for the rest of the little body, the curve of a spine, and two tiny arms moving.
“It’s... That’s...”
“Yes, that’s your baby at almost twelve weeks.”
Maksim leans even further over me, his nose almost touching the screen.
“Why is he moving so much?”
“Because that’s what babies do at this age.” She presses a button and the room fills with that underwater heartbeat sound—fast and strong. “The heart sounds excellent at one hundred sixty beats per minute. He’s also the right size for gestational age.”
Then the doctor reaches into her lab coat pocket, and when she opens her hand, she’s holding a replica of a fetus.
“He’s exactly this size.”
It’s so small it fits entirely in the palm of her hand. I’m amazed that such a tiny being can move as much as he is on the screen.
“And the blood?” Maksim breaks the silence with the question that’s been weighing on us most these past few days. “The hematoma?”
The doctor moves the transducer across my skin again. She measures once, measures again, and I hold my breath when I see how intently she’s focused on the screen.
“Completely reabsorbed.” She turns the screen toward us and gives one of her small smiles. “Gone, exactly as it should be.”
I exhale all at once, filling the room with a loud sigh of relief. Maksim relaxes his grip on my hand too, and although he doesn’t say anything, I know he’s just as relieved.
“So...”
“So you’re cleared,” she says, removing the transducer and wiping the gel from my belly with a rough paper towel. “No marathons and no carrying too much weight, but you can go back to classes now. You can walk, exercise, and return to normal life. No restrictions.”
I want to laugh out loud, to laugh and celebrate, but I contain myself and just smile broadly. The doctor is already getting up to leave when Maksim’s voice comes out low and serious.
“No restrictions?”
The implicit question makes me blush immediately, and the doctor, who must hear the same question from expectant parents every day, just smiles as she answers.
“Sex is encouraged during pregnancy, Mr. Nikiforov. As long as you’re careful about any risk of falling.”
“Right.”
He agrees with his usual serious, impassive expression while I just want to disappear. Before leaving, Dr. Sokolova stops at the door, looks back, and does something I’d never expect—she winks at me.
“Keep your feet on the ground, Svetlana. See you next month.”
The door closes and I bury my face in my hands.
“Oh my God, how embarrassing.”
I slide my lotion-slicked hands over my belly after my bath—my newest favorite ritual. Maksim stands in the closet doorway, leaning against the frame, watching me with hungry eyes.
“I still can’t believe you asked the doctor that,” I complain, trying and failing to ignore him.
“It was a legitimate question.”
He approaches me with slow, deliberate steps, like a damn predator. I focus on my reflection in the mirror, trying to figure out if that small bump I’m seeing is real or just in my head.
“Do you think it’s starting to show?” I turn to the side, smoothing my belly.
“I think…” His arms circle my waist, his head dipping until I feel his lips brush my ear. “That you’re even hotter.”
“Maksim…”
A shiver runs down my spine as his large hands travel over my body, starting at my waist and moving up to my already sensitive breasts. Maksim spins me around, and the moment I face him, his lips claim mine. One hand leaves my nipple and grabs my hair at the nape of my neck, pulling me closer.
“Fuck, I missed you so much.”
He pushes his hips against my belly, making it clear how aroused he is. The pressure of his hard cock against me only makes it easier for me to lose control. I rip off his shirt and move down to his belt, grabbing his huge cock through his pants.
One second I’m grinding against him, pressed against the closet mirror, and the next I’m in his arms.
“Maksim, put me down!”
He strides to the bedroom, lays me gently on the bed, and smiles mischievously.
“Dr. Sokolova said to keep your feet on the floor, but she should have added that your back should stay on the mattress.”
I blush at the mention of the doctor’s comment, but I don’t have much time to think about it.
Maksim leans down, trailing kisses along my neck, moving to my breasts, across my belly until he reaches between my legs.
I moan softly as his stubble scratches the inside of my thighs, slowly, first one side, then the other.
“You’re trying to kill me,” I whisper, completely wet, anticipating the moment his tongue will touch me.
“No, I want to…”
A shrill sound interrupts us. A phone rings incessantly, just like that first night we were together. This time, it’s not some Bratva emergency—it’s something much more inconvenient.
Maksim reaches for my phone on the nightstand, just to silence it, but freezes when he sees the screen. His jaw clenches and he takes a deep breath before showing me the display.
Aleksei.
“Why is he calling you?”
I swallow hard, not because I was caught in a lie, but because I hate that my parents still have the ability to interfere in my life.
“Just ignore it.”
“How long has this been going on?”
Maksim’s voice is like ice, and I laugh humorlessly as I sit up in bed, covering my body with the comforter.
“Since the money ran out, a little over a month after we got married.”
“You should have told me,” he accuses irritably, but I know his anger isn’t really directed at me.
“It wasn’t important.”
Then something occurs to me. If Aleksei is calling me, he’s not dead yet. Yet. It would be too naive of me to think Maksim would let him live after his big, drunk mouth led to the attack and kidnapping.
I let the thought that’s been circling my head for a while finally surface. It was there even before I knew about the pregnancy, and it only grew stronger after the discovery.
“I want to see them, Maksim.”
“No.”
His refusal is absolute. He throws the phone aside carelessly and gets up, starting to pace back and forth.
“Please.”
“Svetlana, that man opened his mouth in a bar and because of that they took you. Because of that you almost…” He stops, runs his hands through his hair, and goes quiet.
“Please,” I ask once more, quieter now.
“Why?” He grows more agitated, pacing around the room like a caged animal. “Why do you want to go there? They only ever hurt you.”
“I need to.”
“And are you going to beg for their lives again?” Even shouting, I can see the mixture of rage and anguish in his eyes. Maksim looks like a broken man. “Because I guarantee you, I won’t…”
“I won’t.”
He falls silent, stops shouting, stops pacing aimlessly around the room, and stares at me with intense eyes.
I know what Aleksei and Galina’s fate will be.
This past month, knowing I’ll be a mother, I’ve had a lot to think about and ended up revisiting moments from my childhood—things I would never put my own child through.
“I know they’re going to die, and a part of me is grateful for that,” I begin, letting the truth come out and surprising myself that it doesn’t taste as bitter as I expected. “But I need to see my mother one last time.”
“She’ll only hurt you, Solnyshko.”
The mattress beside me sinks under his weight. Maksim touches my face gently, caressing my cheek before kissing my forehead.
“I can’t stand to see you suffer.”
“I need to.” I cup his face in my hand and kiss the scar that made me love him even more from day one. “For our child. I need to know if she still has any power over me, if she can still hurt me with her poison.”
“Anya…”
“I want to be a whole mother for this baby, Maksim. I don’t want to be a broken mother who resents the past.”
Maksim stares at me for a long time. I can see the battle he’s waging with himself behind his eyes, his protective instinct always fighting to win out over reason. I take his right hand, bring it to my lips, and kiss it right over his wedding band.
“Everything’s going to be fine.”
Finally, he sighs, defeated.
“You promise you’ll stay behind me?”
“I promise.”
“And if I tell you to leave, you will?”
“Without question,” I assure him with a slight smile.