I chose to believe Sofia hadn’t returned to the compound. For hours, I searched the entire city with my men. Every back alley and hospital between the compound and my house. But there was no sign of her. Yulia kept blowing up my phone to the point that my battery died, and I didn’t stop to charge it in my anxiousness to find Sofia.

  As dawn broke across the sky, I walked into a hospital emergency room and nearly fell to my knees when I saw two of the Volkov guards sitting in the waiting room. Every nerve in my body felt like it was on fire as I jogged across the room to the men.

  Seeing me coming, the two shared a look before slowly getting to their feet. “Who is here?” I croaked out. “Is it Sofia? Is she okay?”

  Both men clenched their jaws. “If you want any details, I suggest you speak to pakhan,” the older of the two men informed me.

  “My phone is dead,” I gritted out, balling my hands into fists so I didn’t put one through the motherfucker’s face. “Where is Adrian?”

  The other man blew out a fed-up sigh and pulled his phone from his pocket. “Zakhar Morozov has just arrived, pakhan.” He listened for a pause, but his facial expression never changed, leaving me wondering what was being said. “Yes, sir.”

  Replacing his phone in his suit jacket pocket, the younger of the two guards lifted his chin toward the elevator. “Third floor. He will be waiting for you when you get off.”

  Above the elevator call button was a directory of what specialty was located on each floor. When I read Obstetrics was the entire third floor, everything inside me seized. I tried to tell myself it was because of Tavia. She was pregnant too, and maybe she’d had complications. It would explain why Adrian and the rest of his family were there.

  But in my gut, I knew it was because of Sofia.

  By the time the doors opened on the third floor, sweat was beaded on my brow and my stomach was trying to revolt. On shaking legs, I stepped off and came face-to-face with Adrian Volkov and his son. Theo took a menacing step toward me, but his father held up his hand, halting the younger Volkov’s movements.

  “Where is she?” I choked out, swallowing the bile that was trying to suffocate me. “Is she okay?”

  “There was some bleeding. The doctor wants to keep her for observation.” With a flick of his hand, Adrian motioned us away from the elevators and down the corridor a few yards. Lifting his chin, he nodded toward a closed door. “She knows you’re here and wants to see you.”

  “The bleeding,” I rasped, my hands shaking so bad I could barely clench them into fists. “Is it serious?”

  “You’ll have to ask her that,” her father said, his voice completely devoid of emotion. “Go. Talk to her. And when you’re done…” He shrugged. “Whether you’re still breathing by the end of the day, well, that’s all up to her.”

  I would have had to be an idiot not to understand the threat in the man’s voice. But what he didn’t know was that if Sofia threw me out of her life, then there would be no reason to make threats. I’d happily let him end my life so I could escape the agony of the emptiness my existence would be without her.

  Fear was not something I was used to feeling, but as I stepped into that hospital room, it made it difficult to breathe, let alone walk. The sun coming through the window was the only illumination other than a dim night-light over the bed. Sofia was propped up with a pillow behind her head. Tavia sat in a recliner chair beside the bed, while Victoria sat on the edge of the mattress, holding her daughter’s hand.

  The women who were supposed to become my mother-in-law and sister-in-law gave me hard glares, but Sofia wouldn’t even look my way as I walked farther into the room. Her gaze was trained out the window, at the sun as it lifted higher into the sky above the surrounding buildings. It seemed unnaturally bright after the heavy rainstorm the previous night.

  “Are you okay?” I questioned through the knot in my throat. “The baby?”

  “The baby is fine.” Without turning her attention from the window, she spoke to the two women. “It’s okay. I need to talk to him. We have to figure this out.”

  Victoria made an unhappy noise in the back of her throat, but she stood and leaned over to kiss her daughter’s forehead. It was then I took note of the IV in the back of one of Sofia’s hands and the monitors hooked up to her.

  Fuck.

  “Tavia and I are going to get something warm to drink,” her mom said as she straightened. “If you need anything, press the call button. Your dad and Theo won’t be far and will see the light when it comes on.”

  “Okay,” Sofia whispered, her eyes never leaving the city view.

  Tavia threaded her arm through her mother-in-law’s, and the two women waited for me to step aside before walking to the door. Their cold shoulder meant nothing to me, though. It was the way Sofia wouldn’t even look at me that made me want to puke my guts out.

  I waited until the door closed behind them before crossing to the bed. “Dragotsennyy.”

  Her head shot around so fast, it was a wonder she didn’t get whiplash. “Don’t,” she snapped. “Don’t call me precious or any other of those endearments you like to throw my way while you pretend I mean the world to you.”

  “But you do, Sofia.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “You and our baby, both of you are my entire world.”

  “Is that because you love us, or because we are the means to the power that you and Oleksandr crave?” She lifted a brow when I flinched. “Which is it, Zakhar? You love me for me or for what I can give you since I’m Yulia’s daughter?”

  “For you!” I cried, falling to my knees beside the bed. Grasping for her hand, I tried to hold on to it, but she jerked it away, threading her fingers through those on the hand that held the IV. “I don’t give a damn about Oleksandr’s ambitions. It never mattered to me. You are all I want.”

  Her blue eyes narrowed on me in a mixture of confusion and hate. “Your words sound so sincere, but luckily, I’ve learned my lesson well. I can’t believe anything that comes out of your mouth.”

  “Let me explain everything,” I pleaded. “Listen to my side, and then you can decide if you don’t trust me.”

  “I don’t need to know your side to make the decision to trust you or not. No matter what you say, nothing can explain away the fact that you set out to use me.” Her hands covered her lower belly. “You even got me pregnant to ensure Oleksandr got what he wanted.”

  “No!” I denied. Fuck, it was hard to hear her accuse me of using our baby like that. “You’re pregnant because I can’t keep my goddamn hands off you. Because I fucking love you so much, I have to constantly be touching you or I feel as if I’m going to lose my mind.”

  “But you’re not going to deny you set it up to make me fall in love with you?” she whispered.

  Frustrated, I raked my fingers through my hair. “I won’t deny that it started out that way.” Tears spilled over her lashes, and I hurriedly continued, needing her to know the truth. “But it only lasted until I met you, Sofia. The night of the charity auction event, you dropped me on my ass. I knew then and there that I loved you, that no matter what Oleksandr wanted, I wouldn’t allow him to use you to gain it.”

  “I hear your words, and I want to believe them. If I didn’t know better, I would even say there is true sincerity in them.” She dashed away her tears angrily. “And then I remember what Yulia said. It makes so much more sense when I think about it.” A sad laugh escaped her. “Part of you might actually even love me, Zak. A little, at least. I know deep down in that tiny, cold, ruthless, greedy heart of yours that you care about me and our baby. But your loyalty will be first and foremost to Oleksandr.”

  “I swear to you, that’s not true. I love you and our child more than anyone. You have my complete and total loyalty. Only you, dragotsennyy.”

  “Yesterday, your love for me was so beautiful,” she whispered, her chin trembling. But there was something in her eyes, just beneath the heartache and the hurt I’d caused. It was something she hadn’t inherited from Oleksandr or Yulia, or even Volodymyr. The Volkovs must have nurtured it into her. The kind of steel a backbone truly needed to survive in a world so fucked up. “I didn’t think I could ever be happier than I was then. I guess I was right, because after learning about your plans with Oleksandr, all that beauty turned ugly. And I won’t allow that kind of toxicity to touch our child.”

  “Then I’ll cut him out of our lives,” I vowed. “You’ll never have to see him or anyone from that family again.”

  She rolled her wet eyes at me. “I’m not giving you an ultimatum, Zak,” she spat. “I wouldn’t make you choose me over the people who raised you, the only family you’ve ever known. I’m not that selfish.”

  “Be selfish,” I begged. “Please. Let me show you who means more to me. It will be you, Sofia. Always.”

  “I don’t want you to choose,” she said, sounding like she was out of strength, even though that banked fire her adoptive family had instilled in her was just beneath the surface. Waiting to be stoked, needing the right fuel before she erupted into the inferno that I knew would leave my world in cinders. “All I’m asking is that during your custodial days with the baby, you don’t allow Oleksandr around them. I’m fine with Olena, she seems like she would make the perfect great-grandmother. I guess Yulia can even visit with the baby as well. But not Oleksandr.”

  The oxygen suddenly felt trapped in my lungs. It took me a few moments to expel it, and when I finally did, my voice came out weak. Maybe she would try to burn me to ash without even having to touch that raging wildfire inside her. “What does that mean, my ‘custodial days’?”

  “Exactly how it sounds. When the baby is born, we will share custody. I expect to have primary custody, but I don’t want our child to grow up not knowing his or her father. We can discuss this more once I give birth, but I’m thinking we should do one weekend a month as well as every other holiday and a few weeks during the summer.”

  Her voice was so businesslike, as if we were talking about negotiating the terms of a merger. And in a sense, I supposed that was exactly what we were doing. Only the merger was of our shared rights to the baby we had created together.

  “Don’t do this, Sofia.” My voice shook as I looked up at her, not bothering to hide the tears in my eyes. I was losing her. Fuck, I might have already lost her. But I couldn’t give up without a fight. Without proving to her that she was the only person in the world who mattered to me. “Don’t push me away and talk so cavalierly about sharing visitation of the child we created together with love.”

  “Are you saying you don’t want joint custody?” she demanded, her blue eyes narrowing on me. The flames in her eyes had turned a blue-white, the hottest flame known to man. If she exploded right then, I didn’t doubt she would take everyone inside the hospital with us. “Since I’m not playing by your rules now, not even our child is worthy of your time?”

  “Of course I’m not saying that!” I whisper-shouted. “What I’m trying to tell you is that I’m not letting you go, so there is no need for a custodial agreement.”

  “You have no choice in the matter. The wedding is off. We are no longer together.” She lifted a shoulder so casually, but those damn eyes. How could they be so fucking sexy and terrifying at the same time? “And you need to return to your home country to deal with work. There’s no way in hell I’m going with you, so you’ll have to settle with the custody arrangements I put into place.”

  “Any work-related issues that need my attention back at home can be handled the same way I’ve been dealing with them for months now.”

  “Which means you lied to me again when you said we needed to return there after our honeymoon so you could take care of all that pressing work that had been piling up in your absence,” she sneered.

  “I didn’t lie,” I told her calmly.

  The past few months had taught me everything there was to know about Sofia Volkov. She was trying to push and punish me, see how far she could force me to bend before I broke. She could do her worst, make me pay until my last breath, but there was no way she could get rid of me. Not when the only true happiness I’d ever experienced was beside her.

  I tucked the covers up around her a little tighter, making sure she was warm enough. “There are some things that do need my in-person attention, but those matters are inconsequential when the alternative is leaving you here to deal with them. I go nowhere without you.”

  Her lashes flickered, but that was the only clue I had that she’d heard me. Looking down at the ring on her left hand, she pulled it free from her finger and offered it to me. “This belongs to you. A family heirloom, or so Olena mentioned last night at dinner. You should save it for the woman you might actually love enough one day to want to marry for herself.”

  “I’ve already found you,” I gritted out. “If I was actually marrying you because of Oleksandr’s plan, I sure as fuck wouldn’t have given you that ring, Sofia. I would have bought something impersonal. Instead, I gave you my great-grandmother’s diamond and emerald ring. The one that matches the necklace that is also yours.”

  “Maybe if we have a daughter, you can give them to her one day,” she said, again acting as if I hadn’t spoken. She’d withdrawn into herself, out of self-preservation or to punish me, I wasn’t sure. But it scared the fuck out of me. This wasn’t my Sofia. She was a shell of the woman I’d fallen irrevocably in love with. “At least they will stay in the Morozov family. But hopefully our baby won’t inherit your heartless soul. I’ll make sure they don’t value power over…well, over anything, I guess.”

  “All I value is you and your love, lyubimaya,” I vowed, pleading with my eyes for her to believe me.

  She gazed at me for a long moment, but nothing prepared me for the next emotionless words out of her mouth. “If I’d lost the baby last night, you would only be disappointed that the mixed bloodline Oleksandr wanted to create would be gone and you wouldn’t ever get another chance. Stop acting like you care about either of us, Zak. Even the little I do believe you care for me doesn’t stretch that far. Pick yourself up off the floor and go tell the man I unfortunately share DNA with that the master race he was so hell-bent on seeing to fruition still has a fighting chance. But make sure you inform the rat bastard that he will never so much as set eyes on my child.”

  Zak

  Every instinct inside me screamed not to leave her side. If I let her out of my sight, who knew what she might do—where she might go. But the way her eyes were so vacant, her tone so devoid of the passion that was typically present even when she was giving me hell, told me louder than any words that she was too fragile for me to risk doing anything to push her further toward whatever abyss she was teetering on the edge of.

  Scrubbing a hand over the scruff on my jaw, I exited her room. As the door shut behind me, I turned to look at the steel barrier that separated me from my entire world. Without Sofia beside me, the pressure of reality nearly felt too much to withstand on my own.

  Someone clearing their throat behind me had me jerking my head around. Surprisingly, Olena and Yulia both stood in front of me, but they weren’t alone. Sofia’s mother and aunts, along with the blond woman I’d met the night before at the rehearsal dinner, Raven Reid, were standing there. Six women looked at me with varying degrees of emotion on their faces, and I actually took a step back from them, feeling the sensation of…danger.

  I’d dealt with bad men all of my life. First, my father and brother, and then Oleksandr, who had thrust me into a world that ensured you came out the other side a strong man—or dead. Growing up with Oleks as a mentor, I’d been in positions that had taught me to read a room and pick out the most dangerous person there. Right then, it was hard to pinpoint where the sensation of danger was radiating from the strongest, but if I had to take a guess, it would have been Anya.

  I didn’t know much about Sofia’s tetka, but since arriving in the States at the beginning of the summer, I’d heard rumors. Whispers that suggested Anya was more than she seemed. I’d asked Oleksandr if he knew of her since she’d been a Volkov before marrying into the Vitucci family, but I should have known he wouldn’t. To Oleksandr, Anya or any other woman would never be on his radar. He was of the mind-set that women were only important for two things. Coming from the right family and producing heirs to strengthen the bloodlines.

  He’d scoffed when I’d told him the whispers I’d heard of Adrian Volkov’s younger sister. It had amused him that any person would think anyone other than Adrian himself, and maybe his son, was worth even a moment of his time.

  Olena, the only mother figure I’d ever known, stepped forward and embraced me. I allowed the hug, but it didn’t last long. She stepped back and glared up at me. “We need to talk, Zakhar.” She glanced over her shoulder at the other women. “All of us.”

  Anya lifted her hand, indicating the corridor to my left. “I’ve secured a room for us to have our chat.”

  No one said a word until the door was closed behind us. Raven stood with her back against the door, her blond hair braided along one shoulder as she crossed her arms over her chest and gave me a dispassionate once-over. She wasn’t big enough to barricade the door. If anyone wanted in, she wouldn’t have been able to stop them with her slight weight leaning against it. But I got the feeling she stood there more to keep someone in.

  Whether that person was me or someone else, I wasn’t sure.

  I remained silent as the other women shifted, Yulia uncomfortably, while everyone else watched her and Olena. But Olena had a look in her eyes and a tilt to her chin that told me she was comfortable in her own skin and what she was about to say.

  “I have a confession to make,” she announced after only a few tense moments had passed. “Yulia, I knew you were pregnant when you were at university in Russia. I had better eyes on you than your father did, and when you became with child, I put people in place to guide you in the right direction.”