Page 17 of Wyatt

“Yeah, well, I was so in love with Wyatt Marshall, I lost my head. He was home on Christmas break, and we’d gotten caught making out in the hay mow during Thanksgiving. And it just sorta…sparked something. I was eighteen, and he was twenty and one night his family went to town for some church event, but Wyatt and I stayed home to…well, I don’t remember what excuse we made up, but I knew what I wanted.”

She could close her eyes and way too easily be back in Wyatt’s arms in his skinny twin bed in the room he’d shared with Ford and Tate. Which felt weird, but then…well, she hadn’t cared.

“Truth was, I had been in love with Wyatt for years, and in my head I believed we’d end up together. And that he loved me too.” She looked up at them. “When I found out I was pregnant, I didn’t tell anyone—I wanted to surprise him. I was so…” She shook her head. “I thought he’d be thrilled and ask me to marry him, and we’d have a family and live on the Marshall Triple M and…”

Her eyes always burned when she got to this part. “While I was at that game, his father suffered a heart attack and died and suddenly everything changed. Wyatt changed. He was so…angry. He quit school, tried out for the Edmonton team, didn’t make it, then tried the Blue Ox in Minnesota. He landed a position on their amateur team, and just like that, he was gone. And I was alone. And scared. And ashamed. So I moved back to Russia.”

“Where your father lived.”

“He’d kept tabs on me for years, even though we were supposed to act like he was dead. He took me in and helped me…well, Mikka lives in an orphanage in Belogorsk.”

Sarai touched her arm, squeezed.

“It wasn’t my choice. I kept Mikka with me for the first year, but then my father said he’d unearthed a kidnapping plot and said it was too dangerous for Mikka and me, and even for my father to keep him. He had to remain anonymous. He started out in an orphanage not far from St. Petersburg, but then we started to move him. He’s been at the home in Belogorsk for two years.”

She gritted her jaw against a familiar burn in her throat, her eyes. Kept her voice even as she said, “I visit him as often as I can. He knows me.”

She looked away again, her eyes on fire, glazing over. Shoot. She’d thought she’d be used to the ache by now.

“I’m sorry, Kat.”

“That’s why I went back to Montana to visit. I thought, maybe, if I told Wyatt about Mikka, he’d want us back. He’d tell me to move to America and…”

“You’d be a family.”

She wiped her cheek with the palm of her hand. Since when had she turned into such a baby? She was the daughter of a Russian general—she knew hardship,hello.

“Wyatt had just made the pro team, and he was so excited. And I just couldn’t…well, he barely paid any attention to me anyway, so I figured I was nothing to him. Just a…” She couldn’t say the wordfling, so she lifted her shoulder. “I came back to Russia and lived the best life I could.”

She didn’t want to tell them about the shame of his visit to Moscow two years ago, so she omitted it and went straight to— “I know he deserves to know, but…”

“But he’d demand to take Mikka too,” Roman said.

She hadn’t thought of that. Coco looked at him. “Or not. He doesn’t even know Mikka—”

“He would want to know him,” Roman said, nothing of a waver in his voice, and that only made her chest burn.

“Maybe Ishouldhave left with Wyatt. Mikka is safer if no one knows about him. If I leave Russia, I take the assassin with me.”

“You can’t leave your son,” Sarai said, more of a statement than a question.

Coco shook her head. Closed her eyes. “No. I can’t. I’m just not that strong.”

Sarai moved over to her and pulled her into an embrace. “I think you’re plenty strong, honey.”

The embrace was sweet, but with everything inside her, Coco wanted to push away, run back to that hotel and…and…

You broke my heart.

Oh, she was such a fool. Here he was in Khabarovsk, looking for her and…

And if he kept it up, trying to find her, the assassin might findhim.

The thought caught her up, stole her breath.

Yes, better for him to leave, and pronto.

“No one would expect you to leave your son,” Sarai said softly, letting her go.

---