Page 53 of Owned By the Russian

Valentina barely heard her. Her mind was spiraling, caught between a thousand fears. How was she supposed to tell Ilya? What if he didn’t want this? What if she was just a fling to him, nothing more? She wasn’t even ready to be a mom.

Yet, here she was, carrying the child of a man she now realized she was falling in love with.

She was still trying to gather her thoughts, still trying to tell Rhiannon to keep it a secret between them, when the door burst open.

Ilya stormed in, his dark eyes wild with something close to panic. “Who?” he demanded, his voice sharp enough to cut through steel. “Who the fuck hurt her?”

Valentina’s breath caught. He was here. He had come for her.

But he didn’t know yet.

And she had no idea how to tell him.

Chapter 20 - Ilya

The moment he heard she was at the hospital, Ilya’s heart kicked into overdrive. One minute, he was receiving Rhiannon’s call, and the next, he was rushing to the hospital, his blood hot with concern and anger.

His mind had spiraled into dangerous dimensions on what could have happened to her, and when he barged into the doctor’s office, he full-on expected bad news, ready to spill the blood of whoever had hurt her.

That was until his pulsing anger shrunk to a shocked silence when the doctor, entirely unfazed, responded in a calm, professional tone.

“No one has hurt her, Mr. Nikolai. Valentina and the baby are perfectly healthy.”

Silence.

The kind that sucked all the air out of the room.

His entire body locked up, his chest rising and falling as if he’d just taken a hit. His expression?fierce and unshakable just moments ago, ready to rip the hospital apart?shifted into something unreadable.

Slowly, he turned his gaze to her.

She swallowed hard, refusing to meet his gaze as she gripped the armrests of her chair like a lifeline. The air shifted between them, the atmosphere becoming thick with unbearable tension.

“We’ll be outside,” The doctor said, rising to his feet as Rhiannon followed. “Congratulations, Miss Romano, Mr. Nikolai.”

And then the door clicked shut behind Rhiannon and the doctor, leaving them alone in thick, suffocating silence.

Ilya barely gave them a second to disappear before he turned to Valentina, his jaw tighter than it had ever been, eyes dark with something she couldn’t fathom. “Tell me the truth.”

Valentina crossed her arms, a defensive habit. “He already did.”

“I want to hear it from you.” His voice was low, controlled, but she could hear the tension simmering beneath it. “Tell me the truth, Valentina.”

She let out a shaky breath, willing herself to meet his sharp gaze. “I’m pregnant.”

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, but his expression remained unreadable. Something in him felt like it was ripping apart and coming together again. Over and over. “And you didn’t know until now?”

Valentina scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Do you think I’d have kept it from you on purpose?”

Ilya studied her, his sharp gaze cutting through her usual bravado. And that’s when he saw it?beneath the attitude and the defensive bite in her words, she was vulnerable. Uncertain. Maybe a little scared.

When he stormed into the hospital to find out what happened to her, he didn’t think he’d walk out a father.

His chest tightened.

His silence seemed to be getting to her and before he could say anything, she straightened her shoulders, lifting her chin. “Look, I don’t expect anything from you,” she said like she was talking about the weather. “You’re not obligated to do anything about this. I can take care of myself just fine.”

Ilya exhaled sharply through his nose, his gaze never leaving hers. “What kind of man do you think I am, Valentina? You’d think I’d walk away from my own blood?”

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