Page 45 of Merciless Promise
I opened my mouth, but no words came out, although three small ones lingered on my tongue. How I ached to tell him that I had somehow fallen in love with him. There was no telling how he would react to such an admission, so I kept it hidden deep inside. One night, I would finally be able to express myself, but as he moved off me and the bed and strode to the bathroom, I knew it wouldn’t be now.
We both took separate showers, and as I exited the bathroom after mine, he was already dressed with his keys in his hands.“I shouldn’t be long,” I said to him as I walked to the closet we shared. “Cillian isn’t going to be able to make it. I bet his ass is hungover again. It’ll be just my grandfather and me, and we both know how he feels about you.”
I rolled my eyes and didn’t even bother hiding my disgust. Ronan Brannington would prefer the company of almost anyone to mine. I understood that he was still pissed off about everything that had happened with Princeton. Would he ever be able to forgive me?
So far, that hadn’t been the case, so I shrugged. “Fine. I’m going to the gym to do yoga. After, I might hit Times Square to do some shopping. Will I see you later?”
“Sure,” he said to me before leaving.
I waited until I heard the front door close, and I flopped down on the bed. I didn’t understand why I seemed so bummed to be left behind because I should’ve been relieved. I was not, though. I did have plans of my own, however, so I quickly got dressed and grabbed a bottled water before heading outside. Eli was there as usual. At least it wasn’t Nolan.
An hour later, I had not only gotten to the gym, but I had completed an entire session of hot yoga. Throughout it, I felt dizzier than usual, but I had been under a lot of stress lately. It was hard trying to conceive and balance a perfect harmony between love and hate. This relationship, while the deepest I had ever been in, was also the most exhausting.
Mafia men are never easy.
And Kingston was proof of that. I waited for the other women to leave the floor before I picked up my mat. As I did, I was wracked with a god awful pain in my abdomen. I quickly clutched it to ward off the pain, but another contraction of sorts struck me. The dizziness from earlier chose that moment to return with a vengeance, and I nearly toppled over as I lost my balance.
I was already sweaty from the yoga itself, but I felt another layer of perspiration building on my skin. My water bottle was just over on the bench, so I tried to stagger over to it, but another pain struck me, and I groaned out in discomfort.
“Ekaterina. Are you okay?” I heard.
I looked over at the instructor who had returned and went to nod. As I did, I barely got my head partially up when I crumpled to my knees on the floor. My face hit the mat, and I heard several voices, including one asking for an ambulance. I wanted to tell them all that I was fine, but as I opened my mouth to speak, everything went dark around me.
Iarrived at the hospital as soon as I received the call, and now I felt uneasy as I stood outside of my wife’s room. I couldn’t believe this was happening. “I’m sorry, Mr. Brannington. Your wife had what’s called a chemical pregnancy.”
“What the hell does that even mean?” I asked her.
“She had a miscarriage.”
“But, she’d taken a pregnancy test this morning that was negative.”
Or was it?She had told me that she wasn’t pregnant, but how could I be sure after the fiasco with the birth control? Sure, she had been more agreeable lately, but that could’ve all been an act. I hated the doubt creeping into my head, but I couldn’t shake it no matter how hard I tried.
“Will she be able to conceive again? Carry a baby to term?” I had to ask. If she couldn’t, I’d have a decision to make for the future.
Not now, though. Not tonight. Ekaterina had to be devastated.
“Of course, although I would like to run a few more tests. Many women experience this, especially those who are so early on in their pregnancies as your wife was. Most do not even realize they’d conceived yet.”
Maybe Dr. Kane was right. I had no idea what to believe, and to know that something I needed so badly was gone, and before I even had a chance to come to terms with it all felt a lot like the rug had been pulled out from under me.
I couldn’t think about my own needs right now, so I headed back inside Ekaterina’s room. Not sure what to expect, I didn’t anticipate to see her fully dressed and pacing back and forth. At the sound of the door, she stopped, then turned in my direction.
“I want to go home. Dr. Kane said there’s no reason for me to stay any longer.”
“Are you certain? She didn’t mention that to me out in the hall.”
“You’re talking to my doctor about me without me even being there?”
She now seemed angry about that, which made me narrow my eyes. Were my earlier suspicions really that off base? I cleared my throat and ignored the look of righteous indignation on her pale cheeks.
“You are my wife.”
“I’m not some possession, though. My medical history is all mine.”
“What are you trying to hide?” I asked her.
She just shook her head as her eyes rolled back into her head. “I’m not getting into this with you while here at the hospital. I want to leave, so I’m?—”
