Page 85 of Blood Oath Christmas
My blood runs cold. "What?"
"We got you back unharmed in just a few hours," he says quickly, but I can see the pain in his dark eyes. "There was a lot of bloodshed, but you were safe. That was the final straw for your mother—and for me. I knew I had to get out, but the only wayto ensure you and Trisha would be truly safe was to disappear completely."
"So you faked your death." The words taste bitter in my mouth. Then I frown. “But you didn’tdieuntil I was 15.”
He nods. "I kept my Mafia business private until you were fifteen. I thought… I hoped I could find another way. But when the Antonovs started making moves against our family, I knew it was time. I staged the car accident and disappeared."
Konstantin's deep voice cuts through the emotional haze. "Your father saved my life." His hand finds mine, fingers intertwining, and the contact sends electricity up my arm. "I swore a blood oath to protect his daughter should anything happen to him."
I turn to look at Konstantin, taking in the sharp angles of his face, the way his jaw tics when he's emotional. "You've known this whole time?"
"I've been watching over you through Konstantin and Viktor," my father explains before Konstantin can answer. "From a distance, but always there."
Something clicks in my memory. "The wooden animals."
My father's face softens. "You remember."
"Viktor carves them.” I trail off, thinking of all the times I'd found those little carved creatures when I was young. A bear on my windowsill after a particularly bad day at work. A wolf tucked into my car's cup holder after I'd had a fight with Frank. An eagle on my desk at school during finals week.
When Viktor started giving them to me, I hadn’t put two and two together. But then, I thought my father was dead. Still, I hadn’t even remembered the figurines until now.
"It was my way of letting you know you were protected, even when you didn't know it," my father says quietly.
More memories surface of coincidences that weren't coincidences at all. The man who'd helped me when my carbroke down on a deserted road late at night, appearing out of nowhere and disappearing just as quickly. The group of drunk college guys who'd been harassing me outside a bar, suddenly backing off when a dark figure appeared in the shadows. The job at Otrava that had seemed too good to be true, offered by someone who claimed to be a friend of my father's.
"You've been there all along," I whisper, overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all.
"Always, little star. Even when you couldn't see me."
Tears burn my eyes, a mixture of relief, anger, and love warring in my chest. Konstantin's thumb strokes across my knuckles, grounding me, and I'm grateful for his solid presence beside me.
"I understand why you did it," I say finally, my voice thick with emotion. "But it doesn't make it hurt less. Eleven years, Dad. Eleven years I thought you were dead."
"I know," he says, his own voice breaking slightly. "And I'm sorry. Sorrier than you'll ever know."
The room falls silent as I sit with my back against the headboard. How do I even begin to process all this? A sudden thought occurs to me and I swing my gaze to Dad, my eyes wide.
“Does Mom know you’re alive?”
He shakes his head, a sadness stealing over him that surprises me. “She couldn’t know. It was for her own protection, too.”
Konstantin's voice, when he finally speaks, is carefully controlled, but I can hear the underlying tension. "Now, about this pregnancy?"
48
KONSTANTIN
The words hit me like a physical blow. Pregnant. My wife is pregnant.
I stare at Ivy, her blue eyes wide with uncertainty as she watches my reaction. The silence stretches between us, heavy with the weight of this revelation. A baby. Our baby.
The sound of a throat clearing has me looking at Andrei. “I’ll, uh, I’ll give you two some privacy.”
He leaves, his cheeks a little pink as he closes the door behind him. I turn back to Ivy.
"How long have you known?" My voice comes out rougher than I intended.
She shifts on the bed, pulling the sheet higher around herself. "I found out the night after the warehouse. After the shootout with the Kozlovs." Her voice is barely above a whisper. "I took a test when I got home that night."
