Page 193 of Tarnished Tyrant (Zhukova Bratva 1)

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Nikolai pulled strings here, but I still do a double-take when we don’t even pause in the waiting room.

As soon as we walk in, a nurse is waiting to escort us into the back. She takes my weight and my blood pressure, and then she leads us into the ultrasound room. The lights are dim and large screens hang on the walls.

“Lie back on the table and the ultrasound tech will be right in,” the nurse says.

My knee bounces nervously while we wait. Nikolai reaches out to steady it.

“It will be fine,” he reassures me. “No matter what.”

I want to ask him what he means. If I’m not pregnant, what will happen between us?

But I’m nervous enough as it is. There will be time for those nauseating sorts of questions later.

The ultrasound tech who bustles in is a middle-aged woman with warm brown hair and a wide smile. “Are you Mom and Dad?” she asks.

“Mom,” I breathe. “Wow. That’s weird.”

“We’re the parents,” Nikolai says curtly.

The woman claps her hands. “Then let’s see your baby, okay?”

I slide my shirt up and she squeezes a warm jelly across my stomach. When the wand slides over my stomach and an image flickers on the two screens on the wall, I purposefully look away.

There are a few times in life where you know the next seconds will rearrange your entire future. This is one of them.

I want just a few more moments of blissful ignorance. One last breath until “Before” becomes “After.” The tech swirls the wand around, pressing and prodding while she taps away on her computer. Then she points up at the screen on the ceiling.

“You see that right there?” she asks, pointing to a small white ball in the corner of the screen. “That’s your baby.”

My entire body unclenches with awhooshthat only I can hear. “It’s… it’s a real baby?”

“It’s a real baby,” she chuckles.

“And it’s okay? Is everything normal?”

“If you need a better machine to see more, I can buy one,” Nikolai offers.

I laugh giddily. I have a feeling he’d buy an entire hospital if he needed to.

“Everything is normal as far as I can tell now,” the tech says gently. “It’s early, so all anyone will be able to tell you is how far along you are and whether the baby has a heartbeat.” She points to the screen again, tapping her nail against a pulsing little flicker in the center of the bundle. “See that right there? That is your baby’s heartbeat. Nice and steady.”

She walks us through more details and measurements, and I listen and nod, but I’m not absorbing a word. Nikolai is stroking my hair absently. A smile he can’t seem to suppress is stretched across his face.

After the tech turns off the machine, she directs me to the attached bathroom to clean up. The second the door is closed, I pull out my phone.

BELLE:Thanks for your help, but I can’t meet today. And I can’t help you anymore.

Then I put my phone away and try to breathe.

48

NIKOLAI

I open the top drawer of my desk and glance at the black and white sonogram photo.

Arslan would no doubt have a joke for this situation, but looking at it is the pinch in the arm I need to prove to myself that all of this is really happening.

I’m going to be a father. Afather.

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