Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 53693 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 268(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53693 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 268(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
Lily cries all the way to the penthouse, despite our best efforts to calm her. That’s parenthood. She is the most perfect child most of the time, but when she’s upset, she’s basically possessed by a demon. When we finally get her ready for bed and put her down for the night, my nerves are shot.
I’m so grateful I’m finished with school because I’m emotionally and mentally exhausted. Johnny pulls me to our bedroom, where he sits me on the bed and gives me a shoulder massage.
“It’s been a long day,” he murmurs against my neck. “I wouldn’t blame you if you want to turn in early.”
I nod and lean back against him. He stops rubbing my shoulders and wraps his arms around me, holding me tight. These are my favorite moments in our relationship. These are the simple times when we just get to be us.
“I’ve been thinking about my parents a lot,” I say tiredly.
“Uh-oh,” he chuckles into my hair.
“No, I think you’ll like this,” I tell him. “I was thinking about how little they’ve supported me over the last two years, and how bad they are as parents and grandparents. I don’t want Lily growing up around that negativity. And I don’t want our family exposed to the dangers they pose.”
I feel him nod, and he pulls me against his chest until we’re both lying on the bed.
“That’s a good point,” he says.
“I want to leave our children a better inheritance than we were given.”
I feel him stiffen and sit up to look down at him. He has a panicked look on his face.
“Our children?” he asks. “Plural? Is there more exciting news you’d like to share?”
I swat at him and giggle. “No, Mr. Sidorov,” I tell him. “But we probably will have more children one day, and they deserve better. I think we should move. If not now, at least eventually. We should give them a fighting chance away from the city.”
He tilts my chin up for a kiss and sighs against my lips.
“You’re incredibly smart, Mrs. Sidorov.” He sighs. “No wonder they gave you that big fancy degree.”
EPILOGUE
FOUR YEARS LATER
Ivan
My twin daughters, Aubrey and Autumn, open their little eyes and squint at me. They’re just a few weeks old, so being awake is still a bit overwhelming to them. And I’m not the mom, not the milk factory they expect when they wake up. But I know in this infant stage their only concerns are eating, sleeping, and pooping. Once they’re old enough to recognize faces, they’ll love me as much as I love them.
And I do love them with all my heart. Well, with all the heart I have that isn’t consumed by their mother and their older sister. But these two are special because they ensured that Dimitri would never speak to us again.
When Kat found out she was pregnant for the second time, we were thrilled, so in love with our little girl and excited to bring her a sibling to love on. Ever since Lily could talk, she’s been asking us for another baby. I don’t have any idea where that thought came from, but she constantly asked Kat when she would have another baby.
Lily was over the moon when she found out Kat was pregnant. She screamed and cried with joy when we sat her down and told her that she was finally getting the little baby she wanted. She loved sitting on Kat’s lap and listening to her stomach.
“That’s my baby in there,” Lily would say in her sweet, three-year-old voice.
Kat would always laugh and kiss Lily on the top of her head, so in love with our daughter and ready for another one.
Then we found out there wasn’t just one baby, there were two, and things were a bit more complicated. Kat cried for days, a mix of pregnancy hormones and anxiety. She was thrilled to be having twins, but she was also afraid of the havoc they would wreak on her body.
I reminded her that we were in this together, and even though I couldn’t experience the daily pains and challenges of pregnancy, I would be there to support her however I could. It wasn’t an easy pregnancy by any means. Kat had to go on bed rest at twenty-five weeks to ensure our little miracle babies could develop fully.
Like with Lily, we decided not to know the sex until the babies were born. It was more exciting that way. And then, a few weeks ago, these two little angels came into the world, screaming their heads off.
When Dimitri found out that we had two more daughters, he called me to curse me out.
“More daughters?” he’d asked incredulously. “You have brought more useless girls into the world! My daughter is being punished for disobeying me.”
I didn’t tell Kat about the phone call. She hadn’t spoken to her father since Lily turned one, and I didn’t think she needed the stress of dealing with her psychopath of a father.