“It should be fine, but until then, please pay extra attention to your stress levels. The first pregnancies are usually the most fragile.”

Adrian gives a curt nod, schedules an upcoming appointment, and leads me out of the office.

I pull away from him as soon as we’re down the hall, hobbling as fast as my crutch allows me to do so.

He catches up to me, grabs me by the waist, and glues me to his side. Then he speaks in a low, threatening tone, “That’s the second and final time you flinch away from me. And walk slowly so you don’t put too much pressure on your leg.”

“Stop it,” I hiss, twisting against him.

“Stop what?”

“Stop acting like the most caring person alive when you planned this all along.”

“This?”

I halt near a fire escape staircase and point a finger at the envelope in his hand. “You switched my pills to make that happen.”

His expression remains the same, as if I didn’t say anything. “You were pregnant before I had to do that.”

My lips part. “You…you planned it?”

“Yes.”

“You really switched my pills?”

“I said I didn’t have to. As the doctor said, birth control pills aren’t a hundred percent effective.”

His methodical, apathetic tone, coupled with his words, nearly send me into a state of hysteria and pure black rage. It takes everything in me not to shout as if I’ve lost my mind. “Are you even hearing yourself? How could you do this to me?”

“I didn’t.”

“You were planning to.”

“For the third time, I didn’t have to.”

“But you wanted to. Why the hell would you even want to impregnate me?”

“Because it’s the only way to keep you close.” He checks his watch. “Speaking of which. I think we can make it.”

“Make it where?”

He places his phone to his ear as he slowly but firmly guides me to the elevator. “I need a priest. Wake him up if you have to… We’re heading to the church…make sure Emily has everything she needs before we get there.”

The door of the elevator shuts and we head to the parking lot as he makes two more calls, speaking in Russian.

By the time he’s finished, I’m breathing so harshly, I can barely focus on what’s going on around me. “What are you doing, Adrian?”

“We’re getting married.”

The words leave him with utter ease, as if they’re the most normal occurrence, as if he didn’t just suggest that we take vows when we barely know each other.

“Please tell me you’re joking.”

He stares down on me. “I told you I don’t do that.”

I’m about to wiggle free, but he pins me in place, his eyes darkening with a warning. “Stay still and stop aggravating your injury.”

“I won’t marry you! That’s for devoted couples, not for…for…us!”

“You’re pregnant with my child. There doesn’t need to be any other reason.”

“Of course there does.”

“Not for me.”

“I need more, Adrian.”

“Too bad you don’t get to decide, Lenochka.”

Frustrated tears well in my eyes and I suck in a deep breath. “We didn’t even discuss the child, and now you’re talking about a wedding?”

“Why?” He tilts his head to the side. “Were you considering not keeping it?”

Was I? No, not really. But I didn’t even get to think properly about how I will go about this. Ideally, I want Adrian away from me and the child until I clear my head. Marriage is the last thing I want right now.

“People have kids outside of marriage,” I try to bargain.

His eyes flash with menace more terrifying than I’ve ever witnessed before. His jaw clenches when he speaks in a low tone, “My child will not be born outside of marriage. Is that fucking clear?”

My spine snaps upright at the change in his demeanor. This is the first time the calm façade has cracked and I’ve actually seen him this angry, this callous, and without any semblance of light in his gray eyes.

That’s when I recall what he said. Adrian was a mistress’s son. Shit. No wonder he doesn’t want to put his offspring in the same position.

But that doesn’t give him the right to force me into this marriage.

“At least give me time to think about it.” I sigh with resolution.

“And then what? You think you get to say no?”

Of course he won’t allow me such an option. So I try to appeal to any sliver of humanity inside him. “I’m barely surviving the end of my career, Adrian.”

If I expected any sympathy, I find nothing in his closed off face. “You’ll survive it better when you have something to occupy your time.”

“Wow, great. Thanks for thinking of me.”

“Drop the sarcasm, Lia. It doesn’t suit you.”

“So now you know everything about me?”

“Not everything, no, but I know this is happening tonight.”

I try to free myself from him, but that only manages to tighten his hold around me. “Just give me time. Let me process this.”

“You’ll have all the time you need to process it afterward.”

The elevator door opens before I can utter a word and Adrian carries me to the awaiting car.

Kolya and Yan are in the front, and the latter gives me a sympathetic look as his colleague drives away.

The news of the pregnancy has become the least of my problems now that he’s using it to make me marry him.

“Adrian…”

He faces me with an exasperated look. “What, Lia? What is it?”

“Don’t make me do this.”

“Would you rather I go back to Kristina and marry her?”

“W-what? What does she have to do with anything?”

“It’s either you or her, and if you play stubborn and say I should go to her, I’m going to make you watch me marry her, then fuck her to put an heir inside her.”

I gasp, the image forming in my head as if it’s indeed a reality. I can clearly imagine Adrian’s glorious naked body powering into the beautiful tall blonde, and bile rises to my throat, threatening to empty my stomach again.