Page 108 of Obsessed Bratva Daddy
His eyebrows went up.
"Why is everyone hugging my girl?"
I laughed, and it came out wet and broken. I peeled myself out of the cluster and walked across the rug to him, and he opened his arm, and I fit against his chest the way I always fit.
His hand came up to the back of my head. He bent so his voice was for me only.
"Why are you crying?"
I tipped my face up. His was right there.
"I'm pregnant."
His pupils blew wide. His hand at my back went still and then pressed me closer, the whole flat of his palm, like he wanted to put himself between me and the air. His other hand came up to cradle the back of my head. He did not say anything for a long second. His eyes went wet at the rim, just slightly, the way I had only seen them go wet once before.
"You are pregnant?" His voice was low and amazed. "Chloe. Say it again. I want to hear it again."
"I'm pregnant. We're pregnant."
He kissed me. Hard, the first time, like he had to. Then softer, with his thumb stroking my jaw. Then he picked me up off the floor and held me there for one slow second and set me back down, because his brothers were standing five feet away with their mouths open and he remembered they existed.
"I'm going to be an uncle?" Mikhail's voice could've rattled the windows. "You? You? Out of all of us, you go first?"
"Mikhail."
"I'm asking a respectful question, brother."
Alek's mouth was doing something rare. A real smile, small, starting at one corner and committing. "Congratulations, brother. Congratulations, Chloe."
Ivan, who never said much, said, "Good."
It came out so quiet and so warm that Jade made a small sound on the couch.
I tucked my face into Daniil's collar. He smelled like his soap and the cold air from outside and the faint clean trace of his cologne. His hand was rubbing slow circles between my shoulder blades. He hadn't let me go.
That was when I saw her.
Over his shoulder, in the doorway from the hall, with Beom-Beom tucked under one arm. Two braids. Bare feet. Her face was doing something I'd never seen it do. Not the carefully neutral look she wore for strangers. Not the bright one she wore for Daniil. Something smaller. Something that was trying very hard to be nothing at all.
Our eyes met.
She backed out of the doorway. She turned. She walked down the hall to her room. The door closed. Not slammed. Closed.
The whole room watched her go. The joy in the air dimmed one full degree.
I looked up at Daniil. He was already looking down at me. We didn't have to say anything.
"Go," Lily said quietly behind me. "We'll be here."
We went.
Down the hall. Past the side table with the photograph of all of us at the summer dinner. To her door. Daniil knocked, soft, two knuckles.
He waited. Nothing.
He knocked again.
"Rhea." His voice low through the door, careful. "May we come in?"
