by Kyndall, Kit
He didn’t have to ask to what I was referring. Mykael just nodded, giving me a slow smile. “More than anything. I love you, Gabriella.”
Darned pregnancy hormones had me blinking back tears again, and I sniffled a bit into my napkin before regaining control. “I love you too,” I said as I took his hand again after putting my napkin on my lap once more.
“I’m happy to hear that.” His expression was odd and unreadable. It was obvious he was hiding something, but I didn’t know what it would be, and he quickly changed the subject to his new law firm.
Dinner passed in a blur of conversation, and his continued excitement at the idea of doing something he felt was worthwhile and breaking free of his mother’s firm left a constant smile on my lips. That, and the knowledge that he loved me. I kept repeating the words in my head silently, hearing them in his voice. I could listen to that on permanent loop for the rest of my life, I decided with a small grin.
Dessert came out at last. The prix fixe menu hadn’t allowed substitutions, and it was a custard of some sort in a parfait glass with a twist of orange clinging to the rim. As I broke the crust on the custard, my spoon clinked against something that definitely wasn’t burnt sugar or the glass in which dessert had come.
With a frown, I dug the spoon into the small serving dish a little bit more firmly, feeling something solid against my spoon, something that definitely wasn’t custard. “There’s an object in my desert,” I said, nonplussed. At a place like this, that was the last thing I would have expected.
He arched a brow, his expression revealing nothing. “Really? What is it?”
My first urge was to push away the dessert and call for our server, but something about his reaction and demeanor made me suspicious, and I was just plain curious at that point. Setting aside the spoon, I dipped my finger into the dessert instead, grimacing as the creamy custard engulfed my finger.
As soon as I touched the object, I knew what it was, and I gasped as I pulled it out of the glass. I couldn’t see much through the pastel orange custard covering it, but it was clearly a ring. There was usually only one reason a man gave a woman a ring this way in a restaurant like this, and my heart raced with excitement. “It’s a ring.”
“Hmm.” He held at his hand. “Let me see it?”
His expression was so impassive that I started to second-guess myself. For a moment, I had assumed he was about to propose, and I’d been torn between anticipation and panic at the idea. Now, as he calmly dipped the ring into his water glass and wiped it off with his linen napkin to examine it dispassionately, my stomach sank. Clearly, I had been delivered the wrong dessert.
The disappointment wilted me, and I had to blink back tears. I shouldn’t be feeling so disappointed that he wasn’t proposing yet, since I had told him less than five weeks ago that I wasn’t going to marry him unless I loved him and he loved me. But I thought we’d established that we loved each other now, and though a second ago I had been torn about my decision, I knew now what my answer would have been if the ring had been intended for me.
“Let me take care of this.” He pushed back from the table and stood up, the ring in his closed hand. He walked around the table, and I assumed he was heading toward the hostess desk or seeking the manager. It was only at the last moment that he veered toward me and dropped to one knee. Realizing he had been toying with me, I barely resisted the urge to dump my ice water over his head.” You jerk.” I sniffled even as I laughed.
Mykael gave me an unrepentant grin. “Sorry, baby. I couldn’t make it too easy on you.” Then his expression changed, becoming serious as he held up the ring and took my left hand. “I love you, and you love me. I can think of a thousand good reasons to get married, and none of them are just because we’re expecting a baby together. That’s simply a happy bonus. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife, Gabriella?”
A tear streaked from my eye despite my best efforts to hold back the waterworks as I nodded. My lips wobbled, and I sounded like I was about to cry when I choked out, “Yes.” I wanted to be eloquent and share some of my emotions with him as he had done for me, but I was too choked up at the moment, and too overwhelmed by emotion to do more than get out the one syllable.
He slid the platinum band on my finger, and I admired the oval-cut solitaire as it sparkled in the light. It was large, but not ostentatious. It looked good on my finger, and I leaned down to kiss him his lips while he was still kneeling on the floor in front of me. I lost myself in our kiss, and I might have done something more than just press our lips together if the clapping and polite cheers hadn’t filtered through my passion-fogged brain.
Abruptly, I remembered we were in the middle of a restaurant, and people were sharing our celebration. I pulled back, and he grinned at me as he got to his feet, putting his hand on my shoulder in a sign of affection, and perhaps a mark of possession that I didn’t mind. We smiled our thanks to the people around us, and soon enough the drama had died down and everyone had returned to their meals.
I was too excited to contemplate eating anything else, so we left the restaurant soon after. When we got back to his apartment—our apartment, I reminded myself—we went straight to the bedroom and found another way to celebrate.
Chapter Eight
Gabriella
I stared across the table at Annika, who was absorbed in her homework, or gave a good impression of being so anyway. I bit my lip, trying to find a way to phrase my request that wouldn’t pressure her. During the past two months that I had lived with Mykael, she and I had become close. I was happy to have her as a friend, though I imagined her mother must make it difficult for her when she came to visit us. She had made no mention of it, but I could well imagine Nila had demanded she cut off all contact.
The wedding was in two weeks, and almost everything was ready, but I still didn’t have a bridal attendant. I had no close friends left in the city, and those who’d been friends in high school had drifted out of contact. Of the few I had reconnected with on Facebook, we seemed to have so little in common these days that I hadn’t more than briefly entertained the idea of asking one of them to stand with me at the altar as I married Mykael.
Annika was my closest friend, and I wanted her there, but I wasn’t sure if she could do it. I didn’t know if she had formally been diagnosed with agoraphobia, but in the two months I had known her, I’d never seen her leave the apartment building. I brought the pen I had been using to make a list of baby necessities to my mouth and chewed on the cap as I considered how to phrase the request.
Annika looked up suddenly. “What is it?”
I blinked. “Huh? Sorry?”
Her expression was a tad exasperated, but mostly amused. “You’ve been staring at me for the last five minutes and making those heavy sighs as though the weight of the world is on you. You clearly have something on your mind, so let’s talk about it.”
I nodded, deciding I had been drawing this out and getting too worked up over it. At most, she would say no, which would be the end of it. I certainly wouldn’t pressure her to feel like she had to, or try to make her feel guilty for declining. “Okay. I was wondering if you might be my maid-of-honor?”
Her eyes shone with excitement for a moment, and then her expression dulled. “Are you still getting married at the church on Hollister?”
I nodded, knowing two blocks was quite a distance for her. “If you don’t think you can, I understand.”
She tapped her fingers on the table for a moment, looking pensive. “Will I have time for a dress fitting?”
I shrugged a shoulder. “I’m not exactly doing couture. Mykael and I are on a budget, since his salary at Haley’s firm is less than half what he was making while he was still at your mother’s practice. My online temp job isn’t exactly a windfall either. If you feel up to it, we could just pop by the wedding shop and likely find something right off the rack.”
Annika giggled. “My mother would be horrified to know you’re having a small ceremony with
off-the-rack wedding clothes. Where did Mykael get his tuxedo?”
I grinned at her. “He’s renting one from The Men’s Wearhouse.”
For some reason, that sent us both into mad giggles, and it was several moments before our mirth faded, and we were able to focus again.
Looking hesitant, Annika nodded. “If I can go with you to the wedding shop, I mean if I can get through that, then I’ll definitely be your maid-of-honor. I just don’t go out much. It makes me apprehensive.”
I nodded my sympathy, surprised to hear she went out at all. I had been under the impression she was virtually housebound, so it was promising to know she had at least left the apartment building in the last six years. “That sounds like a good idea. When do you want to go?”
She shot a look at her laptop before closing it. “I guess there’s no time like the present, I suppose.” She looked resolute, though clearly nervous, as we stood up from the kitchen table and made our way to the door a few moments later. I shrugged on a coat before offering her another one. She didn’t have any outerwear here in our apartment, and I wasn’t even sure she did upstairs in her mother’s place.
The coat I gave her was a pre-maternity one, and though it was too loose and a little short on her tall, slender frame, it would work well enough for our outing. I tucked my wallet in my pocket, and we were soon out in the hallway.
She handled the walk to the lift just fine, and getting into the elevator seemed to pose no problem. I watched her as she watched the numbers counting down toward one as the elevator ferried us to the bottom floor. She took a deep breath before the doors opened, and she crossed the threshold to step into the lobby of the apartment building.
Almost immediately, she reached for my hand, which I gladly provided. I let her squeeze as hard as she needed to draw strength from me as we stood there for a moment while she breathed deeply. “Are you all right? Do you want to turn back?”
Annika shook her head, taking another deep breath and squaring her shoulders. “I can do this.” It was difficult to tell if she was talking to me or herself, but I nodded.
Our pace was slow as we crossed the lobby and left the apartment building, standing on the sidewalk for a long moment once we had exited the building. The doorperson smiled and waved at us, and we returned the greeting before moving a few feet from the apartment building.
That was how we progressed the three blocks to the dress shop I had in mind. Annika would take a few steps and pause to breathe deeply, as though renewing her reserves of strength, and then we would take a few more steps before repeating it all. At one point, I offered to get a taxi, but she shook her head, looking panicked. “No, I can’t. Afterward…that night when they were done with me, I took a cab home, and I haven’t been able to ride in one since.”
I nodded, striving to suppress my curiosity as I put an arm around her waist for support when she swayed for a moment. “Are you all right? Do you need to go back?”
She glanced at the street sign half a block away and shook her head. “We’re closer to the shop than we are to the apartment now, aren’t we?”
“I think so.”
We shuffled on at our slow pace, and though she trembled, she kept putting one foot in front of the other. When we reached the crosswalk, we paused to wait for our turn, and she put her arm around my shoulder to hug me. “Thank you for being here for me.”
I arched a brow. “That should be my line, Annika. I can see how hard this is on you, and I’m grateful that you’re even willing to try.”
She took a deep breath as we stepped into the crosswalk. “I don’t want to miss my brother’s wedding, and I’m touched that you would ask me to be your maid-of-honor. I’m done letting Chastain and his friends make me live in fear.”
I frowned at the idea of them continuing to threaten her. “Are they actively harassing you?”
She shook her head. “No, not at all. I doubt Wayne even remembers me. I was just one of many interns that summer, straight out of my junior year of high school and still idealistic. My mother pushed me into an internship because it would look impressive on my college applications, though she nearly had a heart attack when she realized the only one available was with Wayne Chastain, who is not in her party.”
“That’s how it happened then? I mean, that’s how Wayne knew you?”
She nodded. “He asked me to stay late to help with a special project, and I was flattered. He had flirted with me a little bit, and he can be a charismatic man if you don’t know how deep the ugly is underneath the charming mask.”
I nodded my agreement, deciding it was the best description of my stepfather I’d ever heard. “I’m sorry, Annika.” I didn’t need the details to know what the special project had been, and clearly she didn’t feel like sharing them. I would have listened if she’d wanted to talk, but I was admittedly relieved not to have to hear everything about the incident.
By the time she’d finished telling me what had happened, we were at the dress shop. It seemed to have freed her, at least marginally, and she was able to focus on shopping with single-minded determination. At one point, as she was trying on a raspberry-pink gown, she said, “The shop is small and enclosed, and I feel safe here.”
That made me glad we had chosen the small church on Hollister for our wedding, because it held no more than fifty guests, and it was an intimate place that I hoped would soothe her fear the day of the wedding.
It took almost an hour to decide on the perfect dress, and she looked chipper as we left the shop, the plastic-draped gold gown slung over her shoulder and trailing down her back as she gripped the hanger in one hand. We were chatting animatedly about the wedding as we came to the crosswalk, pausing for the light to change and give us permission to go.
The light changed to white, and I started to step off the curb when Annika cried out and pulled me back on the sidewalk. A millisecond later, a dark sedan raced past me, and I blinked for a moment at the near miss. “Holy…” I took a few deep breaths and squeezed Annika’s arm to show my gratitude. “Thank you. I didn’t even see that car. I guess I was paying too much attention to the crosswalk light.”
“No problem. I’m just glad I noticed.”
Both feeling slightly shaken, we waited for the next turn of the crosswalk light before stepping out again. We crossed the street quickly, and then had a light laugh that was laced with relief when we touched the sidewalk. By the time we had reached the next crosswalk, the fear had faded to little more than a slightly elevated heart rate and a story to tell Mykael later.
Or maybe not. Come to think of it, I probably shouldn’t mention it to him, or he would be concerned. Knowing him, he’d probably try to confine me to the apartment for my own safety. Good luck with that, love.
The crosswalk light changed from orange to white, and a couple of people stepped out before us. We walked behind them with a group behind us, and I looked up as a revving engine caught my attention. I could barely believe it when I saw a dark sedan heading for me again. Without thinking, I shoved Annika out of the path of the car and tried to run across the crosswalk. My heart was racing in my ears, but the engine drawing ever closer drowned it out.
I thought I was safe when I reached the sidewalk, but the car veered up the curb behind me, its engine revving louder than ever. I turned partially, trying to see the driver, but the windows were tinted and made it impossible to look inside. I screamed as the car collided with me, doing my best to cover my stomach and protect the baby as I fell, flying several feet from the momentum of the impact before colliding with a storefront.
I was vaguely aware of collapsing to the sidewalk, and I was certain the car would run over me as it drove away, but it didn’t. The tires were less than six inches from my head as it raced past me, leaving tread marks on the sidewalk before it bounced off the curb with a jarring clatter and melted into traffic. I thought I heard Annika calling me, but I couldn’t seem to keep my eyes open. I let them close as a fierce pain shot through my stomach, and
I surrendered to unconsciousness.
***
Mykael
I paced in the hospital waiting room, unable to sit still on the hard plastic chair. It wasn’t because they were uncomfortable, though they were, but simply because I couldn’t sit there idly while waiting for news about my fiancée and our baby. Annika was in the waiting room with me, and I was concerned she had been overwhelmed with all the people in the hospital and the ambulance ride leading up to it, but she seemed to be composed and was acting as my anchor.
I couldn’t believe this was happening, especially when Annika had told me what she had witnessed. The car had tried to run over Gabriella once and missed, so it had come after her again at the next crosswalk and chased her onto the sidewalk before mowing her down. There was no way it was an accident, and rage burned inside me.
I couldn’t believe my mother would stoop so low, that she hated the idea of me having a child with Gabriella so much that she would try to kill one or both of them to prevent the birth. As soon as I knew something about Gabriella, and hopefully got to see her, I was going to confront my mother.
After what seemed like forever, a short Indian woman entered the waiting room and introduced herself as Dr. Patel. She had kind eyes, but a harried demeanor, and she was quick and sparse with information. “Your fiancée is resting, and the baby is hooked to a continuous fetal monitor.
“Obviously, it would be best not to deliver at twenty-five weeks. It’s likely your son would make it, but every day we can keep him inside buys him more time to avoid struggling to survive. I’ve given her a steroid shot to develop his lungs, and she’ll have another one in two days if she maintains the pregnancy that long.”
For all my previous pacing, I suddenly couldn’t stand upright and sank into the nearest chair. “The baby’s in danger?” I was actually shocked that the baby was still alive. Shocked, but thankful.
