The Russian Billionaire: A Romantic Suspense Novel Georgia Carre (ink ebook reader .txt) 📖
- Author: Georgia Carre
Book online «The Russian Billionaire: A Romantic Suspense Novel Georgia Carre (ink ebook reader .txt) 📖». Author Georgia Carre
The sounds of the TV’s follow me all the way to the elevator.
He’s just treated me like shit, but I love him. I love him so much it hurts.
Raine
Weeks pass and as Helena Barrington predicted the date of Konstantin’s trial is set within two months of the time I went to her apartment. I mark the start of it on my calendar and cross another day off before I go to bed.
Life drags on.
Our little family seems to be in a limbo. I pretend to be normal, but it’s hard and often I find I am berating myself. If only I had trusted Konstantin and told him earlier about the painting. But I can’t go back and change the past. I can only make the future better by doing the right thing.
All Maddy knows is there is a slight delay to her procedure. Of course, she knows something is wrong, that Konstantin and I are no longer together, but she doesn’t ask about him, or refer to him as ‘the billionaire’ the way she used to all the time.
Once I find my mom crying in the bathroom. Instantly, I assume something is wrong with Maddy, but I find out she is crying because of me.
I stare at her in surprise. “Me? Why me?”
She drags me over to the mirror. “Look at you,” she says. “Just look at the state of you.”
In the mirror, I see a stranger’s face. It’s true, there are shadows under my eyes and my face looks gaunt and haunted. I’ve stopped taking care of myself. I hardly look in the mirror anymore because I can’t bear to look into my own eyes. I still feel so guilty, and until Maddy has her procedure I will not stop feeling bad. I can’t help feeling I ruined it all, for me and Konstantin and for her by being a fool.
I turn away from my reflection and look at her. “It’s okay, it’ll be over soon, Mom.”
“I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about something else.”
I frown.
“You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”
My eyes widen. “I… I… why do you think that?”
“When are you due your period?”
My periods are never regular, but only then do I realize I am late. By more than a week.
“Yes, I thought so.” She looks at me sadly. “I’m so sorry, honey.”
I grip her hand fiercely. “Don’t be sorry, Mom. I want this baby. You don’t know how much.”
She looks into my determined, passionate face and nods. “All right. We’ll manage together. Somehow.”
“It’ll be fine, Mom. I promise. It’ll be fine.”
“Wait here,” she says and leaves the bathroom. She comes back with two pregnancy kits and gives them to me. My mother leaves and I do the test. While I wait for the results I remember again that day when he entered me in that apartment. Not a single word passed between us, and anyone else would have thought it was a quick, rough, ugly encounter, but there was so much need in both of us. It was as if we were starving for each other’s touch.
To think we conceived a child in that strange encounter. I look down at the stick. There are two clear lines on it.
I move to the mirror and for the first time in many weeks I look at myself. I touch my stomach and tears of joy fill my eyes. No matter what happens now I can never again regret everything that happened. Because if not for those things this beautiful miracle wouldn’t have happened.
I tell Lois about my pregnancy.
“Are you going to keep it?” she asks, surprised.
“Of course I am. I want this baby.”
“But you’re not with him anymore. Why do you want his baby?”
“Because I love him. I love him, Lois. More than you could ever know.”
“So what are you going to do?”
I shrug. “I still have fifty thousand in my bank. I might try to buy a small farm somewhere in a faraway land. Somewhere cheap like South America. Grow some vegetables, rear some chickens for their eggs. I fancy the idea of living off the land.”
“Don’t leave New York, please, Raine,” she pleads.
“I haven’t made up my mind yet, Lois. It’s just a pipe dream at the moment.”
She chews her bottom lip. “Aren’t you going to tell him about the baby?”
“Of course I will.”
“What do you think he’ll do?”
“I don’t know. He’s pretty mad with me right now, but I don’t think he can be mad with his own son or daughter.”
“You know what I think?”
“What?”
“I think he won’t let you leave New York. I think he’ll want to be part of the baby’s life. I think you’ll have to put your South American dream on ice for a very, very long time. At least until your kid is eighteen years old, anyway.”
Then, finally, I get a reply to the letter I sent to Lana Barrington. It was not difficult to track down such a notable woman with so many charitable causes.
What she says gladdens my heart and fills me with hope for the future. I don’t tell anybody about the letter or its contents. I just burn the letter and go about my business. At least now I know that no matter what happens to me, Maddy is safe. Her procedure can go on even without me.
A small sigh of relief escapes from my mouth. Lana Barrington has just taken care of that problem for me.
Raine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orL-w2QBiN8
The Lonely Shepherd
The trial begins. The channels and newspapers are full of it. A friend of Putin and a billionaire is savory gossip. Even I get some press. People still remember that I was the girl Konstantin Tsarnov paid a million dollars to have one dinner date with.
I don’t go to the courtroom, but religiously and obsessively watch and read everything I can lay my hands on about it. The prosecution believe
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