Page 81 of Beautiful Secrets

I can’t even wrap my head around it.

But that doesn’t stop me taking the pregnancy test back to the toilet and sitting on that seat until I finally have enough pee to wet the damn stick.

Because as much as I’d like to pretend the universe loves me and I’m some kind of beautiful snowflake, the reality is my life isn’t anywhere near perfect enough for me to assume that my luck hasn’t run out.

Two minutes.

So I hum out the entire Kalinka-Malinka song a few times, keeping my back to the little stick propped up on its box.

I clench my fists. Haul in a deep breath. And turn to see the result.

* * *

“Not today,” Derek says.

“What do you mean, not today?” Cole says.

I sit up a little straighter on the kitchen stool, and then hastily drop my gaze when Cole’s angry eyes slide past Derek, fixing on me.

“He texted. Said something came up.”

“Something more important than getting back his kidnapped daughter?” Cole growls.

A bitter laugh slips out of me before I can stop it. Cole’s eyes snap to me. “What’s so funny, Mika?”

I force a swallow. Somehow manage a shrug. “I am sorry. I must have warned you. Me? I am worth nothing to him.”

“Oh, Mika,” Sarah says from across the kitchen table. “Don’t say that.”

I shrug again, turning to her. “It is true.”

I should have tried to leave, but without my passport, there is nowhere I can go. Which means I need to convince Cole to take me back to his hotel and give me my papers.

That is the only reason I am still here. Else I would have climbed out the window while everyone was still sleeping.

Without my passport, I am trapped.

But maybe my good luck is finally coming, because instead of an hour or two, I now have a full day to convince Cole not to take me back to my father.

Other than offering him my body again, I cannot think of anything he could possibly want that I can give. The money, of course, was a lie. All I have to my name is the cash he took from me—another thing I must convince him to give back to me.

Not the best plan, but at least it is a plan.

Except…Cole seems to have woken up in a foul mood. He has barely said two words to me, and there is not a trace of the mischievous devil I spent time with yesterday. He is a different person—and I do not even know if this new man likes me enough to consider a trade.

But quitting is for losers.

With my freedom at stake, even attempting a plan doomed to fail is better than attempting nothing at all.

Maybe if Cole realizes just how little I mean to my father, he will be more willing to help me get to Russia.

Or he might decide to kill me and get it over with. He was, after all, going to leave me here and let Sarah’s husband deal with me.

But then those men attacked us in the alley last night.

Everything changed after that.

I am sure I didn’t imagine the raw fury on his face when he saw what was happening.