Page 5 of Nine Months to Love

“Am I?” Mikayla rolls her shoulders, testing the chains that bind her to the metal chair. We’re down in one of the basement rooms now—concrete walls, no windows, a single bulb overhead. “Why would I lie about that?”

“To save your skin. To fuck with my head. Pick a reason.”

“I don’t need to save anything. I told you already—kill me and Olivia dies. Keep me here and… well, same result.” She shifts in the chair, chains rattling. “Your mother, on the other hand... she has her own plans.”

I circle her slowly. Mikayla doesn’t flinch, doesn’t look away. She’s not afraid of me. Never has been. That used to be an asset. Now, it just pisses me off.

“My mother is dead.”

“You sure about that? You see a body? Check for a pulse?”

The memory floods back. That night. The blood. The way she looked at me before I... before I thought I...

“She couldn’t have survived.”

“Couldn’t she?” Mikayla tilts her head. “You were sixteen, Stefan. Traumatized. Angry. Maybe you saw what you needed to see.”

“I know what I did.”

“You know what yourememberdoing. There’s a difference. In this case, a very, very important one.”

I grab the back of her chair and stoop down close. “If she’s alive, why wait until now? Why not come forward years ago?”

“Maybe she was scared of you. Maybe she was building her own power base. Maybe she just wanted to see how far her son would go.” Mikayla shrugs as much as the chains allow. “Ask her yourself when you see her.”

“Where is she?”

Silence.

“Where is Olivia?”

More silence.

I straighten up and walk to the wall, then turn back. “Who are you really working for, Mikayla?”

She smiles. “Does it matter? Iakov, your mother, the highest bidder—what difference does it make? The end product is the same. Your empire is crumbling and your precious doctor is gone.”

“She’s not?—”

“Not what? Not yours?” Mikayla laughs, sharp and bitter. “We both know that’s not true. You branded her the moment you walked into her life. Might as well have put a collar on her.”

“That’s not?—”

“Oh, please. The surveillance, the security details, moving her into your house? You think that’s normal? You think that’s love?”

“I was protecting her.”

“Don’t kid yourself, Stefan.” She straightens up as much as the chains allow. “Everything bad in her life right now is because of you.”

My jaw clenches. “Walsh was destroying her clinic before I showed up.”

“So? You were planning to finish the job. Don’t pretend you’re her savior when you were just another vulture circling.”

“I changed my mind.”

“Correction: You changed yourtimeline.” She studies me with those sharp eyes. “You figured, ‘Hey, if I get her pregnant first,thentake the clinic, I’m a hero, not a villain.’ You thought you could make her dependent on you for everything and then she’d give you what you wanted willingly, of her own accord. That doesn’t make you a good guy. Not even close.”

I gnash my teeth and turn my back on Mikayla.