Chapter 9

(Flashback)

Anastasia’s emotions on that day were far from happiness. Rather, she was overwhelmed with nerves, bordering on sheer terror. As she fixated on the pregnancy test, time seemed to stretch endlessly, and she felt a numbing sensation spreading through her body, accompanied by knots tightening and loosening in her stomach. It had only been three months since their wedding, and except for a few days in a month, Ivan and she were intimate almost every day, sometimes even twice.

It was almost inevitable that she would become pregnant. But the question was: how would Ivan react? Would he even want kids this soon? They never really talked about it. Not explicitly at least. Ivan was always either too busy with his work—whatever that work entailed, as he never went into details—or he was home, occupied with his hands on her.

Don’t get her wrong, she loved her husband more than anything. She loved the way he cherished her, made her feel and how careful he seemed to be while rocking he