Grigory’s dead eyes veer towards me for a moment. “I’m afraid my hands are tied.”
I dart a glance over at the monitors reporting my vitals. He mentioned earlier that mine were stable. That the babies’ heartbeats were good, too.
“I wasn’t in labor earlier, was I?”
“Your heart rate was elevated. So was your blood pressure. But no, you weren’t in labor.”
“The babies?”
“Both are fine.” He exhales in exhaustion as he turns back to the screens.
“I heard what that nurse said before,” I murmur as fat tears start leaking down the side of my face. “My babies aren’t ready to come out. It’s too early. I’m not ready to be induced.”
His deadpan expression doesn’t change as he repeats what he said before. “I’m afraid my hands are tied.”
I shake my head as my blood pressure spikes again. The eek-eek-eek! of the chirping monitor is enough to drive me insane. “What is wrong with you? You took an oath to preserve and protect. If you deliver my babies now, they could die!”
He turns to me. Quicksand eyes, dragging me and him both down, down, down. It’s like he’s looking right through me. “I hate to say it, Alyssa, but your babies are as good as dead anyway.”
Breathing is borderline impossible. When Dr. Grigory walks away, I don’t even bother stopping him. What’s the point? He’s not here for me. Or for my babies.
I’m on my own.
Again.
I’ve been alone in this room for a while before I hear footsteps again. I’m expecting Grigory, but it’s someone else that walks through the door. I can’t say I’m surprised; I’ve had the last hour or so to ruminate on all the different possibilities that landed me here. And only one name kept coming up over and over again.
“Boris.”
“Comfortable?” the man asks with a distracted leer.
“Is that a trick question?”
He smirks. “I must say, even pale and pregnant, you’re very attractive.”
“Fuck you.”
He chuckles and combs two fingers through his salt-and-pepper mustache. “Still feisty, too. I like that in a woman.”
“What are you planning on doing with me?”
He lowers himself down onto my bed. I cringe away so no part of me is in danger of coming in contact with him. “If you’d really like to know… I’m planning on waiting until you give birth, gutting your babies in front of Uri, and then killing you right after them.”
Bile rises to my throat at the mere thought. “What kind of man are you?”
He leans in so close that I can smell the stale tuna and strong vodka on his breath. “The kind of man who doesn’t forget a slight. I’m going to make sure Uri Bugrov knows exactly who he’s dealing with.”
“You’re going to kill me? You’re going to kill two defenseless newborn babies in the name of revenge?”
He smiles darkly. “That’s exactly what I plan on doing.”
“You’re a monster.”
He straightens up off the bed and twists around to face me. “Don’t worry: I’ll kill the babies fast. But you…” He moves forward and tries to touch my cheek. I jerk away from him violently and he pulls back with a laugh. “—you, I’m gonna have to go slow. Make sure you’re just on the cusp of death when he finds you.”
“He’ll kill you for this!” I scream at Boris’s back. “He will fucking kill you, you sick bastard!”
Boris just laughs louder. “Oh, he’ll be dead long before he ever gets the chance.”
He slams the door in my face and I’m left lying in place, shaking with fear and panic. “D-don’t worry,” I stammer desperately as my hands drift to my stomach, wrists still raw and burning from where they cuffed me to the gurney. “I’ll keep you safe. I’ll keep you both safe.”
It’s not Ziva that needs me. It’s my children.
But just like before, just like with my sister…
I’m making promises I can’t keep.
55
ALYSSA
Three words wake me up sometime later from that not-quite-sleeping daze I’m living in. “Ready the Pitocin.”
I can’t even fight back because my arms and legs are in restraints once again, lashing me to the bed like I’m a patient in a psych ward.
“What’s that?” I cry out as the black-haired nurse pulls out an injection syringe. “What’s that…？ Stop… You can’t do this… please…”