“My water broke.”
The baby is coming.
23
VIKTOR
She collapsesinto me before I can catch the full shape of what’s happening.
One second, she’s upright, pale and staring at the wet front of her dress like her mind can’t quite catch up to it. The next her knees give, her body folding in on itself with a soft, shocked sound that goes straight through me.
I catch her under the arms and pull her against my chest before she hits the ground.
“Sienna.”
She clutches at my jacket with both hands, breath coming too fast now, face drained of color. Her weight is real in my arms in a way that turns everything else to noise.
“Look at me.”
She tries. I can see the effort of it.
Another pain takes her. Stronger this time. It moves through her so clearly that I feel it before she says anything, her whole bodytightening against mine, her mouth opening on a small cry she doesn’t seem able to stop.
Fuck.
Another wave of pain goes through her, and she makes a broken sound against my chest.
I don’t think. I just lift her.
“Inside,” I say.
I’m already moving toward the terrace when the side door opens and Maksim comes out at a near run, phone still in one hand, coat half off his shoulders. He must have turned back the moment the shouting started.
He sees me carrying her and changes direction immediately. “What happened?”
“Her water broke.”
That gets him the rest of the way to us in seconds. “How far along?”
I look down at her. She’s trying to answer, trying to breathe through another pain at the same time. “It’s too early. Is my baby going to be okay?”
Maksim nods once, already thinking ahead. “Don’t take her upstairs. Nearest room on the ground floor.” He grabs the terrace door wide open and steps ahead of me. “Yuri!” he shouts over his shoulder. “Clear the hall and get towels and water.”
Yuri is there almost at once.
Good.
Maksim moves quickly down the corridor, opening the blue sitting room we used yesterday. He pushes a side table out of the way and turns back to me. “Put her down here first.”
I lower her carefully onto the sofa. She grabs for my wrist before I can straighten fully, and I let her hold on.
Maksim kneels in front of her. “Sienna, I need you to stay with me for a minute. Can you do that?”
She nods, eyes squeezed shut.
“When did the pains start?”
She swallows. “This morning. A little. Then worse just now.”