“And if he doesn’t?”
“Then I’ll talk to him. And if that doesn’t work, Alexei will.”
She laughs through her tears. “Alexei would actually do that?”
“Absolutely. You’re my friend. Alexei knows what it’s like to love someone so much you want to keep them close. But he also knows that loving someone means giving them what they need, not just what makes you feel better.”
She nods slowly. “Okay. I’ll talk to him.”
“Good. And if you need help, I’m here.”
“Thank you, Zoya.”
“Always.”
We sit in comfortable silence for a moment. Then Anya turns to me with a small smile.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“How do you keep Alexei from getting you pregnant again? I mean, that man is just as obsessed with you as Taras is with me. But you only have one child. How are you managing that?”
I laugh. “It’s not like Alexei doesn’t want more kids. Trust me on that. I can tell from the way he looks at your daughter that he wants a girl. When I was pregnant with Yuri, he was happy we were having a boy, but he’d already bought all these girl clothes before we even knew. He told me he wanted a baby that lookedexactly like me so he could spoil her. Been around boys his whole life. He really wanted a little girl.”
“But you haven’t had another one yet.”
“No.” I pause. “My birth with Yuri was really hard, Anya. I almost lost him during that birth, and I almost died right along with him.”
Her eyes widen. “I didn’t know that.”
“We don’t really talk about it.” I look down at my hands. “During a checkup at eight months, the doctors found a complication where my birth canal was too narrow and warned us the birth would be rough. It was worse than rough, and I ended up in labor for nearly forty-eight hours.”
“Oh my god, Zoya.”
“Since then, Alexei’s been really careful about it. He said we should wait a few years before trying again. He even brought up getting a vasectomy.”
“He what?”
“I told him no. I don’t want that. I still want a little girl. I don’t want Yuri to be an only child. But my body needs time to recover. I need time before I can even think about going through that again.”
“And Alexei’s okay with waiting?”
“He doesn’t have a choice.” I smile. “He loves his son. Even though those two aren’t really on the best terms right now.”
Anya laughs. “I’ve noticed. What’s going on with them?”
“The pranks have been nonstop, with Yuri hiding bugs in Alexei’s dress shoes and caterpillars in his coat pockets whenever he gets the chance. Last week during a meeting, Alexei had a caterpillar walking across his head and nobody said a word until it was halfway to his ear.”
“Oh no.”
“Alexei tried to lecture him about it, but Yuri shot back that it was Alexei’s fault for upsetting me, so he had it coming.”
“Making you cry? When?”
I let out a long sigh. “Alexei and I got into a huge fight a few months back when I was stressed about exams and he kept pushing me about something, and I ended up breaking down in tears. Yuri walked in on it, and from that moment on he’s treated his father like public enemy number one.”
“And the pranks are his way of getting revenge?”