ROSE
"You're not permitted to enter the patient's room," The nurse says, two days later after the shooting incident.
She didn't allow me to enter Lev's private hospital room because I wasn't a relative, or somebody important to him according to Lev's family.
I was desperate to see him. He had saved my life after all, and I had no idea how I could ever repay him.
Lev had been in surgery for long dreadful hours, because the bullet had gone deep in his shoulder.
He had survived... but he hadn't woken up yet, and nobody knew when he would. That was the only information I got about his situation.
I had waited outside the waiting room ever since they got him into surgery.
I was scared and stressed, pacing back and forth, until I was also forced out from the waiting room because I wasn't a relative or somebody of importance to Lev.
Another reason was that many people waited outside the waiting room, and it became crowded, too many people waited for Lev.
They threw out the ones who weren't family members, somebody like me.
"But-" I began to argue, but got cut off by the nurse.
"You're not of importance or a relative to Mr. Mikhaylov. You're not allowed to enter the hospital room, his family is already with him." The nurse warned me one last time.
Lev's family were gathered in the hospital room, even his ex-wife, Ana was there, along with her family, simply put, Lev's ex-in-laws were also there by his side.
The nurse spared me one last glare, before she stormed inside his hospital room, and closed the door in my face.
The guards on each side of the door glared at me. They threatened me not to come closer to the hospital door, or else they would ban me from the hospital.
I sighed, running a few fingers through my blonde hair, and walking away from the private hospital room that was in an excluded VIP section.
I could wait until Lev's right-hand man arrived tomorrow because he was currently in Russia, sorting Lev's business and tracking down the person who shot his boss.
The right-hand man was on his way to New York City, and I had his phone number, and would call him once he arrived tomorrow morning.
I will see Lev tomorrow when his right-hand man arrives, and that thought calmed me down a little bit.
I took the elevator down to the first floor, walking past the busy halls of the hospital, until I stumbled along a pharmacy in the hospital that caught my eye, because they were promoting new pregnancy tests.
My eyes drifted to my bloated stomach, I hesitated to buy a pregnancy test, because this was a bad time, a very bad time.
Lev was hurt, and somebody tried to kill me, twice, and one of those times was my father.
I gazed at the pregnancy tests, It would be better to go on with it, take a pregnancy test, rather than allow my own thoughts to eat me alive.
After I gained some courage, I decided it was time to do a pregnancy test, even if the situation wasn't the best, but my life wasn't the greatest from the beginning.
I walked into the pharmacy, brought myself three different pregnancy tests with cash, because nobody could trace me that way, and headed inside the nearest public restroom.
A while later, after doing my business, I put back on my comfy boxers along with my sweatpants.
I stayed in the bathroom, and sat on the closed toilet, waiting for a few minutes for the results from the pregnancy tests.
Would I be a mother, or not?
Was it only a bloated stomach, or an actual baby inside of me?
Either way, It that would change my life forever.
"What a time to be alive," I mumble to myself, because I'm taking a pregnancy test while my possible baby daddy is in a coma, surrounded by his family and ex-in-laws.
I leaned back on the toilet and I couldn't sit still no matter what I did. I was on the brink of tearing apart.
I lowered my gaze towards my thighs, on my lap, where I had placed a large amount of toilet paper, then stacked the three pregnancy tests on top of the toilet paper.
But not a single one of the pregnancy tests showed any results yet.
I had to wait a bit more.
"If I'm pregnant, Perry won't name the baby after his cats... If he says Anus The Second is a good name, I will faint." I whispered to myself, distracting myself from the pregnancy tests on my lap.
"I should send pictures to Perry of the pregnancy tests, and scare the shit out of him-"
I suddenly covered a hand over my mouth at the sound of Ana's voice, Lev's ex-wife.
She had entered the public restroom, and was talking with another woman by the sinks.
"Lev has lost his mind, he seems to have gotten infatuated with a girl who's younger than him." Ana speaks, while she seems to be opening her handbag and taking out her lipstick.
"That does not sound like my son." The other woman argues, the elderly woman who was Lev's mother.
I had only met the elderly woman briefly, but that was one time, and it was pure hell.
She did not like me, and I did not like her.
"I let the issue go for a while, turning a blind eye to him and the girl, whom he can't seem to forget." Ana took a sharp breath in, sounding like a wife rather than an ex-wife.
"But he started drinking a few months back after an accident between him and the girl. He didn't tell me what happened, never said a thing, even when I begged for an answer." She added.
I knew that Lev would never tell anybody what happened between us, but the possible baby in my stomach would reveal the secret.
"My son must have lost his mind going after a young girl?!" Lev's mother wasn't pleased, or so I thought.
Out of nowhere, Lev's mother asked, "How young is she?"
"She's twenty-two, very young for him, and not the type he goes for."
"Is she fertile and in good health?" Lev's mother blurted out.
I needed to press my hand tighter against my lips from letting out a gasp.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Ana chuckled, thinking it was a joke coming from the older woman.
Lev's mother began to say, "Ana... I will always love you like a daughter. There's no woman that could ever compete with the title of Mrs. Mikhaylov, because you are the greatest wife my son will ever have."
Again, they are talking like Ana is still married to Lev, when she isn't.
"But I want an heir, I don't want my brother's grandchild to take over the business from Lev, I would kill myself then see that day come." The elderly woman seemed to shudder at that thought.
"Where is this going?" Ana questioned.
"A little over four months ago, when Layla's death anniversary was around the corner, I did something."
"What did you do...?" Ana's voice was almost like a whisper. She even seemed scared by the older woman.
"My brother was threatening me that his grandson would take over the business from my son, because Lev has no children that are alive." Lev's mother says, as there was nothing but venom in her voice.
"I made the decision to follow my son, and I saw the very few women he slept with because he's not a man to sleep around with many women. Four months ago, there were only two women who he slept with, they both seemed gorgeous and healthy, and as a mother, I traced their health history along with their personal information."
"W-Why?" Ana gulped because she knew where this was going.
"Because I wanted a grandchild, an heir, somebody to take over Lev's business. I would never give my brother or his grandchild a single penny, they could rot to death for all I care."
Lev's mother explained, "So I poked holes in one condom that Lev carried. Only one condom because I didn't want grandchildren from both women, one was enough, and it would be bad for my son's reputation if he had two children from two different women."
"But months have passed, and none of the women he used to sleep with are pregnant. I tracked the two women down, and none of them are pregnant!" Lev's mother slammed her hand on the sink.
I forgot how to breathe while listening in on the conversation.
It all made sense the moment I looked at the three pregnancy tests on my lap.
Two lines on all three of them.
I was pregnant by Lev Mikhaylov, because his mother poked holes in his condom.
Four months ago, when I was in Russia, Lev had fucked me once on his desk. He wore a condom, the broken condom that his own mother had poked holes in, because she wanted an heir for her son.
What the actual fuck?
What in the telenovela is this monstrosity?
"You have no idea how much energy and time it took to poke holes in that one condom. Lev doesn't trust me, his right-hand man doesn't trust me, he has guards everywhere, and my son keeps his personal things close to him, but that one time, four months ago, I succeeded."
"H-How could y-you?" Ana was baffled by Lev's mother.
"I did what was best for my son and the business. I even tracked down ALL the women he had slept with, but none of them were pregnant or had a child with him!" The older woman raised her voice in frustration.
Holy shit, and I thought my mother was crazy, but this is another level of insanity.
But Lev's mother did not track me down amongst the women, because I had been an unexpected sexual encounter for Lev.
Lev refrains from engaging in one-night stands, as he typically stays with the same two women for a duration of one year before switching partners, and their sexual encounters are always carefully planned.
How do I know all this?
One, the rumors circulating around him.
Two, I asked Lev about the rumors, and he vaguely explained it to me.
Three, his mother confirmed it all while I'm in a bathroom, finding out I'm pregnant by her son.
"L-Lev doesn't know? You will never tell him?" Ana's trembling voice revealed her shock because of what the older woman had done to her own son.
"Sweet Anastasia... If you ever plan to tell Lev, I will tell him your secret." Lev's mother warned Ana in a hushed voice.
I protectively placed my hands on my slightly round belly, because if I had this child, I would never allow the child near Lev's mother.
My child would have no grandparents, and that would be for the best.
I didn't want my child to get fucked up, just like I did, because of a parent who didn't know what it took to be a parent and care for a child.
"But do you recall the time, about four months ago? When you went to see Lev, because both of you were going to visit Layla's grave?" Lev's mother asks, her voice sending negative chills down my spine.
The older woman was asking Ana, because Lev and Ana didn't often visit Layla's grave, only a couple times a year, and it would be hard to forget a day like that.
"Y-Yes... I went to pick up Lev in his home, and I found him in his office." Ana responded.
"Did you see a woman there?" The elderly woman questions, and I remembered when Ana burst into Lev's office after he had fucked me, and she thought I was one of his hook-ups.
Then something within me stopped, oh, that day he was going to visit his daughter's grave, that is why he seemed colder than usual.
Ana didn't get to give an answer because a group of people entered the restroom, and the two women tidied themselves and left.
I was left alone in the bathroom, scared and shocked, not only that, I was four months pregnant.
The father of my child was shot, and a few people were out to kill me, one of them being my own father.
When I said my life couldn't get any worse, I was wrong, deadly wrong.