Page 272 of Ricardo

My apartment door.

My father’s voice.

My mother’s expectations.

A child.

A child inside me while the world goes to hell.

My knees weaken.

Victoria reaches me before I fall.

She takes the test from my hand and sets it on the counter, then guides me down until I am sitting on the closed toilet lid. Her hands are warm on my arms.

“Breathe,” she says.

I try.

It comes out as a sob.

Victoria crouches in front of me as much as she can, one hand braced lightly against the counter, the other still holding my arm.

“Julia.”

“I’m pregnant.”

“I figured.”

“I’m pregnant,” I repeat.

“Yes.”

Tears spill down my face, but I do not know what kind they are. Fear. Shock. Grief. Happiness.

“I can’t do this,” I whisper.

“You do not have to do all of it this minute.”

“I have to tell him.”

“Yes.”

My eyes jerk to hers.

Victoria does not soften the truth.

“If you want to wait until you can breathe, wait until you can breathe,” she says. “But yes, Julia. You have to tell him.”

“He is downstairs planning how to destroy Harrison.”

“Then he needs to know exactly what Harrison threatened.”

My hand goes to my stomach again, shaking.

Victoria’s eyes follow it.

Her voice lowers. “And he needs to know what he has to protect.”