Stanton Bliss(47)

I beam.

“What?” She smirks.

“I told you my boys were good swimmers.”

She giggles. “You are such a confident bastard.”

The door opens and Adrian walks in without noticing me. He stops mid-step when he sees me. “N-natasha,” he stammers.

“Hi, baby.” She smiles.

She stands to kiss him and he grabs her in an embrace, squeezing her. He stands back and holds her at arms length and smiles a swoony smile. He squeezes her again. “Oh, you look so beautiful today,” he gushes.

She looks over at me, her face serious. “You told him.”

“Way to go, Murph,” I hiss.

He screws up his face. “But I’m so excited. I promise I won’t tell anyone,” he stammers.

“Did you tell Cameron, too?”

“Maybe.” I wince.

She smirks. “It’s ok. I told Didge, Mum and Abbie, too. I couldn’t hold it in.”

Adrian sighs with relief and bends to kiss her stomach. “Hello, in there, it’s your favourite uncle. The good looking one.” He hangs off her hips with a huge smile on his face.

I smirk and Natasha rolls her eyes. “This is going to be a long eight months.” She sighs as she puts her hand on his head.

Natasha

I sit in the car as the scenery flashes by, my heart is beating through my chest. I reach over and grab Nicholas’ hand and he squeezes it back in a reassuring gesture. I’m twelve weeks pregnant and about to do something that I know is going to cause Armageddon. Nicholas and I are going to the prison, four hours south of L.A. to visit the young boy who kept me alive when I was held hostage. I have too many questions, too many unanswered things that I need to tie up. I lost twenty-four hours of my life and I can’t let it go no matter how hard I try. I need closure. I need to know what happened to me. Nicholas has been giving me phone therapy sessions from London, and he and I both think that this will give me some sort of closure. He has flown home from London for three days to come with me. Joshua doesn’t know I’m going and I have lied to the guards, telling them we are picking up a stroller from a shop. There is one car in front of us and one behind. I’m more guarded than the f*cking Queen these days. Max is driving and I know he is onto something. He keeps looking at me and raising an eyebrow in question. He knows I wouldn’t drive four hours to buy a stroller with Nicholas in tow. I don’t want to do this when I have a baby at home, and I don’t want to go there when I’m noticeably pregnant, either. He could be transferred to another prison or given parole and I will never get my much-needed answers. I need to get this over with now so I can deal with it before the baby comes. Max is driving, so I can’t even discuss with Nicholas what I am going to say. We are sitting here, both pretending that we are on a shopping trip. This Russian spy thing we have going on is only adding to my nerves.

“What is the address?” Max asks for the second time.

Nicholas’ eyes meet mine. I can’t tell him the address until we are nearly there. If he works out where we are going, he will ring Joshua. Shit, this is messed up.

“I have the address in my bag, just head into town and I will find it,” I reply nervously.

“Ok.” His eyes flash at me in the rear view mirror. He calls the car in front of us. “Get off at the next exit.”

“Gotcha,” the voice replies.

I grab the small notepad from my bag and give it to Nicholas who types the address into his Maps app to look it up.

“Actually, Max, while I am here, I want to quickly visit a work colleague.” Nicholas replies casually.

Max’s eyes flicker to me again in the mirror. “Where at?”

“We will go to his work.”

“Where does he work?”

“Turn right up here,” Nicholas instructs.

The car in front of us falls behind so we now have two cars trailing us. My heart really starts to hammer.

“Second left.” Replies Nicholas.

I can see it. The large grass area of the prison and the fences. Fuck, am I really going to do this?

“Natasha, you can come in with me.”

We get to the gates and Max narrows his eyes in thought.

“He works at the prison?”

“Yes, I’m just going to invite him out for lunch with us.”

Max enters slowly and goes into the car park to park the car.

“I-I will come with you,” I stammer as I open the door.

“No, you won’t!” Max snaps. “You will wait here.”

Panic hits me and I start to hotfoot it across the car park to the prison’s front doors.

“Natasha?” Max yells. “Get back here.”

“I’m going in. I need answers, Max.”

His face falls as he puts the puzzle together. “No!” he yells.

The other guards all start to get out of their cars.

I make it to the front doors with Nicholas hot on my heels and turn to look out the window to see Max on the phone. Shit, he’s ringing Joshua.

My heart is thumping so fast.

Nicholas walks to the reception. “We have an appointment to see an inmate.”

My eyes turn to look back outside to see the guards all pacing. They aren’t allowed to touch me and I know they won’t physically drag me from here.