(SERGIO)
Mid-morning, I arrive in the kitchen to find my son and my woman laughing over café and cornetti. It is almost like the horror of the last month didn't happen. I feel a smile tug at my mouth.
Things would soon return to the way they'd been, including Ivanna fucking me with abandon.
Their laughter dies as I prepared another espresso. But I have other things on my mind. I am exhausted.
Nikolai hasn't broken yet, but he will. I have given him much suffering last night, enough to last for days.
Still, my mood is light. My malishka is back under my roof where she belongs.
"We should get going," she says quietly to Karlen. "I don't want to be late."
That gets me to turn around. "Where do you think you are going this morning?"
Her right eye twitches but her voice remained flat. "To the obstetrician, Sergio."
"I will take you."