Saving Katya (10 page)

She had a point. He was about to be deported and couldn’t, in good conscience, involve them in this scandalous mess. But he couldn’t willingly walk away either. “I will never willingly abandon her.” He chose his words carefully so as not to make promises he couldn’t keep.

“Yeah…” She laughed and sighed all at the same time. “Famous last words.”

“Damn it, Katya...I’m not the bad guy here.” But would Kate ever see him as anything but?

“Oh, yeah?” Her tone escalated. “Well tell me then...who is?” Biting laughter extinguished what little hope he’d managed to nurture when she’d admitted Katya was his. “Because from where I’m sitting, you don’t look like the victim.”

But he was...just as much as her. The news that he hadn’t received her letters probably offered little comfort. It didn’t change things, no matter how much he wished differently. Besides, if she really wanted to be found, she would’ve stayed put. Stayed where he could’ve found her. Yes, this was just as much her fault.

Alexei leaned forward in the chair. “Well, this non-victim returned to the United States as soon as I was legally able to come back without being forced straight back to Russia. Less than a year later.” His voice escalated and his Russian accent became more prominent. “And poof.” He gave her a smirk along with the American idiom. “You were nowhere to be found. Disappeared.”

“It’s a big country. How hard did you look?”

Alexei went silent. Kate would give anything to see his face. “I know a thing or two about big countries,” he said, and now there was a distinct sourness in his tone.

“Did you know I was pregnant?” Kate forced out the words. She had to be absolutely certain this wasn’t a mistake. “I wrote you, telling you, but I never got a response.”

“I never saw a single letter from you.” His tone was calm and firm.

Kate breathed in heavily and stayed silent for several seconds before finally saying, “All right.” Her vision started to clear and finally she was able to see his face and the
genuineness in his expression. “But, you have to let me tell her before she meets you as her father.”

“Fair enough.”

The door opened. Kate and Alexei both stopped talking and looked at it. Katya ran into the room, followed closely by Debra.

“Mommy...” Katya ran to her bedside.

Debra took a few steps, stalling at the foot of Kate’s bed. “How’d the testing go?” she asked. “Feeling better now?”

“I’m fine. Really.” Kate had put up a much stronger guard. Debra was here now. She was the reinforcement Kate needed.

Silence crowded the room and Alexei cleared his throat, commanding everyone’s attention. “Debra,” he said, turning to her. “Do you think you could escort me to the coffee shop? Or at least point me in the right direction?”

For a tiny instant—the time was so small that it almost wasn’t recognizable, but Kate saw it—Alexei was overtaken by disappointment. But it didn’t last long. And that was far less surprising than the solace that dissipated the instance Alexei and Debra turned for the door.

Kate winked at Katya and motioned her over. She helped her climb up on the bed where Kate snuggled her up close and waited until Alexei and Debra had disappeared into the hallway and the door had completely shut, before she said to Katya, “I’m sorry I spoiled our outing on the ice.”

Katya looked up at Kate and fingered her hair out of her face. “Are you okay, Mommy?”

Kate embraced Katya. “I don’t want you to worry about me, okay? It was just a little tumble on the ice.”

“I heard Alexei say...Kate Peterson doesn’t
fall
.”

“Alexei?”

“Mr. Petrova. He said I could call him Alexei.”

It was sounding like Alexei and Katya had already had a heart-to-heart. The whole notion tightened around Kate’s heart, squeezing out all hope of this ending well.

“So, what’d he mean when he said you don’t fall?” Katya wanted to know.

“Nothing. He doesn’t know I don’t skate all the time anymore. Plus, he’s not taking into account that I’m just not as graceful as I used to be,” Kate added with a bit of a chuckle.

“So, you really are okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine.” Kate played it off with a casual response, but she could feel the walls closing in on her. She was very near the edge, on the verge of lying to her daughter. And she couldn’t have that. She had to change the subject. “What’d you and Debra have for lunch?”

“Debra had a cheeseburger. I had spaghetti,” Katya said in a no-nonsense tone. “I like Mr. Petrova. You really used to skate together?”

“Yes. Briefly.”

“Why’d you stop?”

The reason clogged in Kate’s throat. She couldn’t give too much away here. “He...he had to go back to Russia.”

“I see…” Katya’s words trailed off. Kate could see the wheels turning inside her head, and she didn’t like it.

“Katya, it was a long time ago.” Kate wanted to say it didn’t mean that much, but that was a bad idea since she’d promised Alexei she’d tell Katya about him. Well, there was no time like the present. Either she’d tell her now or she’d end up lying to her, and Kate didn’t want that. “When Alexei left, I thought he was gone for good. There was no reason to bring him up to you.”

Katya sighed. “Is that why you never mention my father?” Her question sent Kate’s heartbeat into overdrive. “Because you thought he wasn’t coming back?”

There was no beating around this bush anymore. “Something like that,” Kate said with a hint of remorse and bucket full of despair.

“And now?”

Damn it. Sometimes that child was too mature for her own good. Definitely too mature for Kate’s well-being.

“If my daddy came around…” Katya locked eyes with Kate. “You’d tell me, right?”

“Yes, I would. Just as soon as I’d figured out he wasn’t going to reject you.”

“Have you figured that out yet?”

“Just today.”

A few seconds of silence between them lingered on like eons. Long enough for Kate to start to wonder if her daughter was going to end up crushed—just like Kate had been eight years ago.

“So...does he want to be my daddy?”

CHAPTER EIGHT

DEBRA AND ALEXEI
made their way along the corridor in silence. At the next intersection he veered off to the right, away from the elevators that would take them to the cafeteria. There were two things ahead—the emergency waiting area and the exit. Debra knew they weren’t leaving. Why were they going to the waiting room?

Alexei claimed a chair on the far side of the room and Debra took the empty seat beside him. “Lose your appetite?” she asked.

He gave her a little laugh and then looked at her curiously. “I thought she could use some time alone with her daughter.”

Debra scrutinized Alexei’s face, his eyes, looking for any tell-tell signs of what he was up to. Alexei Petrova couldn’t turn out to be the ass Kate thought he was. That would have a profound effect on Debra’s romantic delusions. “That’s very gentlemanly of you,” she said with a nod.

Alexei shook his head. “Don’t paint me as the noble knight. I’m far from it.”

“Just what are you then?”

“A man who’d like to know his daughter.”

Debra blew out a long breath. This couldn’t have happened at a worse time. “So you do know.” But how long had he known?

Alexei nodded.

He was awfully calm about it. That could mean only one thing. “You’ve known all this time?” Even as Debra asked it, she couldn’t believe it. Kate needed Alexei to be a hero, not a deadbeat dad.

“No.” His tone took on an annoyed quality. “I’m just now figuring that out today.” Alexei’s gaze traveled slowly toward Debra and settled on her with a hard glare.

Even so, he was too calm. This kind of calm bred revenge. Kate had far too much to worry about without adding Alexei’s anger to the mix.

“So you didn’t receive her letters,” Debra said, to remind him that Kate had tried to tell him.

“No.” Alexei shook his head.

“How is it possible that they all went astray?” Debra asked.

“Someone—my manager at the time—worked very hard to keep me from communicating with Katya.”

“The same guy that dragged you back to Russia?”

Alexei gave only a nodding confirmation.

“So how are you feeling about all this?”

“Cheated.”

“Not by Kate though, right?”

“No. Kate’s not the one who cheated me.” Alexei had spent years believing the worst about Kate, only to find out she was as innocent as he. They were victims of a vicious and cruel act perpetrated by the people he’d trusted most for the majority of his life. He’d missed the first seven years of his daughter’s life because of it. He’d missed sharing the pregnancy with Kate—had she shared that with another man? Had she really taken up with someone else in his absence? “Is she married?”

“Kate?” There was a measure of silence before Debra snorted a laugh. “No.”

“Divorced?”

“Far as I know she’s never been married.” Debra’s words filled Alexei with hope—for about a milli-second. Then the reality of a US senator who was out to get him deported crept back into his thoughts.

Alexei was about to get wrapped up in his misgivings, and he almost missed the worry panning across Debra’s eyes. It was so swift he could’ve easily failed to notice it if he hadn’t been looking. A sudden panic gripped him by the threat, and it had nothing to do with the Senator or her daughter.

“I get the feeling there’s something Kate’s not telling me,” he said, leaving the door open. All Debra had to do was walk on through and tell him what that was.

She looked at him, and for a second he thought she might be ready to confess. But just as quickly, she sucked in a deep breath and shook her head.

Debra was hiding something. And she wasn’t ready to tell what. But when had that ever stopped Alexei? He’d figure out what, and he’d do it swiftly because Alexei prided himself on knowing what people were going to do before they did.

“If there’s something Kate wants you to know.” Debra shrugged. “I’m sure she’ll tell you.”

She was trying to play it off as nothing, but Alexei wasn’t buying it. Something was going on; he could feel it. To find out what, Alexei would have to be persuasive.

“If there was some way I could help,” he said. “You’d tell me, right?” His words had a profound effect on Debra. Alexei could tell based on the way her resolve seemed to melt away as her face dissolved into a mixture of vulnerability and despair. He needed to keep going, say something, but Debra was in a fragile state and the wrong thing could ruin the progress he’d just made. “Whatever it is...I’ll do everything within my power to help.” He kept his voice low and even, not wanting to pull Debra away from her inner urge to tell him what she knew.

What
was
she hiding?

Alexei glanced around the room. Why were they still here? In the hospital? Kate fell. She didn’t lose consciousness. She hadn’t broken any bones. What was going on?

Was she sick? Alexei looked back at Debra. “What’s wrong with her?” he asked, a definite demand in his tone. He wanted the truth and he wouldn’t settle for anything less.

She avoided eye contact with him, and began shaking her head defiantly. “She’ll kill me if I tell you...” Debra’s words trailed off.

“Not if she doesn’t know.”

For the first time since Kate’s fall, Debra’s eyes glistened with hope.

“She won’t find out from me,” Alexei said, encouraging Debra to tell Kate’s secret.

“If it weren’t for the gravity of the situation...I would never entertain breaking a confidence.” She looked at him with eyes that appealed for understanding.

“Desperation calls for desperate measures.” Alexei drew a breath. “Are you afraid she’ll fire you?” he asked, thinking he’d figured out part of the problem.

Debra’s lips almost curled into a smile, as if she was about to laugh but caught it before it got away. The end result was sadness. “You have to promise that what I tell you from here on out will remain our secret,” Debra said conditionally.

“Done.”

“Kate is
my
employee, not the other way around.”

What
? Alexei hadn’t seen that coming. Curiosity pushed out the words, “Your employee?”

“Yes. I own a diner in Prufrock, California. She’s a waitress there.”

“Waitress?” How did an Olympic champion who’d landed a wealth of endorsement deals end up as a waitress in a small town cafe?

She ended up pregnant, that’s how. Kate had thought she’d been abandoned so she wound up fading into middle America, trying to hide her child’s paternity from the press. Alexei understood that. He also understood that she’d given up a lot to protect
their
child. Was she broke? Did she need money? “Will money help? I have plenty of that, you know.”

A futile laugh escaped before Debra tightened her lips, as if that’d imprison anything else trying to break out. Again, she began shaking her head and kept it up until her lips finally relaxed. “She needs money. I don’t know that it’ll help, but she needs it. And fast.”

A distinctive tremor in Debra’s voice sent panic racing through Alexei. “What’s wrong with her?”

“She has a rare form of Chorioretinitis. She’s losing her eyesight.” Debra drew a breath and held it for a long pause before releasing it. “There’s an experimental surgery that may or may not help. And the clock is ticking.” She looked at Alexei. “Insurance companies don’t like to fund experimental surgeries. Especially ones that only stand a fifty-fifty chance of working.”

Alexei said, without hesitation, “I’ll pay for it.”

“If it were that simple, I’d have said something the first time we met.” She tried to smile. “Kate’s a very stubborn woman. She’ll never agree. She’ll see it as charity, from you.”

“How long does she have?”

“A few weeks. Maybe a few months...if she’s lucky.”

“Then why on Earth is she here?” he asked. “Why is she spending what could be her last weeks of sight at the Olympics?”

“She was hoping to land an endorsement deal,” Debra said. “To fund the surgery.”