“Note to self, never call your ex,” he grumbled. “I asked if she knew where Alyssia was, but apparently nobody’s come in with that name, so she suggested we go to labour and delivery at Englewood and see if anyone’s there. Apparently the emergency room isslammed.”
Antonio slammed on the accelerator, weaving through traffic like a Formula 1 driver. Horns blared all around him, but he no longer cared. All that mattered was Alyssia and their baby.
19
Alyssia was desperately trying to speak to an OB-GYN, but with very little success. All around her, staff dashed to and fro, and every so often she had observations taken, followed by poking and prodding to make sure the baby was alright, but nothing else. After about an hour of this, she’d finally had enough, and snagged a passing nurse.
“Hi, Nurse … Elizabeth,” she peered at the woman’s name tag, trying to force a smile onto her face. The nurse smiled back at her, clearly rushed off her feet, but stayed to answer her.
“What exactly is going on? I’ve had so many pokes and prods, and observations, and nobody seems to be able to tell me what’s happening. All I know is that I’m still five centimetres dilated and the baby hasn’t turned, but nobody’s told me if there’s a plan moving forward.”
“Let me find your midwife,” the nurse said kindly, before hurrying away. Alyssia slumped back onto her pillows, groaning as a contraction rippled through her, and threw Douglas a pained glance. He shrugged at her, as if to ask what she expected him to do, and she pulled a face at him before staring at the ceiling.
“Emily?” came the gentle voice of the midwife. She tried to push herself up, only to feel her arms give way, and fell back onto the pillows. The midwife pressed a button, and she felt the head of the bed rising until she was mostly upright.
“Emily, unfortunately, baby isn’t progressing as well as we’d like, so we wanted to talk about options with you.”
“Options? What options?” Alyssia panted. “Surely the only option is to operate?”
“Well, we can, but we could also try to turn baby manually so that you can have a vaginal birth, if that’s what you’d like.”
“What’s the safest option?” Douglas asked, without raising his eyes.
The midwife didn’t even bother to look at him, but kept her eyes fixed on Alyssia, who realised that something was different. Maybe it was the way the midwife was looking at her, or the fact that she was ignoring Douglas completely, but something had changed.
“I asked you a question,” Douglas growled, glaring at the midwife, who continued to studiously ignore him.
“Douglas, could you please go and get me some water?” Alyssia asked. The midwife stared at him until heleft, and then moved closer to her. Alyssia grabbed her hand and pulled her a bit closer, dropping her voice to a whisper.
“I need you to help me,” she hissed. “My cellphone is in my handbag, hidden in a secret compartment in the base. Nobody knows about it, not even my husband. If they haven’t gone through my bag, it should still be there. Go into my contacts and call my husband Antonio, or my brother Damon Richardson. Tell them where I am and tell them I’m having the baby.”
The midwife nodded silently and hastily searched her bag, finding the cellphone without too much trouble. She stowed it away in her pocket and threw Alyssia a brief smile before hurrying away.
Alyssia dropped her head back onto her pillows, feeling tears prick the back of her eyes. How her life had come to this she didn’t know, but she did know that Maria would pay, wherever she was. That much she was certain of, no matter what it cost her.
Douglas came back, a plastic cup of water in his hand, and plonked it down on her bedside table. He looked around the room, his brow furrowing as he realised that the midwife had gone, and then threw himself into the chair beside the bed.
“Where’s that midwife?” he grunted. Alyssia took a deep swallow of water, feeling her strength beginning to return, and then answered him as calmly as she could.
“I decided to wait a bit longer before letting them operate. I want to give this baby every chance to come naturally. It’s what … it’s what Antonio and I decided, before all this shit happened.”
“Why do you even care what he wanted?” Douglas snorted. “Last I heard he’d cheated on you with his boss’s daughter, among other women, and you threw him out.”
Alyssia raised an eyebrow, and he shrugged.
“Word travels fast in our household, it seems,” she grumbled, to which he shrugged again.
“Word travels fast everywhere.”
“Sothat’swhy Maria decided to throw this at us now.” Alyssia sighed. “Figures, that woman always did have the best timing. Or the worst, depending on how you look at it.”
Douglas gave a short laugh at that, nodding in agreement. Alyssia looked at him, wondering why he’d stayed, but decided not to ask.
“You never did answer me,” he reminded her, a wry smile playing across his lips.
She thought for a moment, wondering how best to answer him, and then smiled sadly.
“I guess because deep down I still love him.” she admitted. “Even though he’s a cheat, and a liar, and even though I’ve somehow become the epicentre of his family drama, he’s still the handsome Italian I met at a bar in La Zenia all those years ago. He’s the man who bought me a bottle of my favourite Spanish wine for our first anniversary, the hopeless romantic who bought me the mostridiculouslyexpensive diamond bracelet just because I told him I liked the shape of it … the thoughtful man who learned his grandmother’s recipes just so I could experience authentic Italian food … He’s still my Antonio, somewhere inside.”
