“She’s got a great pair of lungs, Mum!” the midwife clasped her hand tightly. “And trust me when I say she is absolutelygorgeous. Look, here she comes now! It’s OK, you can hold her! Let me pop her on your chest like so … and, there she is!”
“Hi, baby,” Alyssia whispered, gently stroking the baby’s nose with her fingertip. The baby immediately stopped crying, and opened her eyes, their deep blue almost black. “You’re so beautiful!”
“Isn’t she perfect?” Antonio’s eyes filled with the kind of love she’d only heard about in fairytales. “I snuck a peek when they weighed her, she’s seven pounds exactly.”
“A whole seven pounds?” Alyssia whispered, hardly daring to believe it. “That’s … that’s amazing!”
“I know.”
“Sorry to interrupt, but we need Dad to hold baby while we finish putting you back together,” the nurse said apologetically, gently taking the baby from Alyssia and placing her in a bassinet. “She’ll be right here while we finish, and then you can both head to recovery and meet each other properly.”
“Thank you.” Antonio followed her to the bassinet and gently holding his daughter’s hand with a finger. “She’s got an amazing grip!”
“Babies are incredibly strong,” the nurse agreed. “Now, you won’t be able to move your legs for about an hour, and don’t try to walk until you have full sensation back in your legs, OK? You’ve got a catheter in, so don’t worry about going to the toilet. If youdowant the catheter out once you’ve got sensation back, that’s fine, but you’ll need to do three wees before we consider you fully de-catheterised. If you can’t manage it, that’s OK, we’ll just put the catheter back in and try again later. Keep your fluids up and you should be OK. Don’t worry if you forget everything I’ve just told you, there’ll be lots of midwives and nurses on the ward to help you out.”
“OK,” Alyssia nodded. “And what do I do for pain management?”
“We’ll give you pain relief as standard, don’t worry. Let us know if you need it, and we’ll keep on top of it. You should expect to stay in the hospital at least overnight, just so we can keep an eye on you and baby, but you should be good to go home tomorrow morning.”
Alyssia nodded and tried to relax as the surgeons finished their work, before wheeling her through to the recovery ward, where her daughter was placed back in her arms. Now that the surgery was over, she was able to take a proper look at her baby, who was fast asleep. She had a full head of dark brown, almost black hair, a delicate little nose, and the most adorable rosebud lips that she’d ever seen. Even her fingers were perfectly formed, with minuscule fingernails and a grip like a vice.
A huge wave of emotion flooded every part of Alyssia’s being, and she felt tears streaming down her face as she looked at her daughter. In that moment, she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she would walk through anything to protect her child, no matter what enemy faced her or what problem presented itself. Nothing, and nobody, would ever be more important to her than her daughter.
“She’s beautiful.” She smiled, reaching up to stroke Antonio’s face. “She’s definitely got your nose. And your chin!”
“Poor child!” Antonio chuckled, huffing a deep breath and gently peering at his tiny daughter. “And your eyes, I saw them just now. She looks like the best of both of us. I didn’t think she’d be so little, though! She’s like a china doll – I’m terrified I’ll drop her or break her somehow. The midwife laughed at me when I said that, but apparently it’s normal.”
“Let’s just hope she doesn’t have my temper, or we’ll be in for one heck of a roller-coaster ride,” Alyssia laughed.
Antonio tried to return her smile, but couldn’t quite manage it, the mix of emotions in his heart swinging between overwhelming love and paralysing fear.
“Listen, Lissia ...” he began, taking her hand in both of his.
“Not today,” she hushed him, squeezing his hand as best she could. “Let’s just enjoy our daughter. Everything else can wait until we’re home.”
“OK,” Antonio agreed, kissing his daughter’s head softly. The baby stirred a little, her eyelids fluttering like butterflies, and then fell back to sleep, a gentle coo escaping her lips.
“There’s something I wanted to ask you –” Alyssia started, only to stop as the curtain was torn aside to revealMaria, her hair everywhere and a diabolical glint in her eye. Her clothes were in disarray, her shoes had disappeared somewhere, and she was holding a gun in her trembling hands. Behind her, nurses and midwives scrambled to evacuate patients as best they could, the cries of upset babies echoing through the ward.
“Found you,puttana,” she hissed, her voice little more than a quiet scream. “Now, hand over the baby before I shoot you all right here and now.”
22
Antonio and Alyssia stared at Maria in horror, unable to believe her brazenness. Antonio stood up slowly, placing himself between his wife and daughter, and fixed Maria with a glare that would have made most men quail in fear. Maria, however, stared back at him fearlessly, almost as if she were daring him to attack her.
“Have you lost what remains of your senses?” he growled, his voice low and thunderous with rage. “Youdareto march in here, where my wife has just given birth to our daughter, and demand we hand her over to you like someparcel? Just who do you think you are?”
“I’m your mother!” Maria shouted, waving the gun around aimlessly. “Like it or not, likemeor not, I am your mother and youwillacknowledge me!”
“Maria, look at where you are. You’re in a hospital fullof security, and I’m fairly sure at least one of the midwives has called the police.Is this really where you want this to go down?”
“I don’t care if I’m on the moon in front of the Holy Father himself! Hand over the baby,boy!”
Antonio closed his eyes and took a deep breath before gently but firmly walking towards Maria and forcing her to back out of the ward. As they walked, he noticed Damon following them discreetly, his weapon still holstered, but unclipped.
They walked down the hallway to a nearby balcony and stood there, facing one another. It was freezing cold, and snow was beginning to fall – a perfect sight, if you didn’t pay attention to the gun being waved around or the fact that he was in hospital scrubs, which offered noprotection against the elements.
“Maria, listen,” he began, gently pushing the gun out of his face. “I know you want validation, and I know you want to be part of my family, but you haven’t been my mother since I was born. You can’t just walk into my life and expect everything to be the way you want it to be.”
