‘You’re missing your party. No, you can’t shout at me,’ she added when he looked ready to explode. ‘I’m the walking wounded… Well, there’s not much walking.’
‘Are you in pain?’
‘No, I’m fine.’
‘You’re a terrible liar,’ he said, gently pushing a strand of hair from her cheek.
She didn’t respond but she didn’t agree either. She was a good liar—she had been lying to herself for so long that she had, until recently, actually believed the lies she’d told herself. TheI am over Leolie, theI don’t love Leo any morelie.
Knowing she was carrying his baby and that it was likely she would lose it had ripped the plaster off those particular lies in the most painful way possible.
‘I’m sorry about this. I know we were usually careful about protection, and that this is the last thing—’
He pressed a finger to her lips. ‘Hush now and don’t tell me what I want or feel.’
‘Oh!’ she fretted. ‘You’re being so kind to me. Jamie won’t tell anyone about us, I asked her not to. And I think maybe I said stuff about you to the doctor too, because I panicked a bit.’
He swore the air blue and cradled her face gently between his big hands. ‘You know I’m never kind and Jamie can shout it from the rooftops if she wants to, for all I care.’ If he wasn’t so engaged with the immediate priority he would have been doing some shouting himself.
He kissed her forehead with a tender reverence that brought tears to her eyes because she knew he was only doing it because of the baby.
He turned at the rustle of activity around the doorway. ‘The ambulance is here.’
She closed her eyes. ‘I hate hospitals.’
‘Everyone hates hospitals.’
Her gaze was fluttering around the room in panic. ‘Mum was in and out so many times, and there were so many deathbed scenes before the real one. She liked me to read to her and—’
‘Don’t worry, I will be with you.’
Her brown eyes focused on his face. ‘Promise?’
He caught her hand and didn’t let go. ‘I promise.’
Amy didn’t remember much about the helicopter flight to the hospital, she just remembered clinging to Leo’s hand as though it were her lifeline.
It was a blur of white ceilings and test after test, but the only one that mattered to her was the ultrasound. The moment when they heard the heartbeat.
‘Do you want to see the baby?’ the doctor asked with a smile.
Leo’s grip turned her fingers white and when she turned to look at him, tears streaming down her cheeks, his were wet too.
‘Mr Romano, I can talk to your partner or—’
‘Together.’ He flashed a look at Amy, who nodded her approval. ‘We will face this together, Doctor.’
‘As you now know, the baby is well, but there are issues.’
‘Is it like last time?’ Amy asked, her voice shaking. ‘I have to know.’
‘From what you’ve told me, that is a possibility.’
‘There was a lot of blood. Are you sure the baby is fine?’
‘A little can look like a lot, Miss Sinclair.’
‘Please call me Amy.’
