Back home, she found herself pacing, restless. She didn’t know if Callan had landed or his condition, and she didn’t know who to call. There was nothing to do but wait, yet she couldn’t sit still.
Oddly, as she checked her hospital bag for the final time, she thought of him.
Logan knew brain injuries; that was what he did. Maybe she would have been able to reassure her. maybe he would have lied, just enough to make her believe everything would be fine. But she didn’t call.
Instead, she lay down, her body heavy with exhaustion, and somehow, she drifted off to sleep.
Like the midwife said, she thought they were Braxton Hicks, the false alarms she’d been living with for weeks. She made a cup of tea, ran a bath, and tried to convince herself this was not it. But she couldn’t sleep, and not because of the pain. No matter what she did, every thought led back to Callan.
Somehow, she must have drifted off again, because when she looked at the clock, it was 3 a.m., and the contractions had sharpened, coming closer together. She turned onto her back, staring at the ceiling, willing the pain away. Then she felt something warm trickle between her legs.
She reached down, fingers brushing against damp skin. When she brought her hand back into the light, all she saw was red.
For a moment, she was paralysed. It wasn’t just a few drops. It was spreading, pooling around her, seeping into the sheets like ink in water.
A primal, frightened scream clawed its way out of her throat as she grabbed her phone, fingers shaking as she dialled 999.
“I’m bleeding,” she told the operator, the words tumbling over each other. “I’m thirty-nine weeks pregnant, and I’ve just woken up in a pool of blood.”
It was as if the woman on the other end had triaged her as a hysterical first-time mother, chastising her in that too-calm voice, asking a dozen questions that didn’t seem to matter. From how much blood there was to the colour.
“Please,” she choked out, curling over as another contraction hit. “How long until an ambulance gets here?”
“At least thirty minutes,” the operator said. “Is there someone who can drive you to the hospital?”
She closed her eyes, a sob catching in her throat. Then she thought of Logan. That night, he’d told her that if she ever needed anything, anything at all, to call.
After ending the call, she scrolled to his name and paused, unsure, before tapping the call button. He didn’t pick up on the first try. Maybe he assumed it was a misdial or a pocket call. But when she dialled again, he answered on the first ring.
“Daisy?”
“Logan, please,” she whispered. “I need your help.”
There was a brief silence, and Daisy could’ve sworn she heard the sheets rustling as he sat up. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I…” Another contraction struck, and she clenched her mouth shut to stifle a scream. “I think I'm in labour. There's blood,” she gasped. “So much blood.”
“I’m coming,” he said without hesitation. “I’ll be there in fifteen.”
She didn’t know how fast he drove. It felt like seconds before he was there. He found her curled over, biting down on her hand to keep from screaming. His eyes flicked from her to the blood, and then, without a word, he lifted her into his arms.
The rest was a blur of white lights and hushed voices. He told her later that she’d blacked out in the car, and as soon as he’d rushed her into A&E, they had taken her into theatre. But all she remembered was waking up in a bed and finding the roomempty. There was no cot beside the bed, and everything was eerily quiet.
She lay there for what felt like hours, staring at the ceiling, each second heavier than the last. Her chest felt tight, like her lungs had forgotten how to work properly, until she heard the door slowly creak open.
XX
LOGAN
Logan was half-asleep when his phone started buzzing. He blinked, unsure if he was in a dream, when it stopped before starting again.
He reached for it, his eyes blurring from the light when he realised it was Daisy calling him. It had to be a mistake—why else would she be calling him in the middle of the night?
Then it rang again.
He sat up, heart pounding, and answered on the first ring.
“Daisy?”
