I nodded, swallowing hard and unable to calm down.
As I stared at the scenery blurring by outside the window, I wished we could travel at warp speed so I wouldn’t miss the birth of my child. So I wouldn’t fail Sadie—again—and not be there when she needed my support the most.
I’m coming, Sadie. I’ll be there as soon as I can.
36
SADIE
When Dr. Hannan checked me over at the house, she seemed most worried about my blood pressure. She wouldn’t say it. Not at first. But I saw the look on her face and I could tell that something was making her nervous.
“It might be better to be prepared,” she said after hedging my question for her about what was wrong. I knew that having my water broken this early wasn’t necessarily good. I was right at the brink of being too early, but she didn’t seem nervous about that.
“Prepared for what?” I demanded, trying not to snap or be a bitch while getting used to the deep hits of pain that were contractions.
“Just in case,” Dr. Hannan said.
“Oh, fuck,” Gabriella moaned from the couch, where she was leaning over and wincing in pain. “They’re getting stronger.”
“But unlike Sadie,” Dr. Hannan said as the nurses checked the vitals that they’d hooked up to her, “your blood pressure is fine.”
Aha.There was my answer.
“Do I have to do a C-section?” I asked.
“Fuck.” Luka paced, one hand on his head.
Dr. Hannan frowned at him. “A C-section is a routine surgery, Mr. Dubinin. Don’t scare them.”
“I think we’re both more worried,” I said, cringing through another contraction, “about him scaringyou.”
She rolled her eyes once her back was to him. “In my professional opinion, you should plan for the unexpected.”
Too late.
I hadn’t planned for the unexpectedness of being pregnant in the first place.
“And should anything change, it would be safest for you to be within the means of having any medical procedures necessary for our goals. Which are…?” She prompted.
“Keeping me and the baby alive,” I replied, having told her that those were my bare-bones criteria.
“Exactly.”
Come on, Emil. Hurry.
I bore through the contractions and did my best not to worry while they got everything in place. Luka was worried about Gabriella, who freaked out at the idea of going to the hospital. Even he couldn’t combat her PTSD and help her. Dr. Hannan insisted that Gabriella was fine, and if it came to it and her labor progressed, she could deliver here.
Luka determined that he’d take me to the hospital, not trusting an ambulance. Then with a little more back-and-forth among us all, we delegated who’d do what.
Gabriella snapped at Luka and demanded that he stay with me so I wasn’t alone.
Raisa ran interference, trying to contact the men who were on the mission while also comforting Gabriella that she wouldn’t be alone either.
Luka fought with both of them, saying he wasn’t leaving his wife’s side.
I begged them all to shut up and I’d go alone with Dr. Hannan.
Dr. Hannan said she’d stay or go, but then Gabriella insisted she should stay here if Luka was going with me.
