“Yes,” I answer a question he hasn’t asked.
“It’s the same thing, I know, but I needed to tell you the truth because I want you to know me. Truly know me. Because I love you and you’re the person I look for when I’m scared.”
I sniffle and wipe my eyes.
“Travis?”
“Yes, baby?” He breathes heavily.
“I’m really scared right now,” I break off in a sob, clutching my belly with my free hand.
A pain so intense rushes through me that I fall to my knees. I drop the phone from my hands and have to focus on breathing.
“Alyssia? Alyssia? Baby?” Travis yells.
Once the pain subsides, I pick up the phone again.
“Travis, I-I’m here.”
“I’m coming, baby. Do you hear me? I’m coming.”
While his words make sense, I can’t focus on them because my mind is racing about the ways this is going to go terribly wrong.
I can’t have my baby here on some dank, disgusting floor next to what I’m pretty sure is a dead body. Then the horror of what I just did threatens to overtake my mind.
I squeeze my eyes shut so I don’t accidentally look across the room and see the man still lying there.
But a beat later, a crashing noise fills my ears. My eyes pop open to see a huge man barreling his way through the door.
No! No! No!
A new terror strikes me, but before it can turn to panic, thinking that another kidnapper has found me, Travis rushes through the door, pushing the larger man out of the way to get to me.
He falls to his knees in front of me. “Alyssia, baby, I’m here.”
I burst into the tears I’ve been holding back. “It hurts,” I tell him as another wave of contractions hit me.
“You’re okay,” he soothes, rubbing my back just like we practiced in our pre-birthing classes.
Immediately, I believe him.
Travis scoops me up into his arms and I curl my face into the crook of his neck, letting him carry me out of that hell hole.
CHAPTER 49
Travis
“Congratulations, you two, it’s a boy!” Dr. Dupas exclaims from behind her surgical mask as she holds our baby up for me and Alyssia to see.
“H-He’s not crying,” Alyssia pants. “Is something wrong?”
My hand clutches hers tighter, heart hammering. My first reaction is to assure her that everything’s fine. That after everything she’s been through over the past twelve hours, it all worked out in our favor.
But our son isn’t crying.
Dr. Dupas passes our son over to the second doctor in the room while she and the nurses take care of Alyssia.
“What’s wrong?” Alyssia turns to me, sweating and still panting from her delivery. “Is he breathing?”
