She pushes me to go check on him.
Hating the thought of letting her hand go, but torn between the need to make sure our son is okay, I reluctantly go in the direction she pushes. Toward the glass crib he’s been placed in.
His eyes are closed, but when the doctor moves his body, I see my baby squirming. A second later, he opens his eyes and lets out a scream-cry that fills the room.
The breath I held releases as a divine energy I’ve never felt overtakes me. It’s the best sound I’ve ever heard in my entire life.
“Would you like to cut the umbilical cord?” Dr. Dupas asks, holding out a small pair of scissors.
I take them from her at the same time I nod and make the cut. Once he’s cleaned up and swaddled, the nurse turns to me.
“Would you like to hold him?”
I don’t hesitate to hold out my hands for my boy, and carry him over to Alyssia.
“Here’s your mommy.”
Unsurprisingly, she bursts into tears.
Once she’s settled, I place our son onto her chest.
Movement and chaos continue to swirl around us. The healthcare staff come in and out, checking on Alyssia and our baby. In the distance I’m aware of my entire family, including Kandace and Alyssia’s uncles who managed to fly in before the birth, in the hallway.
The only thing that holds my attention right now are the two people I can’t take my eyes off of. They’re the only things that matter right now.
I still can’t believe how beautifully Alyssia sailed through labor and delivery. Even while driving from the remote part of the South of France where she’d been taken by that son of a bitch, she didn’t complain, or yell much beyond a few pants and moans when the contractions came on.
Her labor wasn’t a quick one. Once we arrived at the hospital, it took another six hours for her to fully dilate. After two hours of pushing, our son is here.
“You’re amazing. Do you know that?” I tell her over and over, kissing her temple and then our son.
“I’m sosorry I let this happen to you,” I say again after explaining all that transpired.
Our friends and family have already had a chance to visit and have gone home for the evening, to give us time to be alone.
“You’ve apologized enough,” she says, voice hoarse. “I know you would never put me in danger. It’s one of the reasons why I love you.”
My vision blurs and I lean down, kissing her forehead. “I’ll never lie or withhold the truth from you again.”
She gives me a sideways grin that makes my hear skip a beat. Even after hours of labor and delivery, she takes my breath away.
“Do you promise?”
“I swear it.”
If my family’s security hadn’t already been tapped into the building’s security system and was able to pick up the license plate information of the car she was taken in, we might’ve never traced her to that abandoned property in the outskirts of Southern France.
Gus Grant. Skyland’s agent and cousin was the man who kidnapped Alyssia. In the hours since this all happened, my uncle was able to connect Skyland, and by extension, Gus, to all of the notes, threats, and blackmail attempts.
He’d tracked the teens from Vegas down and uncovered, through emails, the fact that the person who sent them information on my hotel room was Gus.
“Good, because I meant what I said on the phone. You’re my safe place. I know my heart, my body, and our child are all safe with you.”
I wipe away the tear that falls from her eye with my thumb.
“You were the first call I made because I knew even though you were far away, you would get to me.” She shakes her head, laughing a little. “It doesn’t make sense, but when I had that phone in my hand, I knew if I could just hear your voice, everything would be okay.”
She looks at me, eyes widening, as if sudden realization has just dawned.
