"She might have sacrificed her life to bring them here."
"Now darling..."
"I cannot lose her," he continued grimly. He was standing just outside the NICU but didn't have the heart to go in. His wife was still not out of the woods yet. "I cannot live without her. I won't." He turned to look at his mother and her heart ached at the haunting look of defeat on his handsome face.
He looked hopeless. Her Christos, who was always so happy go lucky, had turned into a stranger. She wanted to take him in her arms and take away his hurt and pain. But she couldn't. She could only pray that God delivers his wife from the jaws of death. Or she would lose her son.
The Kostas men loved fiercely and completely. She knew that firsthand.
"She's going to make it." It was time for some positive energy. She was not one to give up.
"Can you guarantee that?" he asked harshly.
"God can. There's nothing he cannot do. Why don't you go back in that room and sit with her? Talk with your wife and tell her in no uncertain terms that you and those beautiful babies need her. Now is not the time to clock out. She has too much to live for."
Hope flared inside his chest, and he felt his spine straightening. Taking one last look at the three babies, he pressed a kiss on top of his mother's head and walked away.
*****
"She was such a beautiful baby."
Christos stiffened at the sound of the woman's voice just inside the doorway.
"She's beautiful still." His voice was stiff and formal. He had come here to be alone with his wife and certainly did not relish the thought of an unwanted presence.
"I do not mean to intrude." Violet came further into the room timidly. "I was at the chapel praying for her and those beautiful babies."
"Thank you," he said stiffly. Inbred courtesy made him rise and turn to her. She looked unlike the haughty woman who had attacked him that time on the cruise ship. In fact, she looked penitent.
"How is she?"
"Holding her own," he murmured briefly. "You may take a seat. The doctors think that the more I speak to her, the more she will come out of this unconscious state. It's a way for the body to heal itself, or so they say. I just want my wife back." He hadn't meant to say so much, especially not in front of this woman.
"You love her." Violet perched on the edge of the chair.
"More than my life," he said simply.
Ignoring her, he sat back down and took his wife's hand, bringing it to his cheek.
"I never had that."
Blinking as if he had forgotten her presence, he turned his head to stare at her.
"Excuse me?"
"What you have with my daughter." Violet's smile was wistful. "I was brought up in the church by very strict parents, and a husband was chosen for me. He never loved me. I know that now. He didn't want children. He stated that from the moment we first started courting."
"He said he wanted to be like Paul in the Bible. A wife was going to help him with his 'mission'. That's what he called it. A mission to win souls for Christ, and a child would interfere with it. He blamed me." Her eyes shimmered with tears.
"And I blamed her." She looked at her daughter lying there so still. "I told myself that if she hadn't been born, he would have loved me. I blamed her entirely."
"And she suffered as a result," Christos interjected grimly. "Horribly." He looked down at her, expression softening. "It's a wonder she turned out so damn wonderful." His voice had thickened with emotions. "She's my dream woman. The love of my life, the strongest woman I know aside from my mother. You missed out on someone terrific."
"I know that now." She rose a little unsteadily. "I hope you don't mind my peeping in at the children."
"Not at all."
She stood there for a minute more and watched as he linked his fingers through his wife's. And had a feeling that he had already dismissed her from his presence.
