“Mama is totally fine. You don’t have to worry about your wife,” she answers, sitting next to the bed.
“Fiancé,” I correct her, and she glances at me.
“Of course.”
“And the baby?” I ask.
“Fine as well,” she answers.
“Are you sure?” I ask.
“Here,” she says, grabbing a wand and nodding up at the screen. “Let me put your mind at ease.” She presses the wand to Mila’s belly and black and white bubbles blur across the screen. It almost looks like the inside of a lava lamp. Then the machine makes a rhythmic whooshing sound.
“What’s that?” I ask. “What’s happening?”
She smiles up at me. “That…is the heartbeat,” she answers.
“The heartbeat?” I echo. I know I sound like an idiot. But I haven’t spent a lot of time on the labor and delivery floor. Plus, my head is throbbing so hard I can feel my heartbeat in my cheek.
“Yes. The baby’s heartbeat,” she says, and it hits me like a freight train.
“That…that sound is the baby’s heartbeat?” I ask.
“Yes. She’s strong,” she says.
“She?” I blink.
“Just a feeling,” she says. “I’ll leave you two alone for a minute. Or three, I should say. I have another mama to check on. Don’t hang around too long. Dr. Schneider is a stickler when it comes to visiting hours.”
“I gathered,” I nod without a smile, and the nurse places a hand on my arm before walking out.
The machine is silent now, other than the beeping and humming. But that sound, the fast, galloping-like sound of a teeny tiny heartbeat, is something I will never not hear.
I swallow hard for the second time, and my eyes lock on her soft face again. My heart is aching in my chest, almost worse than my head. Then I notice a glimmer on the table next to her. My mom’s wedding band is resting on the table. They must have taken it off when she arrived while running tests. I pick it up, and my heart clenches in my chest.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I was going to marry her. It was going to be real. I was going to take her on a honeymoon,propose for real, and have a huge post-honeymoon reception with everyone we love. Not only that, but I would have my inheritance in my possession and the Golden Rule job in the bag. Away from someone whose intentions are never good. So where did it go wrong?
It started when Rafe and Brynn got involved. And it ended with Rafe’s dishonest, brass-wrapped fist in my face.
God. All of it is such a mess. I want to forget it all. I want to start over. And yet, there is still one big, glaring sore spot in the middle of it all.
Mila kept the baby from me. She knew she was pregnant, and she didn’t tell me. And that tells me that her heart isn’t where I thought it was. I shove the ring in my pocket and walk out of the room, unsure about my heart too.
Chapter 42
Mila
“You can sleepin my bed with me if you’d like,” Lainey says. “It’s only a full, but it’s comfier than the couch.”
“I like your couch,” I say as we walk through the living room of her apartment. I’ve always loved Lainey’s place. Like mine, it isn’t much, but it’s cozy. She’s a very vintage girl with fun, funky art, chalk paint refurbished furniture, and a jungle of vine houseplants. She also has an orange cat named Henry, who is currently doing figure eights around my legs. “It’s cute.”
“Thanks. It was forty dollars at an estate sale. It’s a 1940s style and smelled like White Diamonds perfume when I brought it home.”
“As in Elizabeth Taylor?” I ask.
“Yep. I mean, I doubt it was hers, but there’s still something swoon-worthy about it. I love a conversation piece,” she says.
“And I love a cozy place to sit,” I say, curling up on the couch. Lainey grabs a couple of throw blankets and joins me.
