She closes the folder with a measured nod. “Alright. Your ultrasound looks good. Your fallopian tubes are open. We’ve confirmed that you ovulate regularly when you’re not on birth control. And beyond that, you had an excellent response to the medication, producing fifteen eggs.” She pauses, her gaze flicking between me and Gabriel. “So, like I said, there might be something else at play, and I’d like to start with the semen analysis. But…” Her eyes shift more pointedly to Gabriel now. “I take it this is not your previous partner?”
I shake my head. “No.”
A knowing smile tugs at her lips as she nods. “Well, Alessia, Ihave what Ithinkis good news… but I don’t want to get your hopes up just yet.”
Too late. My hopes are already through the damn clinic’s roof. Probably floating somewhere past the stratosphere and outside of Brookhaven now because I think I know what she’s going to say.
She leans forward slightly, voice gentle. “If you’re ready to start trying, I’d like you to stop your birth control and—just try. Naturally. For a little.”
I blink. “Just…try?”
No injections? No pills? No endless bloodwork and ultrasounds? No hormone-fueled meltdowns in the middle of a CVS parking lot because my health insurance denied my doctor’s authorization for progesterone injection needles and suggest I try suppositories instead? Just… let my body do what it’s supposed to do and see if it works but with Gabriel’s sperm this time?
She nods. “You might be surprised.”
Surprised doesn’t even begin to cover it.
I turn to Gabriel, my heart hammering, but his expression is steady. “It’s your call, Aly,” he murmurs, his voice serious. “You know I’ll do whatever you want. And I’d be thrilled to be a dad, but I don’t need this. I only need you.”
My throat tightens. “But… what if it doesn’t work?” The whisper barely makes it past my lips.
The doctor smiles warmly. “Then you come back. We’ll test Gabriel’s semen. We can try another round of IVF if that’s what you want. You’re a perfect candidate for it. We’ll give it another shot—or as many as you need to feel like you’ve given it your all and want to stop.”
I exhale sharply, my mind spinning. “Okay. Okay.Let’s do this. Let’s try naturally.”
She nods, pleased, and snaps the folder shut. “I’ll give you some information on prenatal care and how to prepare your body for pregnancy. And if you try for a few cycles without success, call me back. I’d be happy to see you again and we can come up with a new plan.”
And just like that, the appointment is over. I leave the office in a haze; my fingers curled around Gabriel’s as we walk to the car silently. The sun feels too bright. The sky feels too blue. He opens my door, helps me inside, and the silence between us stretches—thick, electric, charged—as he fires up the truck.
The drive back to Brookhaven is a blur of passing trees and open road, my thoughts racing with each mile we pass.
“Aly,” Gabriel’s voice breaks through to me. “Are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?”
I release a slow breath. “Yeah… I’m okay. I think I’m in shock.”
“That was good news, right?”
I nod, still staring out the window like I might be able to see the answer out there somewhere.
“Yeah. Really good.”
I hesitate before turning to him, my mind catching up to a question I don’t know if I’m ready to ask.
“Do you really think that Brian was the problem?”
Gabriel grips the wheel tighter, his jaw shifting slightly. “I don’t know. But with 50/50 odds, I’d say there’s a damn good chance his sperm were the issue.”
“But he got his mistress pregnant.”
He shrugs one shoulder but doesn’t take his eyes off the road. “Something Rhiannon told me years ago that’s always stuck with me is that the vocal cords and uterus are roughly the same shape and a mirror image.”
Huh…
“She said in her therapy practice, sometimes she sees patients who feel like they don’t have a voice in their relationship, and that has a direct impact on their sex organs. Maybe it’s possible you felt like you didn’t have a voice in your marriage with Brian, and therefore your body wasn’t receptive to conceiving with him.”
And holy hell, that’s exactly how it felt being married to him. Like I was always holding back my tongue near the end. Something ignites inside me.I twist in my seat, looking straight at him now.
“Are you hungry? Do you want to stop for food?”
