“We don’t know that.” Tears began to well, but she fought against them.
His brown eyes were dark and so intense, and she saw fear leaking into his gaze, a fear that mirrored her own. “We don’t.”
“It’s not supposed to go like this,” she whispered.
“I want to make this better for you. For the baby. And I can’t.” His voice broke, and he swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. “But I will be here for you. We’re in this together.”
Dr. Cantabella looked up from the fetal heartbeat screen and said, “The baby is coming today.”
Ann-Sophie stared at the doctor. “I… I’m not due for another month.”
The doctor frowned. “Babies have a mind of their own when it comes to due dates. I suppose it’s to get to prepare us for life as parents.”
“But it’s too early,” she protested weakly. This was feeling all too much like the visit to the doctor back in Stockholm, the last time her body demanded something she was not ready for.
The doctor nodded. “It is early, but we will meet whatever needs your baby has.”
Before Ann-Sophie had a chance to fully process this news, another contraction—because that was what this pain was—hit her.
She sucked in a sharp breath, and Alessandro tensed.
“Can something be done for all her pain?” he growled. “This can’t be right. She’s suffering.”
“We have pain-mitigation options,” said the woman gently. “But some partners find it easier to wait elsewhere while the baby comes.”
He frowned and shook his head. “If she has to go through this, I will be here.”
Alessandro Carandini was a man of his word. He stayed by her through every minute of it, coaching her breaths and stroking her forehead. In the back of her mind, she was still hurt and frustrated, but those feelings faded because the baby was coming. Quickly, in fact. It was all a blur of pain and brusque voices until, finally, the doctor handed her their baby boy. A beautiful baby with wisps of dark hair and bronze skin so much like his father’s. Alessandro kneeled by her side as the tiny baby let out a wail.
“He takes after me,” he said with a hint of dark humor, but his eyes were filled with astonishment.
It felt as if her heart was expanding in her chest as she looked from Alessandro to this tiny, beautiful baby. A halo of love was growing around her, pushing out their disastrous start to the morning and filling her with joy.
“Hello, little one,” she whispered. “Welcome.”
The doctor slipped an oxygen mask over the baby’s tiny head and pressed a heart monitor to his chest. “We need to do some testing, but this little guy looks strong, so we will give your family a few moments first.”
And then, they were alone. The baby’s eyes closed, and she wondered at the fact that this moment she had both worried about and dreamed about for so long was finally here. They had ababy, the tiniest, most joyful person she had ever seen.
“We will meet whatever needs you have, my love,” she whispered to him, as the truth of Dr. Cantabella’s words echoed inside her.
Alessandro hadn’t said a word, and his expression was inscrutable.
“Can I hold him?” he asked softly.
Ann-Sophie lifted the baby in his arms and held him close, his big, scarred hands cradling the tiny body, and he whispered in a low voice. Tears welled in her eyes as every strong emotion cascaded at once. This day had been filled with so much grief and so much joy, it seemed impossibly overwhelming.
Alessandro’s face was etched with a kind of wonder, but as he handed the baby back to her, the expression faded, shifting to something she couldn’t read. “I will go back to the villa and pick up anything you need. Then, when you are ready, I will leave for Milan.”
She blinked. “When I’m ready?”
“I promised I wouldn’t leave you, and I will respect that promise. You’re with a newborn, our child.” His voice wavered with a hint of emotion, but when he spoke again, it was gone. “I will not abandon you or the child. But I think it’s clear that this situation is untenable.”
“What situation?” she asked slowly, and the halo of warmth and joy that had surrounded her just moments before was shifting into something that felt much more ominous.
“This.” He gestured to the three of them, this tentative little family she couldn’t stop herself from wanting. “This has already gone too far. I let out enough poison to send you into early labor. This could’ve ended so much worse.”
He swiped a hand over his face, and she almost missed the haunted look in his eyes.
