Page 37 of Gone in the Night (Detective Morgan Brookes #16)
THIRTY-SEVEN
Amy hadn’t stopped crying since Cain had been to break the news to her about Jack.
She had fallen out of love with him when he’d turned so angry with her because she was pregnant.
She had never expected him to behave that way in a million years, shocked maybe because they hadn’t ever discussed having kids.
It wasn’t something either of them were bothered about.
Nobody had been more surprised than she was when she realised that she wanted this baby regardless of Jack’s feelings.
She’d always thought that he might eventually come around to the idea, and when she’d seen him on the doorstep, she had hoped his visit yesterday had been some kind of truce.
It turned out he’d come to her because he was in trouble, and it had nothing to do with her or the baby which was Jack all over.
She had worried he might do this by the state he was in, but had she really, truly thought that he would?
Either way it didn’t matter, she hadn’t been able to stop him and now…
A fresh wave of tears poured down her already red and swollen cheeks, and, as if to add insult to injury, an intense pain in her lower back that radiated to the front of her stomach took her breath away and she doubled over sucking in a deep breath.
It was like the worst kind of cramp and backache all rolled into one, and she cried out.
‘No.’ Her eyes squeezed shut as she waited for it to subside and realised that this might be more serious than a Braxton Hicks contraction, which would just be her luck. She didn’t have time to go into labour right now, not when she was consumed with grief and guilt.
When she could straighten up, she began to gather her things together just in case this was happening.
She pottered around unplugging her phone charger and shoved it into her hospital bag.
Then even though she wasn’t hungry, she made herself a sandwich because she needed some kind of energy if she was going to push a baby out.
Her stomach was churning, and she thought she might be sick.
Cain was going to kill her. They would be up to their necks in the investigations and wouldn’t be able to spare him to go to the hospital with her.
Amy decided that if she had to go, she would go on her own.
She wasn’t the only woman in the world to have to give birth without a birthing partner.
It happened all the time, she would just have to suck it up and get on with it.
Another wave of cramps hit her, and she squeezed her eyes shut, breathing deeply until it passed.
She looked at the clock. She hadn’t timed it but that felt as if the last one had been less than ten minutes ago.
She dialled the maternity unit at Kendal hospital for some advice.
It would take her twenty, maybe thirty minutes to get there and that was even if she could get a taxi because lately there was a shortage of drivers and it had been taking forever.
Eyeing up her car keys she wondered if she could drive herself and pull over if a contraction came, then she realised that was totally stupid and dangerous.
This baby had already lost one parent. What if she crashed and it was born with her in a coma?
Stop it, Amy, stop thinking weird thoughts.
She shouted the words out loud and dialled the only local taxi number she knew.
The contractions were coming a lot faster than she’d ever anticipated.
On all the documentaries she’d watched and books she’d read they were supposed to happen slowly over a long period of time and gradually increase in intensity.
She wondered if the grief and sadness she was feeling over Jack had speeded things up.
The taxi driver had parked outside of the A she didn’t want to be on her own anymore. He would make it all better. His stupid jokes would help to keep her mind off the pain even if she did want to throttle him and tell him to shut up.
She was taken straight into one of the birthing suites. The maternity unit hadn’t long reopened and she stared longingly at the small pool in the corner. She was so hot, she wanted to strip off and get into it and submerge herself fully in freezing cold water.
The nurse was asking her questions that she couldn’t answer, then she was being helped out of her clothes and into a hospital gown so the midwife could examine her, a blood pressure cuff cinching the skin on her upper arm as it tightened.
Once she was on the bed she asked for her phone, which was given to her, and she caved in, phoning Cain and leaving him a gasping voicemail, telling him where she was and if he wasn’t busy could he come see her.
She let out a low groan as another contraction hit her before she’d even ended the call and thought that he would never let her live this one down.
Whether she was ready or not, in a few hours her entire life was going to change. She couldn’t stop it now, things were in motion that were out of her control. Then she closed her eyes and tried to breathe deeply through the pain that took away all her conscious thoughts.