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Chapter Thirty-One

Eva

A beeping noise startles me from sleep. I open my eyes to see bright lights and a white ceiling. My stomach. It’s killing me.

What is going on?

I look around the room, at the curtains hanging around me.

I’m in the hospital.

“Hi, sweetie,” a gentle lady’s voice says as she approaches my bed.

Everything starts to come flooding back to me.

Sitting on the couch, trying to relax, when some cramping pains began to hit. Within minutes, I was hunched over in blinding pain.

Roman showed up.

He knows I’m pregnant.

Oh my God. The baby.

“My baby,” I whisper as tears form.

The nurse smiles kindly at me, then looks at the machine beeping next to me, checking my numbers. “We are waiting on some blood work. It shouldn’t be too long. That will give us a bit more information. You’re not bleeding vaginally, so that’s a good sign.”

I wince at the pain, clutching on to the bedsheets. “It hurts so bad.”

“Okay. Let me get the doctor here to see if we can make you more comfortable.”

Before she walks away, a man in a white coat appears by her side. “Eva. I’m Dr. Sullivan. I see that you are in a significant amount of pain. Nurse Jones here is going to help with that. You just hang tight.”

I don’t really have any other option as they walk away. I just want to see Roman. The last thing I remember is him lifting me out of the car when we got here. There’s no way he left me.

Right? I’m sure the pregnancy was a shock. But even if he’s still grappling with it, he wouldn’t leave us behind without knowing that we were all right.

Doubt starts to seep in, no matter what I tell myself.

What if the father of my child doesn’t care whether our baby makes it or not?

Even worse, what if he wants something to happen? Then he won’t have to deal with it.

A blinding surge of pain cuts deep into my side, distracting me from the vicious onslaught of thoughts attacking me.

I moan as I curl into a ball on the bed. Is there any way I’m in this much abdominal pain and still have a healthy baby inside of me?

I cry a loud sob of sadness as the nurse approaches.

“Here we go, sweetie,” she whispers as she inserts the medicine into my IV. She grabs my hand and squeezes it, much like Roman did in the car. “I’m right here with you now.”

“The baby’s father,” I cry into my pillow. “Is he … here?”

“I’m not sure about the father. But the man who brought you in is in the waiting room. We are working on getting you admitted and transferred to your room. He will meet you there.”

He’s still here. With the relief of the medicine kicking in and now that I know he didn’t leave, it’s enough to allow me to take my first deep breath in hours.

I place a hand over my belly and pray. I need my little angel to be okay. I’ve already fallen in love with it, and it’s only been a week since I took the test at home.

Not long after the nurse walks away, I am wheeled off to the elevator to the third floor. It’s an odd, scary feeling to watch the walls of the hospital go by as they take me to my room. I still have no idea what is causing the pain.

They park my hospital bed in the room and get me hooked up to all the machines that are surrounding me. Tears sting my eyes as I lie in bed and watch.

“Eva,” Roman’s voice exclaims.

I look over and see him running toward my hospital bed. “Roman,” I say with hot tears.

“Oh, thank God.” He grabs my hand and kisses it. “I’ve been a fucking wreck. How are you feeling? Are you okay?”

I nod my head. “I’m all right. They gave me medicine for the pain. I still don’t know if the baby is okay …”

Saying the words out loud is agonizing.

“I know.” He runs his fingers through my hair. “I’m terrified too.”

“What if …” I start, but the tears stop me from being able to finish.

“No, we aren’t going to go there. The baby is going to be fine. It has to be.”

I nod my head, hoping he’s right.

“Eva, I’m so sorry.” His face looks like he’s in his own world of pain.

“For what?” I ask.

“Everything. For being a fool and not realizing what we have. For keeping my distance. For not being there sooner when you were in so much pain.”

The nurse continues to work around us, but I pay no attention to her. I’m trying to understand what he’s saying.

“I was losing my mind out there in the waiting room,” he continues. “Not knowing if I was going to lose you, lose the baby. Everything just fell into place. I love you so much, Eva. I’ve been crazy in love with you from the moment you walked into my office. I was so scared I’d lost you.”

This should warm my heart. It’s everything I’ve ever wanted. But all I hear is … he was scared. In the adrenaline of it all, he realized his feelings for me. Or did he just let the fear he was feeling cloud his judgment?

I want to believe him. But there’s something stopping me from letting my heart accept it. I would be crushed if I trusted him, only for him to take it all back when the dust settled. All I can picture is him panicking and running into my bathroom.

How does someone that afraid of love change his mind so quickly?

He grabs my cheeks and forces me to look up at him. His blue eyes shine at me with hope.

“Eva, did you hear me? I love you. I want this. You and the baby.”