Page 138 of Rebellious Hearts

“Sofia?” Ben put the glasses down and hurried to me. “What’s going on?”

“I think—” I cried out again. “I think it’s time.” I managed to get the rest of my sentence out in a gasp.

“Time?” Ben asked, his eyes widening. “It can’t be time. You still have three weeks.”

“Not anymore,” I said when my stomach contracted tightly, and I cried out. “It’s happeningnow.”

“Shit,” Ben muttered. “Shit, shit, shit. I don’t know what to do here. Our plan to get to the hospital is for back home!”

“It’s going to be fine,” I said, holding the side of my belly, leaning on my other arm. “We just have to get to a hospital. There’s one on the island, isn’t there?”

“Yeah,” Ben said. “I made sure there was.”

“You did?”

“You know, just in case,” he said and helped me up.

Another contraction made me double over.

“This one’s not going to wait, Ben,” I said. “My contractions aren’t very far apart.”

Ben steadied me with one hand and with the other, he called the resort staff, ordering a car.

Everyone was on board in no time at all. The staff had a medical team, and when they were sure I wasn’t going to give birth then and there—even though it felt like it—they transported me to a speed boat that waited at the dock close tothe villa. The boat sped over the water. I lay back against Ben, and another contraction rocked my body. Pressure between my legs sent terror through me.

“I can’t do this, Ben,” I cried out, squeezing his hand.

“You can do this,” Ben said. “It’s going to be fine. I’m right here.”

When we arrived at the dock, I was taken to a hospital, and a doctor in the maternity ward looked me over.

When he looked up at me, his eyes were wide.

“We’re having this baby,” he said.

“Now?” Ben asked.

“Now,” the doctor said, and I was rushed into a room where everything was ready. Stirrups for my legs, a place to check the baby was okay, space for doctors and nurses to move around me.

The nurses worked fast, helping me undress and get into a johnny before I got into the bed. The contractions weren’t far apart at all now.

I wished we were back home. I wished Dr. Richards was here. But this was what we had to work with. We were having this baby here and now, born in the Maldives.

What a crazy start to this little being’s life.

But everything with me and Ben had been like this—a whirlwind that ended in happiness.

This had to be the same way.

“Okay, you’re crowning,” the doctor said. “With the next contraction, I need you to push.”

I did as the doctor asked, and waves of pain washed over my body. I cried out, breathing when the doctor told me to, pushing when he told me to, losing all track of place and time as my body did what nature had meant for it to.

And then the baby slipped out, leaving me feeling empty, and a tiny cry filled the room.

“You did it, my love,” Ben said, his voice filled with emotion.

Tears rolled down my cheeks.