Page 133 of Family Bonds- Gabriela & Luca

“Wait.” She closed her eyes. He needed to be prepared. “It’s not good. Hudson can’t find a heartbeat. Ava’s in delivery upstairs and should be down soon. Taylor doesn’t know yet. Hudson’s waiting for Ava to take over and verify.”

Silence.

Then, quietly, he said, “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

The line went dead.

She stared at her phone for a long second before turning back toward the room, bracing herself for what came next.

38

COULD HAVE BEEN

His hands were slick inside the gloves, the thin paper gown clinging to his throat like it might choke him. Not from panic, but from meaning. This mattered too much.

The drive to the hospital had blurred past him. Red lights were ignored. His speed unchecked. He didn’t remember parking, didn’t remember shutting the door, only running, his heart pounding, and headed straight into the ER.

Ava was already there. Taylor was being rushed toward the delivery ward, fear written across her face and Cora’s, him keeping pace at her side. Gabriela was there also.

The ultrasound confirmed what they already feared.

No heartbeat.

The umbilical cord was wrapped tightly around the baby’s neck.

Hours passed. Gabriela returned to the ward and then to his side. He’d told her to leave. To go home and sleep, but she refused.

He was glad. He needed her by him.

Taylor’s body was failing her trying to deliver. She was exhausted, unresponsive, and refusing to dilate any further. Shesobbed and begged for it to be over, begged for the baby to come out as if it were an alien that frightened her more than life alone.

Her blood pressure climbed into dangerous territory, her panic spiraling beyond control.

She was a frightened young girl in pain. There was no reasoning with her. No calming her.

Nothing. There was no choice left. They couldn’t risk her life.

The emergency C-section was called.

Taylor lay numb beneath the drape, drained past pain, her face hidden as he stood beside Ava, assisting on instinct and training alone. Gabriela was in the room watching, waiting to be called on if needed.

She wouldn’t be needed for the baby, and with any luck, not for Taylor either.

This child wasn’t his.

He’d kept that truth firmly in place, a wall he hadn’t let himself breach just yet.

As much as he wanted it, he knew until it was finalized there would be no relief. Only those words never really sank in. He never really believed them.

And it didn’t stop the hurt and pain of what could have been.

What he was trying to hold back from allowing himself to feel.

Now he watched Ava lift the baby free and carefully untangle the cord, cut it away, and hand the small, silent body to him.

He wrapped the baby gently, a yearning that once was but was no more, his hands steady despite the fracture in his chest. To his heart.

Telling himself not to get attached hadn’t really worked.