Page 73 of Modern Romance Collection March 2025 (1-4)

CHAPTER THREE

Diazcouldnotstop pacing the corridor.

How long had she been in the operating theatre? It felt like hours.

He could not stop his mind racing to what was happening in there.

This was not the way the birth was supposed to go. He wasn’t supposed to be shut out.

Rose wasn’t supposed to be unconscious.

She was supposed to have a spinal anaesthetic and Diaz was supposed to be sitting beside her not glowering at her. That had been the plan.

The midwife had told them to go straight to the hospital. Diaz had never driven with such distracted concentration before, the urge to put his foot down fighting with the need to make the drive as smooth as it could be for her. Only thirty minutes could have passed from the phone call to their arrival but they’d entered the maternity wing with Rose complaining the lights were hurting her eyes.

Pre-eclampsia. Deadly if left too late.

‘We need to get these babies out now,’ the obstetrician had said, and it had been the barely detectable urgency in his voice that had alerted Diaz to just how serious the situation was.

Rose had recognised the seriousness too.

From the hospital bed they’d wheeled her to the theatre room on, those captivating blue eyes had locked onto his. Fear had rung from them. ‘Don’t let our babies die,’ she’d whispered. ‘Please, Diaz.’

At the door, he’d clasped her hand and kissed her fingers. ‘Nothing is going to happen to our babies and nothing is going to happen to you, okay?’

And then she’d been wheeled inside and he’d been barred from following, and since then he’d heard nothing, had no clue as to what the hell was going on in there, had only been able to torture himself with terrible thoughts that turned his blood to ice and stopped his heart from beating.

‘Mr Martinez?’

He spun around and found the obstetrician at the door.

‘Rose?’ he asked hoarsely.

‘She’s in recovery.’

‘She’s okay?’

‘She’s out of danger. It will be…’

But the obstetrician’s next words evaporated through the ringing in Diaz’s ears as a wave of relief so powerful he doubled over under its force punched through him.‘Gracias a Dios,’he muttered reverently to himself.‘Gracias a Dios.’

It took a long moment to compose himself.

‘And the babies?’ he asked, straightening.

‘You daughters will be just fine too…’

‘They are girls?’ His heart caught. Neither of them had wanted to know the sex but Rose had confessed when they’d been in the waiting room for one of her medical appointments that she had a feeling she was carrying girls. Just a passing comment but it had stuck with him, and from that point he’d always imagined their babies as girls.

The obstetrician smiled. ‘Two girls. They’re tiny, naturally, given how premature they are, but they’re fighters like their mother. They’ve been taken to the neonatal unit. One of my team will take you to them shortly.’

‘Can I see my wife?’

‘Soon. Let her come round from the anaesthetic first.’

* * *

It took effort for Rose to open her eyes.

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