Page 81 of Cherish

The tears fall without me noticing. I hold her closer, tighter, and inhale her. Jason wipes my tears as I hold our sleeping daughter against my chest.

“She’s perfect. So beautiful,” I whisper. At that moment, the baby stirs. I immediately tense as I wait for her to start crying. She looks at me, yawns and closes her eyes again. The nurse walks in and hands me a small bottle of formula. I place it by her mouth, she opens wide, and suckles. I watch, amazed, as she finishes the bottle. The nurse helps me put her on my shoulder and instructs me on how to pat her back to get her to burp.

When I cradle her back in my arms, I finally look up at Jason, who’s looking down on us, his own unshed tears in his eyes. He mouths I love you to me, but my words get stuck in my throat, too raw with emotion to speak.

Jason sits next to me and looks down at our daughter, a stray tear escaping his eye. The tender moment is interrupted by a soft whimper. I finally look away from the most beautiful baby I’ve ever seen and look at Natalie for the first time since I walked into the room.

“She’s beautiful, Natalie,” I say softly.

“She is.” She sniffles. I’ve only seen her twice before today, but she looks a mess. Her long dark hair looks like it hasn’t seen a brush in days. Her face is void of any color, making the blue hospital gown look faded and worn against her skin.

“I’m releasing myself from the hospital tomorrow. We can do the paperwork for the birth certificate in the morning. The pediatrician says she should be good to go home. I didn’t have any complications and the birth was normal. She’s healthy. My lawyer will send the rest of the notarized paperwork to your lawyer. I don’t think we have anything more to say beyond that. I know she will be loved and taken care of, so thank you both for that.”

“Natalie, we never wanted to take her away from you. We wanted to co-parent,” I say. When I turn to look at Daniel, I say, “but we understand why that can’t happen.”

I turn to Jason and offer him the baby. “Can you take her for a moment, babe?” He takes her from me, and my heart swells as he cradles her head.

I slowly walk to the hospital bed, tentatively sitting next to Natalie. When she doesn’t ask me to move, I relax into the bed until she bursts into tears. Unsure of what to do, I take her in a hug. She holds onto me as she sheds her tears on my shoulder.

“Natalie, what you’ve done is a selfless act.” I pull away from her and look at her face, gently wiping her tears. “You love her enough to know being with you is not her best option. That takes strength. You never have to worry about her. We will love her. We’ll protect her and raise her in a home full of joy. She’ll want for nothing.”

Still shedding her tears, she grabs both of my hands with a strength I didn’t know she possessed.

“Please, send me a picture. Once a year, on her birthday. That’s all I ask. I hope one day, when she’s an adult, I can make her understand why I did what I did. Please, Alex. I have no right to ask but promise me you’ll do this for me. Just once a year.” She looks so lost and scared. All I can do is think of my own mother, who was in a situation that was not so different, and nod.

“Of course, I can do that.” She breathes a sigh of relief and hugs me again. She asks us to leave the baby in the room with her for one last night, and we oblige.

“Goodbye, Jason,” she says as we walk out the door. “Thank you, Alex.”

“Goodbye, Natalie,” we say in unison.

CHAPTER 54

JASON

“Dad, did you really have to have all of those cops just standing in the hallway?” Alex grumbles at her dad as we take the car seat out of the back of my SUV.

“Just wanted to make sure there were no issues.”

I shake my head at those two. When we stepped out of Natalie’s room, we nearly collided with Alexander as he paced the hallway. I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see him at the hospital.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at his place, and because he said he’s not missing any more holidays with Alex, he insisted we, including Mellie, spend the entire day with him. The minute we ran out of there after the phone call, I knew he’d show up. Despite not telling him which hospital or Natalie’s last name.

He stayed the entire night, only running back to my place to grab a bag of clothes that Mellie packed. I had Alex spend a few hours sleeping in my on-call room, but her dad and I spent the night in the maternity ward.

Thankfully, Alex is too distracted to take note of all the cars parked on our street. The minute we step through the door, we’re accosted by friends and family as they all whisper, “Surprise.”

“It’s your baby shower!” Ananda grabs Alex, and I set the car seat on the ground, where everyone descends on the baby.

“Oh my God. It’s a girl version of Jason; unlike him, she’s cute,” Mellie says.

“Everyone,” I say to the room, “we’d like you to meet Addison Alexandra Dupree.”

For the next few hours, we celebrate the baby. Alex told everyone she didn’t want a shower. She wouldn’t even entertain the idea because she didn’t trust Natalie to follow through. But now, I watch, my heart full as she laughs, cries, and celebrates our baby.

EPILOGUE

ALEX

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