Page 96 of The Lookback

Abby’s downright terrifying when she wants to be, and apparently when my baby’s future is in question, she wants to be. She never raises her voice, but a woman with an ultrasound is checking my belly five minutes after we reach the room.

“Good news.” The woman shifts the wand and points. “There’s a steady heartbeat, and the fetus looks good. I’ll wait for the attending to tell you more.”

“You’re not even a doctor?” Abigail looks disgusted.

“I’m a third-year resident,” the woman says. “I am a doctor.”

“Then what are you worried about?” Abigail says. “What do we have to wait for the real doctor to come tell us?”

The woman sighs, and I almost feel sorry for her. “Bleeding during a pregnancy isn’t always a concern, but it’s not usually good.”

“Well, a quick internet search would tell me it’s not good, if I didn’t already know that much,” Abby says. “But I figured after seven years of training, you’d be able to tell me whether it was placenta previa, a placental abruption, or something worse.”

“It’s not an ectopic pregnancy,” the resident says.

“We already knew that,” Abby says. “It’s not our first ultrasound.”

“I’m actually a general surgery resident on a rotation,” the poor woman says. “So if you could just wait for a bit?—”

“Next time, lead with ‘I know less than you,’” Abby sighs. “It’ll save us all some time.”

It takes about ten minutes for the terrified resident to track down the attending, but once she’s in the room, she grabs that ultrasound wand and starts whirling it around like some kind of wild west gunslinger with his favorite pistol. “Alright, your baby’s attached high, so there’s no risk of placenta previa, and your baby’s vital signs continue to be very good. I’d like to monitor you overnight, but I think you’re going to be just fine.” She tilts her head as she puts the wand down. “Did you work out today?”

“Could that have caused it?” I frown. “I went for a jog this morning, but I’ve done that almost every morning of the pregnancy, and it’s been ten hours since then.”

“Did you drink anything or eat anything out of the norm?” She frowns. “Or were you under a lot of unusual stress?”

Abby laughs.

“This isn’t funny,” the attending says. “In a woman your sister’s age, stress can be very dangerous to a pregnancy.”

“The woman you’re scanning is Helen Fisher, and she’s made Forbes’ list of top ten billionaires to watch for over a decade,” Abby says. “An unusual day would be one without stress.”

“I did fly out here this afternoon and attend a board meeting where I had to convince shareholders to vote for me over the current management,” I say. “The vote was unexpected, and we didn’t know how it would go.”

“Well.” The woman stands. “I’m going to recommend that you try and take it easy for the next few months, unless you’d like to lose this baby and start over.”

My heart sinks. “This is what I was afraid of,” I say. “This baby is already slowing me down.” But really, I’m terrified. Could I, with my normal, daily life, kill this little child? Would it be my fault? Because I live and breathe stress constantly?

“Helen, do not let that woman browbeat you,” Abby says. “Bleeding in a pregnancy isn’t your fault.” She leans toward me and drops her hand on my arm. “You’re going to be just fine, and so is your little one.”

“But it wouldn’t hurt if I took it easy for a while.”

She smiles. “No, it wouldn’t hurt.”

“Well, then Oliver did us a favor,” I say. “I had another few weeks of meetings planned, but now I can just process the paperwork for this forced purchase deal and then focus on the boring work of getting that company turned around.”

“Yes, just that.” Abby pulls out her laptop and starts clicking, clearly already working on the documents we promised to send. “You should try and take a nap before everyone gets here.”

“Everyone?” I ask.

“David says his parents insisted on coming. Steve wanted to be here, and if he’s coming, apparently the kids wanted to come too.”

It’s going to be a zoo. “So much for low stress.”

“Having family around is always a good thing,” Abby says. “I promise.”

She winds up being right. David and his parents bring about five hundred pounds of food when they arrive, and Steve and his kids bring cards and camp out in the corner of my room, shouting and laughing as they play some variation of Uno that I’ve never seen.

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