Page 114 of Midnight Valentine
When I continue to stare at her with my mouth open, terror tightening my stomach to a fist, Ana gently takes my arm and steers me toward the door. She stops in the doorway and keeps her voice barely above a whisper.
Which must be why I can’t understand what she says.
“You’re pregnant.”
I blink, then squint at her. “Excuse me? What did you say?”
“I said you’re pregnant, honey. Congratulations.”
I wait for the punch line. When one isn’t forthcoming and Ana simply stares at me with a small, soft smile, I realize she’s not joking.
“Ana, that’s not possible. I can’t get pregnant.”
She lifts her shoulders. “According to your blood test, you can.”
That hipster idiot, Tommy. He switched my test results with someone else’s! Some poor pregnant woman is going to be told her morning sickness is only anemia!
I say flatly, “No, Ana, I can’t. I’m telling you—it’s impossible. It would be a miracle.”
Her entire face lights up with a smile. “Well, God is in the miracle business, honey, so maybe you should thank him.”
There’s a noise in my head like a thousand wolves howling at a full moon. I can hardly hear myself think over it. Incredulous, I whisper, “I’m…I’m pregnant? How?”
She lifts her brows, an expression of humor on her face. “Oh, did you miss that day at school? See, there’s this thing called a sperm—”
I grab her arms and shout into her face, “I’M PREGNANT? WITH A BABY?”
Dissolving into laughter, she says, “No, with a piñata. Of course with a baby!”
A loud, frantic beeping emits from one of the machines hooked up to Theo.
We both freeze, then Ana reacts first. She hustles over to his bed, peers at a black box with some green flashing numbers, then turns around and runs past me, shouting for a doctor.
“Ana!” I scream after her, panicked. “What’s happening!”
She’s headed for the nurses’ station down the hall, yelling over her shoulder as she goes. “His heartbeat is skyrocketing!” She disappears around a corner.
I whirl around and run to Theo’s bedside, so frantic, I catch my foot on the leg of a chair and almost fall. I grab his hand and collapse onto the bed, panting, terrified at all the flashing I see on the machines. It’s not only the heartbeat monitor that’s going mad—several other devices screech with alarms.
This is it. He’s dying.
I start to sob uncontrollably. “Don’t you dare leave me, Theo! Don’t you dare! I love you! I need you! I’ll never forgive you if you leave me alone!”
Pressure on my hand, so faint I almost can’t feel it, cuts off my hysterical screams as if someone pulled a plug. I freeze, looking down at Theo’s hand clasped in mine…his hand that’s weakly squeezing.
Time slows to a crawl. Every beat of my heart is a boom of thunder in my ears. I look up at his face and watch in utter astonishment and joy as the second miracle of the night occurs.
Theo slowly opens his eyes and looks at me.
His gaze is hazy at first but gains focus after several moments. Then we stare at each other for an endless span of silence as I wait without breathing to see if he recognizes me.
Is he even in there at all?
Squeezing his hand hard, I lean over his chest and plead, “Theo? Theo, can you hear me? Can you speak?” When he doesn’t respond, tears begin to flow down my cheeks again. I feel my face crumbling, and the last of my hope unravels at the blankness I see in his dark, dark eyes.
Sobbing, I beg, “Please, if you can hear me, please say something!”
Finally, after what feels like forever, the corners of his lips curve to a ghost of a smile.
