And if it’s not a happy ending, I want to help her through whatever comes next.
I just need to know.
All my life, I’ve been filled with certainty. I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that my mind would betray me long before my body gave out. I knew I’d become a burden on my caretakers. I knew I’d be hidden from the world while Hemingway did his best with Hughes Industries.
I thought that covered everything. Nothing else could matter in the face of that bleak ending.
But it does.
Jesus, it does.
I’m about to flag down the nearest nurse and demand an update, never mind that I’m not family, when voices lift on the other side of the door. They get louder, approaching fast. Sarah grips Bryant’s arm. Daphne gets out of her seat. Eva steps close to me, her breathing shallow.
The door to the patient wing swings open to reveal a doctor with a white coat over her blue scrubs. “—a few checks, but those can wait until after the first hour. You can do skin-to-skin in the recovery suite until the surgical team is finished with Haley.”
She holds the door open, and Leo steps through. He’s dressed in scrubs and there are tears in his eyes.
He has a tiny, tiny baby in his arms.
Nobody moves.
Leo clears his throat. “Haley’s going to be okay. They’re stitching her up right now. It went really well. Also, the baby is born.”
Relief explodes over the room. Daphne shrieks. More than a few of them clap. Bryant makes the sign of the cross. Eva squeezes me tight around the waist. Everyone converges on Leo and the new baby, holding themselves back just far enough to give them both a little breathing room.
Eva pulls me closer to the clutch of her family, rising on tiptoe to see the baby’s face.
I’m…choked up.
It’s such a warm, human sensation that I feel a little drunk. I’m so relieved for this baby and her mother and for Leo and Eva and all of them that, for the first time, I get it.
I get why you’d have a child despite the fear. I still wouldn’t choose it. Not for myself. But it’s happening. Eva’s pregnant, the baby is ours, and I’m okay with it.
She’s beaming, and her happiness for her brother chokes me up again.
“Congratulations,” I say to Leo over the press. Sarah leans in, gently touching the baby’s cheek, the fold of her hat. “I don’t know how you’re holding it together. I’m going to be a wreck when our baby is born.”
Leo winces.
The next second, my own words reach me.
Sarah freezes over her new granddaughter, her eyes wide.
Daphne speaks first. “Eva, you’re pregnant?”
Then all hell breaks loose.
11
EVA
Haley reclines on a mountain of pillows in her hospital bed, smiling down at her new baby daughter. Her hair came out black, like a true Morelli. She’s a miniature of her father, lying perfect in her mother’s arms. Leo watches from the side of the bed, reverent. In awe of his newborn. In awe of his wife.
Finally, a moment of peace.
There were questions after Finn’s comment. A cascade of them that was abruptly cut off by Lucian, terse, saying this baby was just born.
The attention focused back on Leo and his baby. He met my eyes over their heads and gave me a look that said is this guy serious?
Shortly after, he was whisked back to the recovery room. I found him there twenty minutes later. The rest of the family had been ushered out with promises of pictures and updates.
Leo was sitting in the room’s rocking chair, his dress shirt on but unbuttoned. He’d taken off his T-shirt. The new baby dozed on his chest under a blanket printed with dinosaurs. I expected him to make a comment about how Finn had royally fucked up that announcement, but instead he said, It’ll be okay. I promise.
We sat there for another hour, him doing skin-to-skin with the baby, until they brought Haley back. She was desperate to see both of them. Leo waited a tactful thirty minutes to break the news.
Haley’s been quiet since. Understandable, since she had to figure out how to nurse. A lactation consultant bustled in and helped her position the baby. I think it’s going okay.
The deep concentration slowly fades from Haley’s face. She looks up from the baby and into Leo’s eyes. “Would you give us a few minutes?”
He brushes a lock of hair away from her cheek. “No.”
“Leo. I need some girl time. Go find something to eat. Stretch your legs.”
My brother smiles at her quiet insistence, then leans down to kiss the top of the baby’s head. He kisses Haley’s cheek. Then he drags out his departure by fluffing her pillows and making sure Haley has the call button for the nurse, her phone, and an extra blanket.
“I love you,” he says from the side of the bed.
“I love you.” Haley smiles at him until he leans down and kisses her again. Her eyes follow him as he leaves. Then, with a little sigh, she looks at me. “I cannot believe you didn’t tell me. Seriously. I’m kind of pissed.”
My cheeks heat. “I know. I’m sorry. I just…I didn’t believe it myself for a while there.”
Haley looks back down at the baby. She’s a tiny, perfect thing. “I have no idea if I’m doing this right,” she murmurs.
“She looks happy. I’m not an expert, but I think you’re doing great.”
She focuses back on me, her expression cautious. “Are you upset because you aren’t married?”
“Yes. No.” I push my hair out of my face and lean back in the hospital chair. “I mean…I was raised with traditional values. We all were. I always just assumed that if I got pregnant, I would be married. I assumed I’d be creating a family, instead of…”
Instead of negotiating a business proposal. Instead of hanging absolutely everything on the end instead of the chance of new life.
Haley’s eyes glisten with a sheen of tears. “Does Finn…not want the baby?”
“Finn…” This moment seems extremely high-stakes. Finn’s not here, but every word matters. “I don’t want to bad-mouth him. I’m just not sure exactly how to explain the way he reacted.”
My brother’s wife presses a knuckle to the corner of her eyes. “You could try.”
Careful, careful. “He didn’t plan on having a child, so I think he was…he was pretty shocked. And his family history gives him some good reasons to be concerned. He’s acting reasonably from his point of view. He’s trying to offer me everything he can. His name. His money. Security.”
Haley’s eyebrows pull together. “But?”
“But he wants to maintain an emotional distance. An emotional wall. He was up front about it from the very first night. And…he ended things before I realized I was pregnant. He told me it was over and basically kicked me out of his house. I was the one who hoped for more.”
“You weren’t the only one.”
I raise my eyebrows at her. “Yes, I was.”
Those blue eyes flick toward the ceiling, but she’s not mocking. “I’ve seen the two of you, Eva. You can swear up and down that it was all a lie and you were the fool who fell in love, but Finn did, too.”