Page 37 of Save You

“W-what…?” I gasp with a sure set panic attack threatening to strike at any moment.

“You lost a lot of blood,” he explains, “you had a condition called placenta previa, which caused you to hemorrhage with the onset of labor. It’s lucky your midwife, Carol, called the ambulance when she did. We could have lost you and the baby.”

“Baby?” I blurt out, prompting Oliver to jump to his feet and give the doctor a threatening glare. The doctor withers under his stare and begins to back away, looking beyond apologetic for his admission.

“Where is my baby? Please? Where is it?”

“She’s here, Beth,” the kind voice from before answers, coming into focus to show me that it’s Carol.

Relief floods my body when I take in her smile, as well as the small bundle she’s cradling inside of her arms. When the white cellular blankets begin to shuffle about, and a tiny hand reaches up from within, a flood of tears silently spills over my cheeks. Carol laughs softly before passing the little person over to me.

When I look down and see a perfect little face with red, puffy skin, gurgling and looking for my breast so she can eat, I reach out for her hand. The moment our fingers meet, she grips onto mine so tightly, I know she’s healthy and well; it makes me cry even harder.

“She’s hungry, Beth. I’ve been trying to help her feed while you were out, but now you’re awake you can do it yourself. Do you want to?”

I rapidly nod my head through my tears, beaming at my midwife. I choose to ignore Oliver’s clenched jaw and murderous look; one he’s now casting over the both of us.

Carefully, I pull the shoulder of my nightgown down to reveal my naked breast and hardened nipple, which has got even darker so my daughter can see where she needs to go. Carol helps her to latch on before she eventually begins to suckle. It’s a weird and wonderful sensation all at once, and as she drinks, I push my fingers through her soft, downy hair, devouring the experience so I can cast it to memory. I can’t help giggling with overwhelming love while I watch her little cheeks fill up, and her eyes close in a kind of rapture as she suckles at my teat.

“She’s perfect,” I cry, “so perfect. I didn’t know I could feel like this. I didn’t know I would love her so instantly!”

“No one ever does, honey,” Carol smiles, enjoying the scene before her, as though she’s been here countless times, but with each experience being different from the last. “Instant love. You would do anything for this bundle of joy. Congratulations, Beth!”

“Does Xander know?” I glance at Oliver cursing under his breath before bringing my beseeching eyes back to Carol. She shakes her head and tries to offer me a reassuring smile, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes.

“Not yet,” she replies, before looking over at Oliver with a disdainful sneer. What she means is, she hasn’t been allowed to.

“Out!” Oliver barks at the doctor. “Go and prepare Beth’s discharge papers. She will be leaving with me within the next hour.”

“I wouldn’t advise that, Mr Law-” Oliver cuts him off with a snarl; the man looks a little less creepy and a little more sniveling as he withers under his glare. “Of course, Mr Lawrence, right away.”

The doctor loses all the confidence that he had entered the room with as he scurries away and out the door, leaving Carol, Oliver, my daughter, and me alone. I look at Carol with panic in my eyes. I have no idea what he’s going to do, but I do know I have to protect my child at any cost. I’ll go down fighting if I need to. Carol is right; I will do anything for this little girl.

“You are still mine, Beth!” he says through clenched teeth, getting ready to bend me to his will. “Although…tarnished, you will be my wife and you will live a monogamous life with me. Within Mayfield!”

“My daughter is going nowhere near your organization!” I growl with the first bit of courage I’ve had since laying eyes upon him. “You won’t have her!”

I brace myself for another slap, or at the very least, a pinch of my chin between his iron-clad fingers, but he merely steps toward me and smiles with a smug set of teeth. He gets so close, I can feel his hot breath on my skin. As if sensing danger, my daughter stops feeding and begins to cry softly in my arms, so I pass her back to Carol, getting her away from the threat before me. She takes her and begins to pace far away from us, creating much-needed distance and comfort to the precious load in her arms. I watch her, with uncontrollable jealousy, as she carries her around the room, rubbing her back and trying to force any air up to the surface. That should be me, I’m her mother!

“This way, Beth!” Oliver grips my chin and forces me back to face him, thus completely blocking my view of my baby. “I’m pleased we see eye-to-eye on the matter. However, I will give you a choice, which given the circumstances, is rather magnanimous of me, don’t you think?”

I refuse to answer him for I don’t trust what will leave my mouth, and I need to be extremely careful in this precarious situation.

“You will either come back with me, with your daughter, where she will be brought up as mine. She will be a Mayfield child and be brought up as such,” he says while I shake my head rapidly over the thought of such a horrific proposition. “Or you return her to her father, and you, my darling, become dead to both of them.”

Carol’s gasp from behind him is as clear as day, but it doesn’t deter him from his wicked stare upon me. My mouth drops open in horror over having to make such a choice, even though it shouldn’t surprise me, given who’s made it.

“So, you’re saying I either bring her into a world who forces women into submission, or I force the two people I love more than anything in the world, to grow up without me. For my daughter to not have her mother!” My teeth bite together as a flash of anger burns behind my retinas. “Where is your honor, Oliver?”

My words seem to induce a reaction akin to waving a red flag before a bull. Without any warning, Oliver goes wild, throwing things around the room, and roaring with a fury I’ve never seen before in anyone. He’s so out of control, I shiver under his wrath. My immediately wakes and begins to scream over the sudden intrusion to her sleep, no doubt feeling terrified of the monster before her. I begin to cry again, realizing that I only have one real option before me; an option that’s going to kill me.

“Honor?! Fucking honor!?” Oliver eventually shouts through his bared teeth, all the while pacing up to me so that we end up being are nose-to-nose. Up this close, I take in the veins in his neck, all of which are raised to the surface, along with his skin that has turned an unnatural shade of crimson.

“Where is your fucking honor, Beth?! You promised me your virtue, your hand in marriage, your ownership, and instead, you open your legs and impregnate yourself with another man’s child! You run from me and question my honor?!” He strikes me again and this time I whimper.

Apart from my whispered sobs and my baby’s gentle cries as she begins to fall back to sleep, the room is still and silent. The angry beast that was before me now flops over my stomach where my baby had been before all of this happened. He breathes heavily, as if releasing the last of his excess adrenaline, like a toddler after an epic temper tantrum.

“If I agree to leave them-”

---