Page 11 of Prognosis Baby Daddy

‘No, it’s...it’s...wow.’

‘Sounds like there’s a but there.’ And he knew exactly what it was.

Katya shrugged. Her poor-as-dirt background and some of the horrors she had seen working with MedSurg made it difficult to reconcile the indulgences of the affluent. ‘I was just thinking how different it is from some of the places I’ve been with MedSurg.’

He nodded. ‘That it is.’

Katya blinked at his understatement. It seemed so flippant when she knew, as did he, there were people out there who couldn’t get proper health care at all.

‘Don’t you think all this is a little obscene?’ She felt nauseated suddenly by it all and wondered if she could truly let her baby be brought up by someone who couldn’t see how indulgent it was.

Sure, she wanted her baby to be provided for, to have the stuff she never had, but she also wanted it to have a sense of humanity. She had thought as Ben had worked for MedSurg that he had that kind of compassion, but if he could come back to this and not feel tainted by the excess then maybe she was wrong.

Ben could feel his ire beginning to rise again. She was doing it again. Judging him. It hadn’t mattered so much at MedSurg, his wealth had irritated her and he had exploited that role to the hilt because she had looked so cute when she’d been mad. But things had changed since then and her assumptions annoyed him.

‘You don’t approve of vanity?’

Katya schooled her features. Obviously she was letting her distaste show. ‘I think all the bad stuff happening in the world is more important than whether your nose is too big or your tummy too fat.’ She tried to keep the bluntness out of her voice but on this subject her passion ran deep.

Ben couldn’t agree more. ‘And yet you rang and asked me for a job. You knew what we do here. Why did you come if it was going to offend your sensibilities?’

His question caught her unawares. She wasn’t ready to open up yet. Oh, God, how could she say, Because I’m having your baby and I need to check out if you’re worthy of raising it because I’m certainly not.

‘I told you, I want to change direction.’

‘You? Leave MedSurg? I don’t believe it.’

Neither did she! And as soon as this was all over, she was heading straight back to a workplace with some backbone. But for now, for the sake of her baby, she needed to suffer the whims of the wealthy.

‘If you didn’t want me to come you shouldn’t have offered me a job.’ Katya knew from long experience that the best defence was offence. ‘But, then, you weren’t really serious, were you? We both knew it was just a throw-away line the morning after.’

Her accusation hit Ben square in the solar plexus. His guilt from that morning came flooding back. She was right. He had handled the whole thing very badly. He had known it back then but his apology had been stalled by her scathing reaction to his job offer.

She was standing with her back to him, her hands gripping the railing. She reminded him of how she’d been that morning. Erect. Distant. He wanted to touch her but couldn’t bear to see her shrink from his touch like she had that day also. ‘About that morning...’

Katya gripped the railing harder and held her breath. She had spent months trying to forget the incident, she didn’t want to rehash it now, especially not when their child was already a constant reminder.

‘Benedetto!’

Both Ben and Katya startled at the unexpected interruption and turned to see Gabriella, one of the nurses she had met earlier, come bustling in, a child wearing a blue theatre cap on her hip.

Gabriella smiled at Katya. ‘Lupi has been asking for you.’

Ben smiled at the little girl, her bilateral cleft lip making it impossible for her to smile back, but he could see the happiness shining in her eyes. ‘Has she, now?’ he growled and reached out to take the child from Gabriella.

‘Well, now, little Lupi,’ he said kissing her jet-black hair, ‘you found me.’

Katya watched as the girl bounced up and down excitedly in Ben’s arms. Katya guessed the child to be about three but she was obviously malnourished so she could well be older. But there was no mistaking the look of adoration in the girl’s eyes.

Katya swallowed as Ben grinned down at her and Lupi snuggled her head into his chest. Where did Lupi fit in at the Lucia Clinic? Someone had been remiss in their care for her if her lip was only being repaired now. It didn’t seem like something someone with money, with choices, would do.

‘Katya, this is Lupi,’ Ben said. ‘Lupi, this is Katya. She’s going to help me with your operation today. We’re going to give you your smile back.’

The little girl looked at her with solemn brown eyes and it took Katya a few moments to remember her manners. She smiled at the little girl. ‘Hello, Lupi.’

‘She doesn’t understand English,’ said Ben, rocking absently. ‘Or Italian for that matter.’

‘You’re operating on her?’

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