Page 66 of Dark Truths

Once we’re alone, I look at Lily. “What is it? And please don’t sugarcoat it or anything. Just spit it out and—”

“You’re pregnant.”

My heartbeat monitor beeps louder and quicker, exposing my body’s response as I remain silent.

“Holy…shit,” Rose speaks what I can't say.

“Yeah,” Lily agrees. “Your hCG values don’t lie. They even did the test twice to be sure and have ordered an ultrasound once you’re awake.”

Pregnant.

Again.

But I was just in an accident. The beeping from my heart monitor increases even more.

“Gabriella, are you okay?” Lily reaches for me and places two fingers on my wrist, above my pulse point.

“Talk to us,” Rose urges me, her voice full of concern and bordering on mother mode.

“Is it okay?” My voice breaks with a fierce possession building in my chest over a baby I just learned existed.

“Well, we won’t know for certain until the doctor performs an ultrasound—”

“Go get the doctor,” I order. I don’t care who does, just that someone gets me a doctor with an ultrasound machine capable of checking on the baby.

“I’ll go,” Lily offers and disappears out the door right away.

My eyes fall to my covered stomach. Nearly six months ago, I suffered one miscarriage. Am I doomed to have another? I raise my hand to the flat area and pray that my touch is enough to keep him or her safe.

“Is it Dimitri’s?”

I raise my eyes to Rose. There’s no judgment or anger or disappointment in her eyes, but only concern and curiosity.

“Yes,” I whisper, my eyes falling away from her again.

“I’m assuming, based on your surprise, that he doesn’t know?”

I shake my head.

“Do you want to keep it?”

Snapping my gaze back to Rose, I say immediately, “Of course I do.”

Rose smiles slyly. “Just checking. So why the sad face then? Are you worried about what your family will say?”

“Yes,” I admit. If I had this news a week ago, I would have said no. But now? Dimitri’s engaged to Sophia Mikailhov. When they marry, my baby will be considered a bastard. No matter how loved he or she is, it doesn’t change that simple fact.

Before Rose can ask why, there’s a knock on the door, and a second later, Lily reappears with an older woman pulling an ultrasound cart behind her. I catch my brother’s curious gazes in the open door for a moment before Lily shuts it in their faces.

“Hello, Ms. DiAngelo. My name is Doctor Mary, and I’m here to check on your little one.”She directs me to lie down and then places my feet in the bed stirrups because a pregnancy this early has to be done vaginally.“I want to warn you that this early in a pregnancy we may not see much of anything, but we should be able to at least tell where in the uterus the fetus has implanted and take some measurements to determine your conception and delivery date,” Mary explains as she inserts the wand and then clicks on the ultrasound machine with her other hand. “Depending how far along you are, we may catch the heartbeat, but if we don’t, please don’t worry, it just means you’re a little too early in your pregnancy to hear it.”

The last time I had an ultrasound, there was no heartbeat. The thought that this baby may not have one terrifies me, even if she reassures me it’s too early to hear it.I nod mutely, keeping my eyes glued to the black screen.

As the doctor shifts the wand around to catch a good view of my uterus, she asks, “Do you know when your last menstrual cycle was?”

I’ve always been so irregular. I’ve never really given a missed period the time of day because it’s normal for it to be a couple weeks late. Tack on all the stress my family has put me throughthese last two months and end-of-year finals, a late period isn’t all that surprising. “I think it was mid-November sometime.”

“Okay, let’s see what we have.” The doctor clicks a few buttons, and my eyes shift from her to the screen, back to her and then back to the screen, looking for any sign of sorrow on her face. When she smiles and points to a black bubble that looks like it’s floating in the larger black spot on the screen, my anxiety eases a little. “There’s your little one. And I think…” She clicks a button and the soft, rapid whooshing of a heartbeat comes from the speaker. “There’s the heartbeat. Strong and healthy.”

---