Page 71 of Forbidden Surrogate

“Don’t be dramatic, Luigi. Where the hell is Delphine?”

“I told you. They took her.”

“What the hell? Lewis. If my brother shoots someone, you don’t talk to anyone.”

Lewis looks terrified and like he can’t tell if she’s joking or not. But he must know on some level she’s telling the truth. He moves closer to her and I feel a pang of envy. I want Delphine close to me.

Luckily, I won’t have to shoot anyone. A nurse appears in the nick of time before Angela and I mutually push each other to lose our shit over Delphine’s disappearance within this hospital.

The nurse looks exhausted and my sanity hangs precariously as I wait for her to say something about Delphine and our baby.

"We have a lot of surprises for you, Mr. Taviani, but the doctor is ready to speak with you and have a conversation."

"Is Delphine..."

I can't bring myself to ask if she's dead. The terror is so primal that I can't get the words out. I don't want to make this real.

"Delphine is asleep right now, but she'll be able to wake up and hold the babies soon."

Angela verbalizes my one thought. "BABIES?!"

"Ma'am..." The nurse says in a hushed tone, meant to guide Angela towards using her inside voice.

"BABIES? SHE HAD TWINS? HOLY FUCKING–”

"Angela..." Lewis says in a calm tone, pressing his hand to her lower back and having the strange ability to actually calm my sister down and bring her tone of voice down to a sane baseline.

"Come this way, sir."

Angela and Lewis follow, even if the nurse never explicitly invited them. I don't chase them away and I'm glad that somehow, throughout all of this, Angela was here first. She keeps up with the quick pace through the hallways towards the postpartum recovery room.

"She's going to be okay, Luigi."

"We don't know that for sure."

"Yes, we do," Angela says. "She's our family. I don't want to think anything bad could happen to her."

"It would be horrible if someone were to drug her and strip her of her right to choose..."

"She's over it," Angela mutters. "Why aren't you?"

The nurse pushes open the door to Delphine's room and I forget Angela and Lewis are near me. I rush over to her bed and check the monitors and her body for breath as if I would have any capacity to change her situation were she dead.

I have to feel her heart beating for myself. I touch her arm, comforted by her warmth. I'm grateful that she's still here withme. The doctor lets me touch her and check on her with all of my unfiltered panic before she gets my attention.

"Mr. Taviani. Congratulations. You're the proud father of twin boys."

My head swims. I've never felt such an attack of uncontrollable dizziness in my life. Twins.

"There were no--"

"It's rare, but in some cases one twin will be hidden on an ultrasound because the two babies are sharing an amniotic sac. You're so lucky, they're beautiful..."

"Let me see my nephews," Angela says promptly while I stand there like an idiot, staring at Delphine and almost to the point of tears as I stare at her sleeping body. She did this for me. For us. She carried those babies and protected them for all those weeks and finally, our lives have changed forever.

The deep, powerful, and instinctive urge to protect them sends crazy thoughts blazing through my skull.

"Mr. Taviani…”

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