Page 6 of Reclaiming Izabel

“A bike hit her…”

“…placental abruption…”

“…too much blood...”

“Need a C-section now!”

I drifted in and out of consciousness. Lights, shadows, and unfamiliar faces hovered over me.

“Drake,” I mumbled. “I need Drake.”

“I’m here, Iza.”

“I want to be with you, but our baby needs me.”

“I understand.”

“…lungs underdeveloped. Can’t survive…”

I awakenedto a dimly lit room and a cloak of numbness. A blond head was bowed over folded arms, sleeping at my bedside.

“Cindy,” I croaked, reaching out and touching my friend.

Cindy bolted up straight, and the look on her face strangled my heart in fear.

It was then I knew. Even before my friend uttered a single word, I knew.

I lost my baby.

Numbness disappeared, replaced by the agony of having my heart ripped from my chest. Fate couldn’t be so cruel a second time to snuff the life growing in my womb.

My mind spurned the terrifying thought.

“No!” I choked. “Tell me I didn’t lose her, too.”

Cindy’s eyes filled with tears and spilled down her cheeks. She gripped my hand. “She was too small.” Her lips quavered as she explained, “At twenty-two weeks, her lungs…”

“My fault…”

“No, Izzy, it was the fault of that bike messenger.”

We clung to each other in shared sorrow. No other words were spoken for the longest time; the room filled with the heartbreaking wails of a mother who had lost her child.

How can I survive this?Without Drake. And now without our baby, too?

“I need him to be here!” I cried in my friend’s arms. “Why can’t he be here? I can’t go through this alone.”

“I’m here, Izzy.”

“I need Drake,” I sobbed over and over.

It was then I realized that my life in the coming months was going to be a cycle of chilling numbness or gut-wrenching pain.

There was no in-between.

Drake

“I’m sorry, brother.”

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