Page 55 of Forever Your Touch

“Slow down,brat…you’re not making sense.”

Viktor’s sharp words pulled Mason out of his deep worries. Something was wrong.

“No, we’ll be right there. Just stay calm and don’t let Becca see your fear.” Viktor hung up the phone and closed his eyes. “There’s something wrong with the baby.”

Jo was in surgery, but Dimitri needed him too. He hated having to leave, but this was important. Jo would understand. He stopped at the nurses’ station and left his number in case the doctor came looking for him. They rode down the elevator to the maternity floor. The rest of the clan was huddled together in the waiting room, or the family room, as the nurses called it.

“I’ll tell Becca after you explain it to me.” Dimitri faced the woman in a lab coat. Had to be the doc. “She’s already nervous and scared enough. You trying to tell her this…it’ll cause a full-blown panic attack. It’s better if I tell her.”

“Fine, Mr. Kincaid, but let her know I can answer any question she has.” The doctor, a brunette in her mid- to late-forties, looked tired. Chances were she’d been on call at the hospital for a while. He hoped to God she wasn’t too tired. Mistakes happened all the time.

Ronin went to stand by Dimitri, placing a hand on his shoulder. “What’s wrong with my grandson?”

The doctor smiled slightly. “Granddaughters, Mr. Kincaid.”

Wait…twins? Dimitri was having twin girls? That got all their attention. They’d just assumed the baby was a boy. They were fucked. No way in hell could they protect all these girls.

“Twins?” Dimitri stumbled back. “But we never saw a second baby during the ultrasounds.”

“It’s not uncommon for one baby to hide behind the other, and their heartbeats can be so in sync it only sounds like one heartbeat.”

“But there’s a problem with my girls?” Dimitri’s voice shook. “What is it?”

“We didn’t know about baby B. If we had, we would have caught this sooner.” The doctor motioned for Dimitri to sit, and he let Papa lead him over to one of the waiting room chairs. “Sometimes, twins develop a type of illness. It’s called TTTS, twin to twin transfusion syndrome. What happens is twin A ends up with the bulk of the blood, the nutrients, everything. Twin B usually doesn’t survive.”

“You’re telling me one of my babies is going to die.”

Fuck no. No, no, no, no, no. This wasn’t happening. God wouldn’t be this cruel, Mason thought. They were going through enough right now dealing with his father’s cancer. They couldn’t lose one of the girls. It wouldn’t just destroy Dimitri. It would destroy them all.

“I’m preparing you for that possibility, Mr. Kincaid. Right now, she’s alive. She’s significantly smaller than her sister, and we’re not sure what kind of complications are going to arise once we deliver. Sometimes the kinder thing to do is to let them slip away. You can hold her and sit peacefully with her during the process. We can give her something for pain or even keep her asleep.”

“You’re acting like you’ve already decided not to try to help her.” The anger vibrating in his brother’s voice had them all on their feet. Bitch was giving up on his niece already? Oh, hell no.

“That’s not what I’m saying…”

“Who’s the best neo-natal physician in the country?”

“Mr. Kincaid…”

“Who?” Dimitri bit out.

“It’s Dr. Gloria Macnamara. She’s based in Seattle, Washington.” Nik shut his laptop.

“Call her and see how soon she can get here. Fly her in. I’ll cover the cost.”

“She’s going to tell you the same thing I am,” Dr. No Hope said.

“Maybe, maybe not, but you’re not getting anywhere near Becca or my kids.”

“Mr. Kincaid, I have been Becca’s doctor from the beginning. She knows me, and it makes her less anxious.”

He laughed. “You think she’s going to want you in that room when she finds out you want to do nothing and let our kid die? I don’t think so. Now, get the hell out and find me a new doctor to monitor my wife until we can get Dr. Macnamara here.”

The doctor shook her head and left, realizing there was nothing she could do or say to change Dimitri’s mind.

“Dimitri, you need to go tell Becca what’s going on.” Irinia hugged her son. “The rest of us will go light a candle for both my granddaughters and pray for them.”

“Spasibo, Mama.” A tear finally slipped free, and Dimitri buried his face in their mother’s hair. “Spasibo.”

---