Page 17 of Venomous Heart
“But I’ve already been eating double rations for months!” Christie spoke softly, never lifting her eyes from the tiny, wrinkly infant in her arms. “There must be other people who could use the food.”
“None more than you do,” Ava answered simply. “Your body needs as much nourishment as it can get for the milk. This little girl deserves it.”
A movement on the other side of the door made Ava turn to see golden eyes peering through the small window.
“Do you mind if Uril comes in to meet your baby?” Ava turned careful eyes to Christie, speaking low so Uril wouldn’t hear. She didn’t want his feelings hurt after his encounter with Arlen the other day. One heartbreak a week was enough.
Christie smiled softly, then nodded, still too fascinated by the sight of her child to look away. “Of course,” she whispered, cooing to the baby as it yawned, the toll of the birth making her sleepy.
Ava turned to Uril and beckoned him inside. The boy entered eagerly, then moved closer in a series of slow, careful steps, his face full of wonder as he looked at the baby girl.
“She’s beautiful.” He stood near Ava, looking down at Christie and her baby. “What are you going to name her?”
“I’m not sure,” Christie answered, tracing the line of a plump cheek with her finger, making the baby scrunch up her little face comically. “But I like Ava. Ava seems like a good name to me.”
Christie lifted her tired brown eyes to meet Ava’s for the first time since she had been handed the tiny bundle, and smiled. Ava felt choked with emotion as she watched mother and child. She couldn’t speak.
She wants to name her baby after me?
“Yeah,” Uril answered for Ava, getting closer to the mother and baby. “Ava is a wonderful name.”
Quiet settled over the little room. It was the only private room in the clinic, apart from the one Ava shared with Uril. It wasn’t even a bedroom but a storage closet that Edmila had helped Ava clean out in preparation for the birth. But Christie and her baby deserved somewhere safe where they could get rest and privacy.
“Can I touch her? Her skin looks so soft.”
Christie’s smile faltered for just a second, then she nodded. Uril hadn’t seen it, as he’d been looking at the baby, but Ava did. He reached for the baby, his pale green skin contrasting sharply with the pink tones of the infant.
“Take your filthy fingers off my child!” a male voice boomed and the door slammed open. The baby started to cry, startled by the sudden noise as a man stood in the open doorway. He was young, maybe in his mid-twenties, muscular and well built, his dark hair falling over his brow and dark, almost black eyes glaring with fury at the room.
No, not at the room. At Uril.
“Declan!” Christie’s voice was full of alarm and she cradled the infant closer to her breast, pulling the blanket over its face protectively. “Uril was just looking at her. He wasn’t hurting her.”
Declan didn’t seem to hear Christie’s protests and he stormed forward, only to stop abruptly as Ava stepped in his way.
“Stay where you are.” She lifted her chin even as her heart raced and her back pearled with cold sweat.
“You think you can order me around?” Declan spoke with his lips pursed and the contempt plain on his broad-featured face. “You might be the only doctor here, but you’re not irreplaceable.”
Danger hovered in the air as Declan squinted his eyes, his hostility filling the air.
“Stop it!” Christie spoke from her bed and Declan’s eyes lowered to her. His face relaxed some, but his body was still tense. “Doctor Ava saved my life just four hours ago. If it wasn’t for her, you wouldn’t have a wife—or a daughter—to come visit.”
Christie’s harsh words stopped Declan’s hostility and he had the good sense to look chastised as he shot Ava a sideways glance.
“This true?” His voice was gruff but also full of fear. A fear Ava knew only too well.
“Yes,” Edmila answered for Ava from the other side of the bed. “Christie’s contractions went on and on, but the birth passage wasn’t opening. Her heart was beginning to fail and the baby’s, too. Doctor Ava had to remove the baby surgically.”
“You cut her open?” There was a heaviness to the way Declan asked the question, and all Ava could do was nod, once.
“I saved them both, if that’s your question. They’re both safe now, and Christie will recover completely. Maybe you should focus on that instead of looking at Uril and me like we’re monsters.”
Declan’s eyes widened and his cheeks reddened. Silently, he nodded, then made his way around Ava. As soon as he met his daughter, he seemed to forget all about their presence. Ava watched, a slight pang of jealousy in her gut.
They were a family. As long as they were together, nothing else mattered.
She would never have that. Because no one ever would want to have a child with a woman who was an abomination.
