Page 2 of Beautifully Shattered
“Ringo! Where is Bobbi?!”
“Shit, Angel… she was just too little. They said her lungs couldn’t cope. And not having the right equipment when she was born meant she couldn’t get the care she needed.”
Anger twists her face, even as her eyes brim with tears.
“Why are you talking about her in past tense?” she sobs. “Stop talking like that. She’s okay. Just take me to her!”
Abbey tries to get out of the bed, but the rail on the far side slows her just enough for me to catch her in time.
“Abs, stay there. You can’t get out of bed.”
“Like fuck I can’t!” she snaps, swinging her legs around with pure rage etched across her face as she bares her teeth at me. “Take me to my baby!”
“Mrs Musgrove.” A nurse bursts into the room, rounding the bed in a rush. “Please, lay back. You’ve lost too much blood. You need to rest.”
Abbey’s sharp glare whips to the nurse. “Then bring me my baby!”
The nurse stiffens, her eyes darting to me, and all I can do is shrug, because what the fuck else am I meant to do? This is fucking soul-crushing.
“I’m sorry, Mrs Musgrove. I wish I had better news. But under the conditions your baby was born in, and being so far from the hospital… well, we just weren’t able to keep her alive. I’m so, so sorry.”
For a long drawn-out moment, Abbey remains deathly still, staring blankly at the nurse. Her chest rises and falls in shallow, rapid breaths, but other than that, she’s frozen. Locked in some kind of trance.
Then, she gives her head a little shake, her eyes still pinned on the nurse.
“Please bring Bobbi to me. I need to feed her.”
I stiffen, and I can see the flicker of sympathy flash across the nurse’s face.
“Why don’t you lay back down, and I’ll see what I can do.”
The fuck?!
I’m about ready to rip the nurse a new one when she gently helps Abbey to lie back, my Angel now calm, like she didn’t just hear her entire world collapse.
The nurse looks at me and jerks her head towards the hallway.
“I’ll be right back,” I tell my wife, who just nods, settling back under the sheets like nothing happened. Like she wasn’t just told that her baby died.
Following the nurse out, I close the door and round the corner before the nurse sighs and turns to face me.
“She’s in shock. The denial you just witnessed is her brain’s way of protecting her.”
“But…” I huff, raking my hand through my hair. “She’s expecting you to bring her baby to her.”
“Yes. She is.” The nurse nods, glancing at her watch. “I’ll let the doctor know what’s happening and see what she wants to do.”
“What the fuck do I do in the meantime? Just go along with it? Lie to her? I’m not fucking doing that.”
The nurse shrugs. “Maybe steer the conversation towards her recovery. Try to shift her focus.”
I scoff. “There’s nothing else on this Earth that will interest her more than her child.”
“I’m sorry.” The nurse offers me a soft, sympathetic smile. “I don’t know what else to suggest. Let me speak to the doctor.”
Grinding my fucking teeth, I watch her hurry off, leaving me alone to face the wreckage.
Fuck. I just don’t want to make things worse.
