Page 109 of Resisting Isaac
Your baby.In my mind, the words echo around the room like thunder.
Elena gasps. My chest expands.
My heart pounds so loud it seems to fill the room with a whooshing sound.
“That’s the heartbeat,” Lisa confirms, smiling. “Strong and steady.”
Elena blinks hard. “Wow. He or she is really in there.”
“Yeah,” I whisper, squeezing her hand. “Look at that.”
She glances at me. No sarcasm. No armor. Just wide, stunned eyes.
I stare at the screen. Mesmerized by that little flicker. The pumping steadily filling the room.
I’ve branded cattle, wrangled panicked horses, stood over my dad’s grave trying to name emotions I’d never had before.
But nothing has ever felt like this.
“It’s real now,” she says, voice breaking.
I give her hand a squeeze.
Lisa gives us a moment. Closes the door behind her.
Elena’s eyes meet mine. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Don’t think I’d be able to stay away.”
She looks back at the screen. I study her face.
“I’m still kind of scared,” she says.
“Me too,” I admit. “But we got this.”
Her fingers tighten around mine. “Promise?”
I lean in. Rest my forehead against hers. “Cross my heart.”
CHAPTER FORTY
elena
Ihave no concept of time in the hospital.
I realize this when I wake up around six and can’t determine if it’s six in the morning or evening.
I blink my surroundings into view. The antiseptic scent clings to the air, mixing with the faint beep of the monitor by my bed. Ivy’s sitting in the chair beside me, hands wrapped around a paper cup of coffee.
Her eyes are soft when they meet mine, but steady, like she’s trying to read every thought in my head before I say it.
“I should’ve told you,” I start, the words sticking in my throat. “But the day I came over, with the cupcakes, you’d just—” I swallow, trying to moisten my dry mouth. “I could tell you were hurting. I didn’t want to make it worse.”
“You mean when I was a hormonal wreck because I got my period?” She smiles, sets her coffee aside and hands me a cup of water with a straw in it.
I take a drink.
It’s manna from Heaven in my desert of a mouth.
