Page 126 of Retribution

She pulls me in tighter.

The door opens and the doctor enters into the room, I take the seat next to her bed and grasp onto her hand.

“Good afternoon, Indie. I’m Dr. Khan and I’ve been reviewing your test results to figure out the cause of your unconscious episode.” He taps a few times on the tablet he’s holding in front of him and instead of standing at the foot of the bed, he pulls a chair to the midpoint of the bed and sits down.

My leg shakes uncontrollably, the nerves vibrating through my system.

“Are you the husband?” He asks me and I nod in response.

Me and Indie flicker our eyes to one another as I squeeze her hand, seeing the distress on her face.

“We ran multiple blood tests and we had noticed that your red blood cell count was significantly low. At first, we thought it could be down to anemia. But, as we ran a second round of tests, the number had dropped again, which didn’t seem to be making sense. That was when we entered your room and found the significant amount of blood loss.”

My breath hitches as Indie’s hand seems to fall limp in mine.

“Were you aware of the pregnancy, Miss Thorne?”

His words echo around my head, a rush of emotions swirling around, fighting for dominance.

Indie shakes her head as her lip trembles.

“I’m terribly sorry to tell you this, but you have suffered with a first-trimester miscarriage.”

The words hit me like a Mack truck.

My body tenses and my mouth instantly dries up as it feels like all of the water in my body rushes up to my eyes. Indie lets out a sob and her hands raise to her mouth in shock and upset.

“We believed you to be around six weeks based on the size of the embryo on the ultrasound.”

Her wails bounce from each wall of the room as I pull her head to mine.

She grips onto my shirt and cries, her tears demanding to escape. I can’t process the news, the loss of two of my children within the space of ten days seems incomprehensible.

“I am very sorry for your loss, I’ll leave you to process everything.” He leaves the room and I climb onto the bed, pulling Indie into my as she curls up into a fetal position.

My wife.

My love.

I close my eyes and bite my lip to prohibit the sobs from coming out of me, knowing I need to be strong for her right now, be her shoulder to cry on, her support system.

We lay like that for a while, maybe an hour when a small knock is heard from the door. Indie’s crying has ceased, but she is still turned into me, gripping onto my shirt with all of her might. We’ve not spoken about it, the emotions still too raw to address the reality of it.

Lola pops her head inside and I can see Harry towering over her, their faces are solemn as they look over at the both of us.

“Indie?” Lola’s soft voice causes her to shift beneath me.

The moment she sees Lola she reaches her arms out towards her, the cries begin again.

Harry looks at me from the doorway, sympathy spread across his features. I look away, staring at the city below through the window, the sun beginning to set in the far distance.

“It’s gone.” Indie’s whimper is muffled inside of Lola’s neck.

Rubbing my hand through my stubble, I try to suppress the emotion bubbling up. Lola looks at me and my face remains still, the disaster of my life beginning to warp and numb everything.

“I’ll go grab us something cold to drink.” I press off the bed and leave the room, Harry following behind me.

“What’s gone?” He asks.

---