GREEK HUSBAND

Chapter 55

She was moved from the limo into the small hospital in a wheelchair and taken to a small side ward. Somewhere in the background, she could hear Edward talking in low-pitched urgent Italian and thought numbly of how useful his gift with languages could be. A few minutes later she moved yet again and this time she was transferred to a room where there were no other patients. Edward helped her to bed and the fraught silence between them worked on Bella's nerves until a radiographer entered with a portable scanner. Bella lay still while the gelled probe moved back and forth over her tummy, her attention locked to the small screen, her hopes and dreams slowly dying as what she prayed for failure to appear. The operator excused herself and reappeared some minutes later with a doctor, who spoke English. He broke the news that the machine had failed to detect the baby's heartbeat but that the procedure would be repeated the following day to ensure that there was no mistake.

'I don't see why we should wait twenty-four hours to get a confirmation.' Edward breathed harshly, his bone structure rigid below his bronzed skin.

'It's standard procedure to wait twenty-four hours and check again,' Bella chipped in.

'I'll organize an airlift to a city hospital, somewhere with the latest equipment,' he began.

The doctor said that it would not be a good idea to move Bella again and that air travel at such an early stage of her pregnancy only heightened the likelihood of miscarriage.

'I'm not going anywhere,' Bella declared, turning her face into the wall because she could not bear to continue looking at Edward.

It was over. Why was he making everything more difficult by fighting the obvious conclusion? Most probably she had miscarried and everyone in the room with the exception of Edward could accept that. A second check tomorrow was very probably only a routine precaution.

But then she was not cut from the same cloth as her husband, she acknowledged heavily. Edward was rich and powerful and accustomed to his wealth changing negatives into positives but sadly there was no way to do that in the current situation. Her baby had died without ever learning what it would be like to live. A great swell of anguish mushroomed up through Bella and a choked sob escaped her as she gasped for breath and control.

Edward sat down on the side of the bed and gripped her clenched fingers. 'We'll get through this,' he rasped, his eyes burning and pinned to her pale, pinched profile as he flailed around mentally striving to come up with words of comfort.

'It just wasn't meant to be,' Bella said with flat conviction.

'Some day there'll be...another chance,' Edward completed tightly.

'Not for us.'

Edward ignored that. He wasn't about to get into an argument. Bella was devastated, probably barely aware of what she was saying and Edward, struggling to master the tightness and the yawning hollow opening up inside him, was realizing that he was devastated too, much more devastated than he had ever expected to be in such circumstances. 'Let's not be pessimistic. Tomorrow...'

'It will only hurt me more to hold onto false hope!' Bella snapped back at him, her head flipping, vibrant red hair spilling across the pillows, pale sea-glass eyes distraught and accusing.

Edward's eyes stung, frustration flaring through his lean, powerful frame because he wanted so badly to fix things and knew that he couldn't. 'It was my baby too,' he murmured in a roughened undertone.

'I know...that's all you ever cared about. Believe me, I don't need reminding,' Bella framed jerkily, turning away again to present him with her slender back.

Edward paled and sprang off the bed to head for the chair in the corner. 'Try to get some sleep. I'll stay with you.'

Bella sat up with a sudden start, grief, and regret weighing her down to the extent that she felt as if she were drowning in inner turmoil and unhappiness. She pushed the pillows back behind her and studied him in his pale grey exquisitely tailored suit that glimmered like dull silver below the stark hospital lights. His blue-black hair was tousled, his strong jawline rough with dark stubble, and his stunning eyes unusually bright with emotion. Of course, he was upset; she knew he was upset. After all, much as he might wish to be, he wasn't a block of unfeeling wood. Unfortunately, Bella had already looked beyond their loss to become painfully aware of exactly what her miscarriage meant to them as a newly married couple.