Broken Strings

C H A P T E R T W E N T Y - N I N E

"So, you're in the maternity ward." 

She watched as he avoided her gaze, adjusting his stethoscope before looking around the room. 

She nodded, fear clouding her. "Wait, what are you doing here?" Sebastian wasn't her doctor. And they certainly weren't friends anymore. Why he was in her hospital room was unknown to her. "I mean, you're an oncologist. You deal with cancer patients. Why are you here?"

Sebastian puckered his lips together. He turned and eyed Amanda. Her face pale, sickly pale. 

"You're right. I work on the fifth floor." Sebastian nodded, almost in irritation. "But I got a phone call last night from your father. And he was asking me how my pregnant fiance was doing."

He shrugged as her face sombered, clouded by sorrow and dullness. 

"I take it that he doesn't know that you broke our engagement more than six years ago. Nor the fact that you've been sleeping with a married man?" He sighed as she let out a cry. His work phone vibrated and he knew someone was paging him. 

"Your dad wanted me to check-up on you and so here I am." Sebastian turned to leave but instead froze as a stray tear slid down her face. "Amanda, did you tell Andrew?"

"No." 

Sebastian took a  small step towards her, brushing away the tear. 

"You aren't going to tell him. He doesn't need to know. It's my baby." Amanda reached for Sebastian's hand, pleading with him to keep her secret. "Is Anisha fine?"

Sebastian pulled his hand out of her grasp. "She's fine."

He turned to walk out of the room, without saying anything else.

"Wait Sebastian, my baby? I had bleeding and cramping. It's normal. My baby is fine." She begged him to answer. She shook her head, screaming, begging him to tell her that her baby was fine. "Sebastian, my baby." 

There was nothing wrong with her baby, she was sure of it.

She just needed Sebastian to confirm for it.

"Sebastian, my baby?"

Everything came tumbling down, a dull gray as he gave her a pitiful look.

Running his hand through his dark hair, adjusting his stethoscope, mumbling before he walked out of the room.

"I'm sorry."

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Anisha let out a harsh sniffle before she continued. Her voice still shaky, trembling at every word. She paused a little before continuing, almost as though she was waiting for Franco too, like Andrew, to blame her.  

"Cassie had a check-up with her doctor and, and after she came down to the ER, crying. She was paranoid and she kept telling me that she was a bad mother. I...I didn't know what to do."

"She said she couldn't sleep and that...that she...she'd been having anxiety attacks lately. I didn't know." Anisha placed her hand over her mouth, muffling her sob. "Xanax was for panic and anxiety and I prescribed it. I didn't know. It was supposed to help..."