FRACTURES (The Lake House #3) *REUPLOADED*

Chapter Fourteen

Ana

It's amazing how much change from one moment to the next. One moment, you could perfectly content with life, a monotonous life that was always the same. In the next moment, you could get news that will change everything.

One moment you could be standing in your kitchen, burning your grilled cheese. The next, you're going into labor 3 weeks early.

"W-wait, am I allowed to go in with her?" Justin held my hand, even as nurses stepped in to prepare to move me. They worked around him as he refused to move.

One moment, you fall in love with a broken boy and you break each other's hearts. The next, he becomes your whole future.

"I'm afraid not in this case, Justin. But we're going to make sure you get cleaned up and ready to meet your daughter."

I was quiet until I realized that Justin wouldn't be with me during what was about to be the most terrifying moment of my life. "No. No, no, no. I need him there." I said as we started moving. Justin kept up with me as I was wheeled quickly out the door. "Dr. Lee, I can't do this without him there."

"No one can be in the room during emergency surgery. Everything is going to be okay, Ana. He will be right outside ready to greet your baby girl. We're need to get you under as soon as possible." Dr. Lee gave Justin a look.

He took a deep breath. "You're in good hands, Ana. It's gonna be okay, you hear me? I'll be out here and the second I get the okay, we'll be together. All three of us."

I didn't voice my biggest fear; the possibility that only one of us was going to make it out of that operating room. And which one? That was up to fate.

Right before I was separated from Justin, he pressed a kiss to my hand. And his eyes said all the words I needed to hear.

Our hands came apart as I was pushed past a door farther than Justin was allowed. I stared up at the ceiling, taking breaths as I tried to make sense of the turmoil running through my mind. It was a lost cause.

The operating room was dark, except for the one blinding light above my body. The anaesthesiologist was waiting for me as I was prepped.

"You're doing great, Ana." Dr. Lee murmured, leaning over me.

I grabbed his wrist. "Worry about her. Before me, or anything else, make sure she gets out. Please."

He gave me a gentle smile, covering my hand with his own gloved one. I winced at the sharp pinch in my opposite arm. "I am going to get her out. And then, in a few hours, you're going to hold your child."

I took a shaky breath, laying my head back. A mask was slipped over my face, and I was told to count backwards from twenty. I tried to keep my eyes open for as long as possible, until it became too much.

One moment, you're alone and you're worrying about surviving day-to-day. But then you meet a little girl who becomes your entire world. And nothing else matters anymore.

***

Justin

12:36am

I numbly stood in front of the mirror in a private nurse's bathroom, running a damp towel over my face. After, a nurse gently cleaned my cuts and scrapes and bandaged them up. I appreciated the fact that she didn't try to make conversation with me, instead letting me stew in my own thoughts.

The panic in the voices of Ana's parents when I called them was still on my mind. Paul was still unable to travel, so I understood his frustration of being miles and miles away from his daughter while she was going through something like this. I apologized over and over, but the tipping point was my only answer to the many questions he had--I don't know.