New Beginnings: A Hessa Story (2)

Chapter 70: Hardin

"Trish?" Mike says as he runs over to his wife. There is a doctor standing on the side of the bed awkwardly, looking at Mike as he runs. He steps aside so Mike has enough room to reach my mum. "Thank goodness, you're okay!"

"I'll give you two a minute." The doctor excuses himself from the room.

Mike lets go quickly and turns to Tessa and me. We are just awkwardly standing in the middle of the doorway. "Look who's here Trish all the way from the States!"

Instead of a warm smile that I would expect to get from her, she breaks down crying. Her head falls into her hands. Maybe she's overwhelmed and remembering everything she went through? I'm not sure, but it definitely wasn't the reaction I was expecting.

Through sobs, my mum finally speaks up. "Could you two give me a minute with Mike? It'll be quick."

"Of course." Tessa nods before pushing me out into the hallway since I can't seem to move my own legs.

"Fuck." I run my hands through my hair before sitting in the seats not to far from her room. "She looked awful."

"She was hit by a car, Hardin. What did you expect her to look like?"

"Okay Tess, what the fuck?" I call her out. To distract myself from my mum, I'm gonna get to the bottom of whatever is upsetting Tessa.

"What?"

"Why are you acting so snippy? I get that you might be nervous about my mum, but that's no reason to have such an attitude." Tessa's usually the one telling me this shit, so the roles being reversed is strange.

Her eyes widen before she crosses her arms. "Maybe you should ask Harriette since you love to talk with her behind my back."

Harriette?

"Who the fuck is that?"

She scoffs at me before rolling her eyes. "Whatever, Hardin. I don't want to talk about it now."

"What is your fucking problem? I have never spoken to a Harriette before, so I don't understand why you're so angry."

"I'm not angry, I'm just confused. I thought we were supposed to be doing this whole pregnancy slash baby thing together."

"We are!"

"Obviously not. You didn't believe in me this whole time."

"Tessa, I don't understand what you are saying. Explain to me what you're talking about!" I raise my voice.

"You got an email from Harriette, you know, your friend at the adoption and surrogacy agency you were looking at without me?"

My face freezes, not because I've been caught or I did anything wrong, but because now her rude behavior makes sense.

"I emailed her months ago, like even before our first pregnancy. I only did it just to know our options in case anything didn't work out. I can't believe she got back to me so late."

"This was all before I got pregnant the first time?"

"Yes. It's not that I didn't believe in you, but I just thought we would want options. I'm sorry if it seems that way, but I never gave up on you. It was getting to a point where we weren't seeing any positive results, but once you got pregnant the first time, I didn't even think about that shit anymore."

She nods. "I'm sorry for overreacting... I guess I'm just on edge with everything going on."

"You believe me, don't you?"

"Of course I do. You're my husband, so I kind of have to believe you."

"True." I shrug playfully. I'm glad that Tessa and I got over that little bump quickly. Marriage has made us better at talking about our issues. She rests her head on my shoulder as Mike comes out of the room. As he walks closer to us, I notice his eyes are bloodshot.