Anna’s POV
When I woke up the next morning Matt was still asleep. Once again I found myself lying against his chest, my hand resting lightly over his heart, only this time he wasn’t cling to me tightly, his arm that I suspected had been wrapped around me was now lying limply underneath me on the mattress.
For a few minutes I watch him sleep. There was no more anger or hatred on his face from the night before, his skin seemed to glow in the morning light. He looked peaceful, I didn’t want to wake him up and disturb him, we still had a lot of unanswered questions from the night before that needed to be answered, I planned on avoiding those as long as possible.
Carefully, I climbed out of bed. The second he was no longer pinned underneath me Matt rolled over onto his stomach, his face buried in the pillow. I smiled; he was never a morning person.
I got dressed, carefully choosing a dark blue pair of denim shorts and a white tank top. I was careful to leave my hair down to cover up as much of my bruises as possible, the long finger marks had started to turn yellow and fade already but the marks on the back of my neck were still a dark ugly purple.
I crept out of the room, carefully to shut the door softly behind me as I went. Matt was beginning to snore lightly; wow he was out good apparently.
I went into the kitchen, It was spotless from me cleaning yesterday. I found that I cleaned when I was stressed, and as happy as I was to have Matt here, I was more stressed out then I had been for a long time. It reminded me of the day Noah was born.
“You cheated” I accused with a sly grin “That’s not even a word”
“Is so” Ben challenged “Il go get a dictionary if I have to”
“No, I will go get it” I said “I don’t trust you”
I had never fought playing scrabble as much as I did when I played with Ben. We were sitting in our new small house, boxes everywhere, only our couch and a small TV try were our only furniture other than our bed.
“Do you want a hand up?” Ben asked
I shook my head
“Im pregnant” I told him “Not immobilized”
I struggled up off of the couch, self-consciously pressing a hand to my large belly and using my other hand to propel me up. God my feet were killing me, but I would never let Ben know that, he already worried about me too much.
“Are you sure you’re not having twins?” Ben asked as I finally found my way to my feet “There can’t be just one kid in there”
I glared at him, but then smiled
“Jerk” I muttered as I walked down the hall, more like waddled but hey give me a break I was extremely pregnant here. My dew date wasn’t for another two weeks but it felt like it was two weeks behind.
I walked into the room that would be serving as Ben’s office. His desk was already set up in the corner along with a stack of books on it. I spotted the dictionary close to the bottom of the pile.
I started moving books, some were just light reading books that were light as a feather, others were thick legal books that I had to use two hands to move. Finally I reached the dictionary.
“There” I said with self-satisfaction “Now let’s find that ‘word”
I turned around, already flipping through the pages. As I walked out of the room I accidentally stubbed my toe on a box and dropped the book in surprise.
“Oh great” I muttered “How long is this going to take?”
I peered over the hippo belly that was mine and caught site of the book, perched against the box that I had stubbed my toe down. Determined to get the book myself without having to call Ben and endure a laughing fit I braced my legs apart and made an attempt to bend down.
One
Two
Three
After three times of attempting to get my chest past my stomach and extending my arm as fast as it would go I had no choice but to stand up straight, breathing heavily and silently cursing the gods for inventing scrabble.
I took a deep breath and made one last final attempt for the book. I pushed myself as far as I could possible go, ignoring all the pressures I felt everywhere in my body. Finally my fingers brushed against the book and I sighed with satisfaction as I straightened up, book in hand.
That was when I felt it.
“Oh” I cried out, the book fell out of my hand once again in surprise
“Anna?” Loud footsteps came thumping down the hall before Ben appeared in the doorway “Anna what’s wrong?”
I clutched my hands to my stomach but the problem was the puddle underneath me on the floor. Ben and I stared down at it in horror.
“Ben” I whispered “I think my water just broke”
After that things happened very quickly, too quickly. As soon as the shock of my water breaking wore off the cramps started coming. They weren’t normal cramps either; they were knee buckling, gutting wrenching cramps. Ben had me in the car and racing to the hospital before I could even blink.
On the way there it was finally dawning on me. This was really happening, I was having a baby, Matt baby, and he wasn’t here!
He had to be here!
“No” I moaned, shaking my head back and forth “no no no”
“Anna?” Ben asked in alarm “Baby what’s wrong?”
“He’s not here” I sobbed “He needs to be here”
“Anna” Ben said sadly “He’s not here, he’s half way around the world”
Tears were filling my eyes, this couldn’t be happening. How could I have been so stupid? Matt needed to be here, he just had to be!
We pulled up in front of the hospital and Ben ran inside. Moments later he returned with a nurse and a wheel chair. They were helping me into the chair when another wave of agony hit me, causing me to cry out and double over.
“I can’t do this!” I cried “I just can’t”
“Yes you can sweetie” The nurse said in a thick French accent “We got you”
Tears were streaming down my face, everything was a blur around me, everything was to bright.
Before I knew it I felt myself being lifted onto a bed, searing pain was ripping through me. This was happening to fast, too fast for everything to be okay. What was going on?
I could hear voices around me, people shouting. Something was wrong, something was wrong with my baby!
“What are they saying?” I demanded “What are they saying!”
A strong hand grasped my own, I found myself looking into Ben’s pale face.
“They think that the umbilical cord is wrapped around the baby’s neck” Ben said gravel “Anna you have to push now!”
I shook my head vigour sly
“Matt” I cried out “I need Matt!”
“Matt’s in the states” Ben said “Ann- Isabella look at me, look at me!”
I turned my eyes to him, they were big and blue and beautiful. But they weren’t the dark brown ones that I so desperately needed to see right now.
“You made this choice” He said “Now come on baby, hold on to me. You can do this, your strong, just hold on and breathe”
I stared at him, he was right, this was happening right now, whether I liked it or not. This baby was coming and I was not going to let him down.
The doctor said something in French and Ben squeezed my hand.
“Push Anna” He said “Come on, PUSH!”
Footsteps walking into the room snapped me out of my memory. I whirled around to see Matt standing by Noah’s rocking chair, hair sticking out in a crazy mess and eyes wide but still half asleep. He was only wearing a pair of sweats and he was breathing heavily.
“I woke up” He said a little breathlessly “But you weren’t there”
And that’s when I understood, he thought I had left again. Tears instantly spilled down my eyes and I started crying uncontrollably. Before I could stop myself I had launched myself into Matt’s arms, wrapping my arms around his neck tightly and sobbing into his shoulder.
“Anna!” Matt asked in alarm, holding me tightly “Baby what’s wrong?”
“I’m a horrible person” I sobbed “I’m terrible, I’m a bad mother!”
“What?” Matt exclaimed “No! You’re not a horrible mother Anna; you’re the best mother I have ever seen”
“Because of me you weren’t there” I blubbered “You weren’t there!”
“Anna” Matt said, seeming at a complete loss “Anna will you please just calm down. I don’t even understand what you’re talking about anymore”
“They day Noah was born!” I cried “You weren’t there! And it was m-m-my fault!”
I broke down in a fresh set of tears, Matt held me tightly in his arms until I managed to cry myself out.
“Anna” Matt said softly “Can we go more than twenty four hours without fighting or you crying?”
I sniffled and looked up, Matt still looked at a loss but there was a small smile playing at the edge of his lips.
“You know honey” He said “Therapy might be good for us”
I narrowed my eyes at him
“I thought you didn’t want the public to know?” I asked
Matt smirked
“I don’t” He said “Screw the therapy, I think we need a night to ourselves”
I leaned even farther back in Matt’s arms
“Say what?” I asked
Matt’s grin grew
“Oh you know” He said “Devin and Amanda can come here and watch Noah; I still have my sweet at the hotel in Paris. No one would even see us, and if they did they would just assume that we were on a date night. We can talk, without having to worry about Noah. Then either later tonight or tomorrow morning we can come back and see where we stand. What do you say?”
I wanted to say no, I couldn’t leave Noah. Not right now, it went against my whole nature to leave him with anyone other than Ben.
Ben, who I was committed to.
But Matt, the father of my child, my husband, the man I was in love with.
Seeing the fight I was having with myself by the expression on my face, Matt leaned in. I froze, his lips brushed against my neck.
“Come on baby” He pleaded with me softly “Just one night, just to talk. Please?”
He brushed his lips along my colar bone, causing me to tilt my head back. I couldn’t say no to this…
“Alright” I said breathlessly, pushing him away “Il go, call Devin”
Matt smirked, his eyes almost black.
My internal conscience shook her head at me. Oh Anna what did you just get yourself into? Why did you let Mathew Thompson get to you once again?
I had a bad feeling tonight wasn’t going to end with just talking.