One Night Stand (New Yorker III) Page 12

“Tell me where it hurts,” he said.

  Catalella’s hand settled at the bottom of her round belly. That was where it hurt the most, but the fear she felt radiating inside her told her to lie. She didn’t want to upset AJ and, furthermore, she didn’t want to have to go to the hospital. Having Katherine check her with a portable ultrasound at the office or at the parking lot of the hospital was a great difference to being in the hospital. The once a month visits she did with her oncologist had taken weeks of preparation.

  Catalella shook her head, hoping AJ wouldn’t look her in the eye and dare her to lie in his face. “Nowhere,” she grunted.

  “Peanut!” he warned.

  “My belly hurts.” And, as she confessed, a flood of tears rushed down her cheeks.

  “I’m going to take you to the hospital and have Katherine check you,” he said in his most reassuring tone yet. “I’m sure it’s nothing but we have to make sure.”

  “Promise me it’s going to be all right?” Catalella forced her brother to look into her eyes.

  “I don’t know, peanut. But since you aren’t bleeding I’m sure you will be fine.” He kissed her cheek and lifted her in his arms.

  “If I lose the baby, I’ll lose myself, and I’ll lose Rich,” she muttered into his chest, and a disapproving grunt from her brother told her that he had heard her.

  * * * *

  Rich leaned back in the recliner chair of his private jet when he felt the jostle of the plane as the wheels touched down. It had been a long flight and he couldn’t wait to get home. He couldn’t believe that he’d put his loft on the market and would have to go back to the apartment he had shared with Catalella for the past two months. His fingers kneaded his neck and he exhaled slowly. The captain stepped out of the cockpit and stared at him, as did the hostess. He knew they were wondering why he hadn’t made a move to disembark. Rich understood their confused stares but they wouldn’t understand that he didn’t want to go to an empty home. Resigning himself to his lonely fate, Rich unbuckled his seatbelt, stood up and shook the crew’s hands before getting off the plane. He disappeared into the black Range Rover waiting for him on the runway.

  “Excuse me, sir…” his assistant began. Rich turned to face her and urged her to go on. “There have been plenty of calls from a Dr. Adrian Ross. He called the office a couple of times because he couldn’t reach you on your cell.”

  “Why?” Rich was sure he knew what AJ wanted to say—why aren’t you with my sister…take charge of your relationship…get rid of Ava…I’ll help you dump her body if we have to kill her. The last idea was appealing to him. He smiled at the idea of ridding himself of Ava forever.

  “He left a message saying that you should call him immediately.”

  “Sure.” Rich turned his phone on and there were more than two dozen messages. His heart pounded as the fear began to set in. The messages were from AJ, Katherine and Catalella—something was definitely wrong if Catalella had tried to reach him. Rich let himself listen to just one message. He didn’t think he could get through all of them. AJ’s voice blared. “You need to come to the hospital. Call me when you get here.”

  Rich leaned forward and tapped his driver on the shoulder. “Take me to Lennox Hill Hospital and hurry.”

  A horrible dread nagged at him. He closed his eyes and leaned back on the leather seat. His fingers dug into his thigh as he forced himself not to think the worst.

  * * * *

  “What exactly is wrong?” Catalella read into the looks Katherine and AJ were exchanging. Something was wrong…something was terribly wrong.

  “Excuse me,” Katherine croaked and ducked out of the room.

  “AJ, please…you need to tell me what’s wrong.” Catalella squeezed her brother’s hand, brushing his fingers away when he tried to wipe the tears rolling down her cheeks.

  “Hang on for a second, peanut. Wait until Katherine comes back.” He stroked her hair and, for a second, his cool reassuring voice almost fooled Catalella into thinking everything was all right.

  She heard a knock on the door and looked up expectantly, hoping it was Katherine or, better yet, Rich. But her family flooded the room. One by one they walked in as if they were lambs being ushered into the slaughter house. Her hard-faced father led the way, followed by an expressionless Rosalinda, a sniffling Lisette, a worried Reno and DJ and a distraught Dennis and Harold. Something was terribly wrong if AJ and Katherine needed to bring her family in for reinforcements. Her heart ached at the absent face she desperately needed. Where was Rich?

  “Catalella?” Katherine’s shaky voice pierced through her thoughts. “This is Doctor Bailey. She is the lead OBGYN in this hospital. She will be taking over your case.”

  “Why, Katherine? You are my doctor.” Catalella tried to sit up but the ache in her belly stopped her. “You need to tell me what’s going on.”

  “Doctor Henry is too close to your case to help you, Miss Ross. You need an objective opinion and I am able to give you one without being emotional.” Bailey’s cold tone of voice pinned Catalella down. “You have Preeclampsia. It’s in a mild stage, but with the slight placental abruption I recommend that you deliver the baby immediately.”

  Catalella stared at the hard planes of the doctor’s face and the icy coolness in her eyes. She spoke as if it didn’t matter that she had just asked her to deliver her baby before it was due. “Why do I have to deliver?”

  “If something happens and the placenta completely detaches or your blood pressure is higher than it is now, you could bleed to death and you and the baby would die. Delivering the baby now increases your chances.”

  “What about the baby?” Her mother’s shaky voice filled the room.

  “It could survive but the odds are against it. It’s not developed enough to survive outside its mother’s womb. But it could.”

  “She’s six months along.” Catalella heard Lisette gasp. Her eyes went to her sister’s and already she saw the guilt set in. Catalella almost laughed at all her bad luck and, if it wasn’t for the crushing pain in her heart, she would have. The odds were once again stacked up against her. She waited for her father to make the ultimate decision. Nothing that she could say at that moment would stop her family from voting against her wishes for her own good.

  “Preeclampsia is very dangerous for both mother and child,” Katherine put in.

  “What the hell is that?” A booming voice coming from the door pulled her in its direction.

  Catalella sat up against the pain in her body and stretched her hands out to Rich. She saw the look of surprise in his eyes before he walked over to her. He took her hands and stood by her side. It was now nine against two, but she knew with Rich by her side they would be able to win this fight against her family.

  “Catalella has a condition—” Katherine began before she was cut off.

  “Her blood pressure is slightly too high, she has a detached placenta from the fall—”

  “Fall…what fall?” Rich asked urgently, but his question was ignored.

  “—if her placenta abrupts she will bleed out and may have to have a hysterectomy. If the bleeding is not controlled in time she could die, but the baby will definitely die.” The doctor paused. “We need to deliver the baby now before it gets out of hand.”

  * * * *

  Rich hadn’t been in the room for more than a second when he was bombarded and assaulted with information. Out of everything the doctor had said only one thing stuck with him—Catalella and his baby could die. He looked up at the family assembled around the bed and he knew the pain in their eyes mirrored his own. But they were also looking expectantly at him…did they expect him to give the doctor the go ahead to prematurely deliver his baby?

  “What do you want to do, sweetheart?” Rich looked down at Catalella’s teary eyes. He wanted to shout deliver the baby, save my little orchid’s life. But he knew that Catalella would stop existing immediately if they took her child from her.

  “I’m not going to kill our baby, ar
e you?” She stared daggers at him, and he could see her mind was already made up.

  Despite the pain in his chest, Rich laughed. Trust Catalella to turn this around on him. She was challenging him and if he didn’t accept the challenge she would never forgive him. “All right then, what do you propose to do?”

  “I’m a lawyer, not a doctor.”

  “I am, and I advise you to deliver this baby,” Bailey cut in.

  “What if we don’t want to deliver the baby early? Is there a chance that she could carry the baby to term? What would we have to do?”

  “Ethan!” Rich heard Adrian protest. He knew that the old man was pleading with him to make the right choice, but what the hell was that? Adrian didn’t want to lose his daughter but neither did Rich. He had Catalella and his child’s lives in his hands, both dependent on him to make the right decision.

  Doctor Bailey shrugged and he could see the woman was against his ‘right decision’. “If you insist on going through with the next three months I would recommend bed rest…try lying on your left side most of the time. You need plenty of fluids, and reduce your salt intake, and you shouldn’t stress yourself…watch your blood pressure, there are medications to help with that. I would recommend a private nurse to help you monitor your condition.”

  “Fine, I understand, but no nurse,” Catalella pleaded.

  “Where can we get an in-house nurse?” Rich ignored Catalella’s request. “I will also need the medications and maybe an instruction manual.”

  “You can call me,” Katherine assured him with a weak smile.

  “Do you mind giving us a second?” Rich asked their family.

  He waited until they were the only two people in the room before he turned to Catalella. He wanted to reprimand her for the fall. He didn’t ask for details though, and didn’t say anything about it. The doctor said no stress and fighting would definitely be a stressful event. Rich held Catalella’s hand, kissed her forehead and her lips, and then he said, “You’re moving back in with me. As soon as the Ava ordeal is done you are going to marry me. Don’t argue—I need to be the one who makes the decisions, legally, or else your father will take over. You are not going back to work. I’m sure DJ won’t mind taking your accounts. If you object to any or all of these conditions I will call butcher Bailey back into this room.”

  Catalella remained tight-lipped but the look she gave him spoke a thousand words. With one curt nod she agreed to his conditions. Rich called Katherine and the doctor back in. “I want to see my son,” he announced.

  “Look at the screen,” Katherine instructed.

  Rich stared at the little screen. He couldn’t tell exactly what he was seeing, but the little thumps of his baby’s heart filled his ears and his heart.

  “What the hell!” Katherine’s exclamation burst into his happy bubble.

  “This changes everything,” Bailey put in as she leaned into the screen.

  “What?” Catalella shrieked.

  “Calm down,” Rich urged. “What is it that you see?”

  “You’re having twins. And only one of the babies' placentas is detached. Why didn’t I see this before?” Katherine chastised herself. “I was so frazzled I didn’t bother looking closer.”

  “This changes everything,” Bailey continued to mumble.

  “What does it change?” Rich asked, a sliver of irritation working its way into his voice.

  “We can deliver one baby and leave the other inside. You will at least have one baby left just in case—”

  “Just in case what? Just in case the other one dies?” Catalella snapped. “Rich, please, I can’t stand another minute with this woman. I swear I am going to—”

  “I think you should leave.” Rich ushered Bailey out before Catalella could declare her threat and act on it. “I’m sorry, Katherine, you’re stuck with us.”

  “That’s fine.” Katherine gave him a weary smile. He could tell what she was thinking. Rich was like a brother to her and Catalella was going to be her sister in a few weeks. She was terrified of messing up. He felt like he would be holding her hand more than he would be holding Catalella’s. “But you have to know that the distressed baby could cause the other one to go into premature labor.”

  “I’m guessing the bed rest will help our chances?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “You are going to have to do better than uh-huh, Kat,” Catalella warned.

  “You won’t boss me around, little lady.” Rich was relieved when Katherine fought back. With the two strong women in his corner they all might survive this pregnancy.

  Chapter Eleven

  Rich walked around the apartment as silently as he could. His eyes focused on searching for his briefcase as his ears listened for Catalella’s steady breathing. They’d had a fight before she went to sleep…no, not a fight, a silent dispute. They tried not to get their emotions too riled up. Catalella didn’t need the stress, their referee by day and nurse by night reminded them each time someone’s voice went an octave higher.

  He dropped down on the sofa and thought about sleeping there. Rich had to sacrifice his room for the lethargic nurse with a constant scowl on her face. He had picked her thinking that Catalella wouldn’t dare argue with her. But what he didn’t think through was that her presence would affect him too. He didn’t want to sleep next to Catalella angry. He was angry at her for not being careful with his baby when she was arguing with AJ. With his babies—he corrected his thoughts—and she was angry at him for not telling her about the accident, not to mention Ava, the cancer that was still in their lives.

  Rich was also angry with God. Angry that He could give Catalella her one wish, let her feel the movement of their children inside her only to put them through this. Katherine had warned him not to go on the internet and look up Catalella’s condition. But he was stubborn and he had this need to be prepared for anything. But he wasn’t prepared for what he saw or read. His breath hitched in his chest as a feral growl of anger threatened to escape through his lips. He wished he had let Adrian force the delivery, he wished he was stronger for all four of them, he wished he wasn’t scared and he wished he could be more bold.

  A tear slid down his cheek as sobs racked his body. Rich looked up but there was no one there expecting him to be strong, no one who would see him weak and find him lacking. He was alone and, just for this moment, he had to let out his fear, his anger and the pain that was crushing his heart. He curled up in a fetal position on the couch, held a pillow to his chest and wept. When the cries seemed to get louder than he was willing to let them, he turned his face into the pillow and bit into it in an effort to mute his sorrow.

  * * * *

  Catalella wanted a glass of water and turned toward Rich’s side of the bed but found it empty. She didn’t know how long he’d been gone but already she missed him. She buried her face into his pillow and took in the musky scent of his aftershave. The scent of him shot from her nostrils to her libido. She wished his hard, muscular body was lying next to her, his soft hands touching her, but she knew he never would, not while she was still pregnant. Not because he didn’t want to, but his desperation to see his babies to term wouldn’t let anything happen he thought would hurt them.

  She lay on her left side as she was instructed, the glass on her night stand empty. She decided to wait for Rich to return instead of getting up and fetching the water for herself—she didn’t want to fight with him, not for a second time that night. But when the seconds ticked by and her throat felt like the dry sands of the Sahara she decided to risk the dog’s bark.

  Catalella got as far as the hallway when she heard the muffled sounds. Her first instinct was to go back to the room and retrieve Rich’s baseball bat. But she looked down at her round belly and almost laughed at how absurd that would look. She took a bold step into the living room and there she saw the picture of a broken man. Rich was crying into the pillow, trying desperately not to be heard. He was hiding in the darkness, unwilling to let anyone see how scared
he was. But Catalella wasn’t someone and she wasn’t just anyone either. She hated herself for breaking him. There were a lot of ifs she wanted to run through…if she hadn’t gone back to De Alma, if they hadn’t had sex, if she hadn’t told him and if she hadn’t been reckless. But, of all those ifs, she only regretted the last one.

  Slowly, careful not to startle him, she went to him. Catalella sat on the coffee table, at sea as to what to do next. She didn’t want him to stop crying for her sake…she knew how much better someone could feel after a good cry. When his sobs died down she reached to touch him and, with a start, he looked up.

  “I’m…I’m sorry…I-I was just…” he said between hiccups of sobs.

  “I know,” she said to him comfortingly. Catalella removed his pillow as she sat down on the sofa and laid his head on her lap.

  Rich tried to sit up but Catalella wouldn’t let him. “I need to be strong for all three of you.”

  Catalella held back the tears threatening to pour out. “And who is going to be strong for you?”

  “That doesn’t matter. I don’t matter right now,” he sobbed.

  “Shhh.” Catalella soothed as she gently pushed his head back on her lap. “You matter. You mean more than I could ever describe. Today let me be strong for you, for a little while?”

  Rich didn’t answer but Catalella knew he had given in when his body began to shake and she could feel his tears seep through her nightdress. She rubbed his back, not in an attempt to soothe him, but so that he would know she was here for him.

  Catalella continued rubbing his back even when he fell asleep. She wished she had gotten her glass of milk before she sat down.

  * * * *

  “Don’t carry me. I’m too heavy,” Catalella protested as she slipped in and out of sleep.

  Rich laughed as he looked down at her pouting face. He wanted to kiss her frowning lips into a smile. “We’re almost there. I promise, you aren’t that heavy.”