Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100332 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 502(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100332 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 502(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
My due date was today, but there wasn’t a single sign that our daughter would make her way into the world anytime soon. I didn’t want to be induced or have a cesarean, but if baby girl didn’t come within the next forty-eight hours, my doc advised me to go to a hospital.
“Can we go to your parents’? I’d really like to visit the old oak.” This place had become such a vital part of this pregnancy and my life that I felt the need to visit it once more before the birth of our daughter turned my life upside down.
Maximus gave me a doubtful look. “You could give birth at any moment. We should stay close to the hospital.”
“I’m a first-time mother. It’ll take many hours before I give birth, so even if I go into labor at your parents’, there will be plenty of time to drive back to the city.”
After a few more arguments, Maximus finally caved, and we headed for his parents’.
It was a beautiful spring day, sunny and cloudless, but still quite fresh. The air was crisp, and the birds chirped excitedly, welcoming the warmer weather.
Only Cara was home, and she prepared tea and cookies for us. Maximus took in the fixed fencing as Cara and I sat on the porch with mugs of tea and wrapped into cozy blankets. Due to the damage the shelter had sustained, certain parts of the fencing needed constant repair. After a while, I felt restless, and the pain in my lower back, which had increased in the last few hours, became impossible to ignore. “Can we take a walk?” I asked as I rose to my feet.
Maximus came over, a frown tightening his face. “Are you okay?”
“Just restless.”
“Don’t go too far, all right?” Cara urged, regarding me with open worry.
I gave her a smile and nodded, then Maximus and I strolled into the forest, hand in hand. We stayed on the path as it wasn’t as bumpy and had been mostly cleaned of fallen leaves and twigs. Bacon accompanied us, trotting a few steps ahead and scanning the area. Since the attack, Maximus and his brother had set up intelligent motion cameras at the border of their premises that could distinguish between animal and human movements.
Despite the cool air, I felt incredibly hot in my coat. I felt half tempted to undress, which was completely crazy. When we arrived at the old oak, I took my coat off despite Maximus’s protest.
I bent down to touch the wooden cross when something warm ran down my legs, soaking my pants, and the pain in my back radiated to my lower belly. I gritted my teeth and blew out a long breath.
“Sara?”
I sucked in a deep breath, then pressed it out slowly, counting to fifteen.
“Sara?”
I raised my palm.
Maximus fell silent as I breathed through the pain.
With Maximus’s help, I straightened when the pain subsided.
“I think I’m in labor,” I told him when I met his worried gaze.
“We need to return to the house!” He grabbed my hand as if to tug me along, but another
wave of pain radiated through my body. Less than two minutes apart. What was going on?
I focused on breathing and shook Maximus’s hand off like a bothersome fly.
During the next pause, I said, “I can’t walk.”
“I’ll carry you.” Maximus lifted me into his arms when another wave of pain wrecked my body. In his arms, I couldn’t breathe through it, and the pain was even worse. “Put me down,” I rasped, then screamed, “Put me down,” when he didn’t react fast enough. Bacon circled us nervously.
Maximus set me down immediately, and I grabbed his forearms, digging my nails into them to steady myself.
This was going fast. “I can feel her bearing down,” I whispered.
“What?” Maximus asked, confused, which infuriated me.
“I need to get on my knees,” I hissed.
Maximus stared at me, then at the ground. Why didn’t he understand? He removed his jacket and put it down.
“Help me undress,” I ordered.
He reached for my cardigan, and I almost lost it.
“My pants!”
I sounded like a fury, and I felt as unhinged as one.
Maximus tugged my pants and underwear down and helped me step out of them. I sank to the ground on all fours, alternating between breathing and screaming. Maximus got down on his knees in front of me, and I put my hands on his muscled thighs for better leverage than the slippery ground. My nails dug into his legs as the pain took hold of my body once more.
“Fuck,” Maximus muttered. “What am I supposed to do?”
I couldn’t speak, and if I had been capable, I would have said things I would have regretted later, so my muteness was a good thing.
The pressure got unbearable, and I tried to work with it, even if a part of me wanted to shove the baby back up. And then I felt it, the head bursting through.