Chapter 6 - The Night Everything Changed
Rachel went into labor five weeks early.
At 3:18 a.m., her husband called an ambulance.
By 3:42, she was back at St. Gabriel.
I met the stretcher at the entrance.
She grabbed my arm.
“Claire.”
“I’m here.”
“This is too early.”
“I know.”
“Is she going to be okay?”
“We’re going to do everything we can.”
Nathan appeared.
“Rachel, remember me?”
She looked at him.
“The doctor who got thrown into a cart?”
He sighed.
“Yes.”
“Hard to forget.”
We rushed her upstairs.
Two hours later, a tiny baby girl entered the world screaming.
That scream was the best sound I had heard all year.
Rachel cried.
Her husband cried.
I cried.
Nathan pretended he didn’t.
Outside the delivery room, Marco sat in a chair.
I stopped.
“What are you doing here?”
He stood.
“My father heard she was admitted.”
“You came at five in the morning?”
He shrugged.
“I wanted to know if she was okay.”
I smiled.
“She is.”
“And the baby?”
“Small. Loud. Angry.”
Marco nodded.
“Sounds healthy.”
Rachel’s husband came out.
He recognized Marco.
For a second, tension filled the hallway.
Then Marco said:
“Congratulations.”
Rachel’s husband stared at him.
“Thanks.”
Marco reached into his coat and handed him an envelope.
The man frowned.
“What’s this?”
“Nothing illegal.”
I folded my arms.
“That’s a suspicious way to start.”
Marco rolled his eyes.
“It’s a donation agreement.”
“For what?”
“The neonatal unit.”
I looked at him.
He shrugged.
“My mother was a nurse here.”
I hadn’t known he knew about Salvatore’s conversation with me.
“How much?”
“Enough to replace some old equipment.”
Rachel’s husband stared at him.
“Why?”
Marco looked through the nursery window.
“Because sometimes you need to put your money somewhere it can’t hurt anyone.”
I said nothing.
That might have been the first truly mature sentence I had ever heard from him.
Nathan joined us.
He leaned toward me.
“Dinner tonight?”
I looked at him.
“You’re asking me while we’re standing beside a mafia heir and a neonatal unit?”
“I’m trying to be memorable.”
Marco looked offended.
“You’re making this weird.”
I laughed.
Nathan ignored him.
“So?”
“Yes.”
Nathan blinked.
“Yes?”
“Yes.”
Marco clapped once.
“Finally.”
I looked at him.
“You knew?”
“Everybody knew.”
Nathan frowned.
“Everybody?”
Marco pointed toward the nurses’ station.
“Half the building.”
I buried my face in my hands.
Rachel shouted from inside her room.
“I KNEW TOO!”
May you like
Nathan started laughing.
And somehow, in the same hospital where fear had silenced an entire emergency room weeks earlier, everyone was laughing together.
