“You were right. I just could not see the obvious answer. Tasha realized it before me,” Tess said with a smile.
“Natasha would; she has the eye. But you do too. Are you coming home to have it? Are you seeing a doctor there?” Ilya asked.
Sitting up straighter, Tess ignored her sister’s questions. No way was she rushing nine hours in labor to have a baby. Instead, she asked, “Did you ever have any problems? Being pregnant or in delivery? We never talked about that.”
“Oh, now and again. My Terri and Anya were both born breech, and I had the miscarriage,” Ilya stated as if those were everyday occurrences and not medical issues.
“Wait, I didn’t know that. Let me get to my office so that I can write this down,” she said, going back into the bank and shutting her office door behind her. By the time she had hung up on her sister, she had written Ilya’s complete medical history and most of their mom’s from what Ilya could remember. It was enough to scare Tess stiff.
Her mother’s history. Being the youngest, she never saw her mom pregnant, so it was easy to forget she ever had been. Sure, her six children were around all the time, but Tess had never questioned the gaps in age between the children. Sergey and Ilya were eight years apart, and so were Ilya and her. The fact that there were pregnancies in those gaps had Tess worrying about everything.
Over the years, she had heard about the four children of her parents that never made it out of Russia. All had died before the age of ten, including Terezilya the first, who had died the fall before Tess herself was born. But she had not heard so much about the stillborn babies or the miscarriages. Now she realized that she could lose the baby, that there was a high possibility of that happening.
There was no way she was telling Mathias only then to lose her baby and lose the job that would take her closer to her family. Though she hadn’t heard back, she figured she would soon.
Tapping her pen on her desk, she remembered that Mandy had worked with high-risk pregnancies and babies with medical issues before moving back to Landstad. Mandy would be able to tell her if she was worrying for nothing, or she’d send her to a doctor who could save her baby. If that were possible.
Picking up her phone, she called a Nordskov, a different one from the day before. She was surprised when Mandy answered the phone at the clinic. She was usually too busy, and messages had to be left. Or at least that is what Tess had heard since she had never been to the clinic herself.
“Mandy, do you have a few minutes to talk to me today?”
“If you can come right in, my 11:00 am canceled,” Mandy said. It was a few minutes past that time.
“Yes.” She hung up before she chickened out.
On her way out of the bank, she told Beatrice at the reception desk she was going out for lunch again. Then she walked down the block, taking a deep breath as she pushed her way into the clinic, glad the trip wasn’t long enough for her to chicken out.
Mandy was sitting at the desk and was fiddling with the computer and some papers. There were no chairs sitting in front of the desk, so Tess stood, not wanting to move in a chair.
“I can tell something is wrong, Tess. What is it? Did you talk to Math?” Mandy asked about her brother.
“Yes, thank you for his number yesterday.”
“Do you want to talk here or back in the exam room?” Mandy gestured at the exam room behind her. Before Tess could answer Mandy stood up and led her down the hallway.
Once in the room, Tess finally sat, but it didn’t make her feel better. She just felt Mandy was going to tell her she would probably lose the baby.
Mandy turned on the computer in that room and asked, “Tess, what is it then?”
Tess took a deep breath and said, “I am pregnant, and I talked to my sister. She said her pregnancies were great. Then we talked about my mother’s, which were not so great.”
“Did you talk to your mom?” Mandy asked, not questioning her at all about the pregnancy or how she got that way or even who the dad is. That made Tess relax a little.
“No, I haven’t told her yet. And she is older now, and I don’t like to worry her.” Tess wasn’t sure how her mother would take the news of her pregnancy yet. She was afraid of disappointing her parents again.
“Can you tell me about it? You know I cannot tell anyone, right?Anyone.” Mandy emphasized the last word.
Tess knew Mandy thought the baby was her brother’s, which is why Tess hadn’t planned to come over here and see his sister for this. Well, she hadn’t thought about seeing anyone yet.
“I have it on paper. I wrote it down; it was easier.” Tess pulled out a paper labeled Mama and handed it to her friend.
Mandy spent a few minutes looking it over. “You should have been a doctor, Tess. Your writing is awful.”
Tess laughed at the back-handed compliment. It wasn’t the first time she had been told that. “I am a lefty. I write fast but not properly.”
“Can I ask what some of this means?” Mandy set the paper on the desk.
“Yes, each line is a child and what we think happened, but some may not be right.”