“Not good. I’m coming in.” There was no panic in her voice. The tears and panic gone completely.
“How far out are you?” The voice turned from friendly to stern and slightly panicked.
“Twenty-five minutes.”
“Okay, I’ll meet you there. How far along this time?” the voice asked, surprising Hue. They hadn’t said anything until that moment about her being pregnant. Not even a hint.
“Thirty weeks on Tuesday,” she said calmly.
“Who have you been seeing? Nobody?” David’s angry voice got louder as he demanded.
“Nobody.” Her eyes were on their still linked hands as she confirmed the other man’s suspicion.
“Amanda!” David actually yelled at her.
“There’s nothing that can be done,” she defended herself calmly to the yelling.
“Of course there is. Fuck, Amanda,” the man stated firmly.
“Don’t,” she said calmly.
“The plan. We will follow the plan.” David was quieter now.
“Yes, it won’t do any good. But yes,” she answered, her voice as sad as Hue had ever heard it.
“I will have everybody ready.” It seemed he was already planning.
“Okay.” She hung up the phone without saying goodbye.
Hue looked over at her. The tears had stopped during the call but were seeping out again. If his hand hadn’t been tightly in her grasp during the call, he would have thought she was as calm as she sounded. But her body was tense, even if she sounded calm.
Glancing at her down-turned face, he asked, “Do you still have to call the hospital?”
She shook her head. “David will.”
“Who’s David?” he asked, because he couldn’t help but wonder if he was the father. Was this guy the father, and were they in love? Had he been just a distraction for Amanda while the guy wasn’t around? That he had been a bigger fool than he had thought?
“Dr. David Bennett. I worked with him the last three years I was in Grand Forks, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. High-risk pregnancies. He was also my doctor for most of my marriage. He’s the only one I trust.” She was trying to calm her breathing, and he realized she was having another contraction. That was what was causing her intense pain that vanished on its own. Contractions.
When her grip loosened again, he asked, “Who’s the father?” Because he had to know. He deserved to know.
“Dr. Paul Masters. I worked with him before I went to David in the NICU. We had been seeing each other on and off for three years. I was stupid.” Shifting in her seat, she couldn’t meet his eyes.
“Why?” He knew he had to prod her while he had her talking. Even if he really didn’t want to hear it, he wanted to know.
“He paid attention to me, and I fell for it. I had just gotten a divorce and was feeling pretty unlovable, and he was charming. I knew he was married, but it felt good to be loved, even if it wasn’t real. I had actually broken up with him before I came back to Landstad. I saw the real him, but I went back anyway.”
“The speeding tickets?” It clicked in his mind.
“Yes, you were always out there, waiting to give me a ticket when I came back. You gave me a ticket the night I conceived. I broke it off with him completely a week later. I was tired of it. Really tired of it. And for once, it worked.” Finally, she looked up and gave him a small smile.
“So, you haven’t seen him since summer?” He didn’t want to know, but he did. They hadn’t even been together then, but he deserved to know when it had ended. Was he a rebound relationship? Was the other man still on her mind?
“No, and he has moved to St Louis since then. He left just before Zia was born. One of the maternity ward nurses told me when I talked to them that day. I used to work closely with them.” She had closed her eyes.
“Are you going to tell him?”
“No. It won’t matter, anyway. The last baby I lost was his, and he was not upset that it happened. Hence the end of our relationship, or at least the start of the end.” Pain overtook her body again, and she squeezed his hand until he could almost feel it breaking.