Chapter 8: First Heartbeat

Ione's POV

The obstetrics office was on the third floor of a medical building across the river, far from Candler and anyone who might recognize me.

I had chosen it on purpose.

Posey sat beside me in the waiting room with a magazine open to a page about nursery colors.

I stared at a poster of a fetus the size of a lime.

"You're allowed to be scared," Posey whispered.

"I'm a nurse. I'm not scared of anything in a body."

"You're scared of this one."

"Yes," I said. "A lot."

The ultrasound room was small and dim, with a screen on a rolling cart.

The technician was a cheerful woman with reading glasses pushed up in her hair.

She spread the gel across my lower belly with a warm hand.

I lay back, and the paper crinkled under me.

Posey took my right hand.

The wand pressed in, and for a minute there was only grey static on the screen.

Then someone knocked, and the door opened.

Lachlan stood in it.

He was breathing hard, as if he had taken the stairs two at a time.

He had followed us from the apartment, I realized, and waited in the parking lot for fifteen minutes before he found the nerve.

"Ione."

"You can't be in here."

"Is he the father?" the technician asked, looking between us. "We usually like to have him in for this."

"I don't," I started.

"I'm her husband," Lachlan said. "I'm Lachlan Beaufain. Please. If I can stay."

The tech looked at me, and I looked at the ceiling.

Posey squeezed my hand and then, with a long meaningful sigh, stood up and moved to the foot of the table.

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