On My 35th Birthday, I Found My Husband Had Been Playing House Next Door for 108 Days novel · Chapter 21 of 24
Chapter 21: The Heartbeat
Joanne held my hand through the whole scan.
She had taken the morning off and brought a thermos of ginger tea, and in the exam room she sat on the rolling stool by my head with her cardigan buttoned wrong.
The technician squeezed cold gel on my stomach and slid the wand across.
The screen went gray, then black, then gray again.
"There," she said.
A small bright flutter appeared in the middle of the picture.
It was the size of a bean, and it moved.
"That's the heartbeat," the technician said. "A hundred and sixty-two. Perfect."
I didn't say anything.
Joanne said, "Oh my God," and then, "Sorry, I'm fine, don't look at me."
I looked at the screen.
For ten days I had carried this baby through a ballroom, a mediation room and a courtroom, and I had never once seen the baby.
Now it had a heart, and it belonged to nobody but itself.
"Do you want a picture?" the technician asked.
"Two," I said. "One for her."
"For me?" Joanne said.
"You're the godmother."
She put her face in her sleeve.
The technician was printing the strips when something thumped in the hallway.
A man's voice said, loudly, "I'm her husband."
"Ex-husband," Joanne said, standing up.
The technician's face changed.
"Is that him?"
"Yes."
"Stay here."
She went out.
Through the half-open door I heard the front desk, a woman I had spoken to twice, saying in her flat professional voice, "Sir, there's a note on the chart. You are not authorized."
"I'm the father."
"The patient has not consented."
"I have a right to know my own child's heartbeat!"
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