Chapter 13: The Aunt

"Tell her no," I said. "Tell the desk she's not family, and call security."

The night nurse nodded and hurried out.

Ben was already on his feet with his phone in his hand.

"I'm going down there."

"Stay," I said. "If you go, she gets to tell the whole desk the lawyer yelled at her."

He stood in the middle of the room for a moment.

Then he sat back down and pressed the call button for the charge nurse himself.

My brother came through the door ten minutes later, in work boots, with sawdust on his sleeves.

I had not called him.

Ben had.

"Where is she?" my brother asked.

"Downstairs. At the desk."

"Not for long."

He went out, and I heard his boots go down the corridor, and the elevator open.

I lay back with one hand on my stomach and listened.

Through the wall I heard a voice rising in the hallway, thin and bright and sweet.

"I'm only here for my friend. I'm the godmother. Ask her. Ask anybody."

A man's voice, deep and tired, said, "Ma'am, this is a secure floor."

"I'm a nurse! I know the rules!"

"Then you know I have to ask you to leave."

There was a long pause, and a scuffle of shoes, and then Colleen's voice again, not sweet at all.

"Derek is on his way. He has rights. He's the father of that child. You can't keep a father from his son."

I sat up.

The pain came back at that moment, so sharp and sudden that I cried out.

Ben was at my side before the sound ended.

"Hannah."

"That's not stress," I said. "That's not stress, Ben, that's real."

"I'm getting the nurse."

"Get her now."

After that the night went fast.

The doctor came back with a different face, and said the word "progressing," and then the word "now."

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