Chapter 6: A Heartbeat

When Frederick's car had pulled away, Eli didn't say a word about the baby.

He picked up the phone on the conference table instead.

"I need an obstetrician who isn't an Ellsworth holding," he told someone.

"Today. Private, and no records in any system until she says so."

He hung up and looked at the floor.

"I should have asked first," he said. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I'd have said yes."

The clinic was on the far side of the river, in a brick building with a plain brass plate.

The doctor was a brisk woman with warm hands. She did not ask who I was.

I lay back on the table and looked at the ceiling tiles.

"Eight weeks, you think?"

"I think so. Any pain?"

"My lower back. I fell against a bedpost last night."

She frowned and wrote it down.

"Let's look."

The screen flickered gray.

Then a small white shape appeared in the middle of it, and in the middle of the shape something fluttered.

"There," the doctor said. "That's the heartbeat."

I couldn't speak.

It was fast and steady and it was not mine.

The doctor turned up the sound.

I put my hand over my mouth.

"Your chart says you were told you'd likely never conceive," she said gently.

"I don't see any reason to doubt this one."

"Is it healthy?"

"It's the right size and the right rhythm."

"You need to rest your back and stay off your feet when you can."

She printed a strip of photographs and handed it to me.

I held it against my chest.

Then I walked out into the hall, and Eli was standing there with his back against the wall.

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