Chapter 5: The Heartbeat

I texted Harrison the date of my first scan on Thursday night, exactly as I'd promised.

Friday, 9:15, Beacon Women's Health. You don't need to come.

He replied in under a minute: Understood.

At 9:10 on Friday he was sitting in the waiting room with a paper cup in each hand.

Eileen, who had taken the morning off to come with me, stopped so suddenly in the doorway that I walked into her back.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," she said.

Harrison stood up.

"I know the term," he said to me. "I'm breaking it. I'll leave if you tell me to."

I looked at the cups.

One was decaf ginger tea, in the right size, with the lid on the right way.

I took it.

"Sit in the corner," I said. "Don't speak to the technician."

"Thank you."

"I haven't done you a favor."

"I know," he said.

Eileen gave him a long, flat look.

Then she took the chair on my other side and held my bag in her lap.

The room was dim and warm.

The technician was a brisk woman with a lanyard, and she squeezed cold gel onto my stomach and pushed the wand in.

"Here we go," she said.

A gray shape moved on the screen.

It was small, curled and bright at the center, with a flutter I could have missed if I'd blinked.

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