Chapter 9: The Heartbeat

Orazio was on the other side of the bathroom door when I opened it.

He had not put his shirt back on.

He took one look at my face and the color left his.

"Tell me."

"I'm bleeding."

He didn't say a word.

He picked up his phone.

"Get her doctor," he said into it. "Not mine. Hers."

"Tell her we're coming in twenty minutes and I'll pay whatever she asks."

At midnight, in an empty office on the north side, I lay on a paper-covered table with my dress pushed up.

My own gynecologist, a gray-haired woman in a down coat over pajamas, rolled the ultrasound wand over me without a word.

Orazio stood against the wall with his arms crossed so tightly the veins stood out.

Gwen held my hand.

"There," the doctor said, and tilted the screen.

A small bright flicker.

And then a sound, fast and wet and steady, filling the room.

"That's the heartbeat," she said. "One fifty-two. Strong as a drum."

I burst into tears.

"The bleeding is from your cervix, which is irritated, and that's all it is."

"It happens. Rest tonight and drink water. Nothing in here is wrong."

I turned my head to look for Orazio.

He stood where he had been, but his arms had dropped.

One hand was over his mouth.

His eyes were fixed on the screen, wide and wet.

He was shaking his head slowly.

Gwen looked at him, and then she looked at me.

"I'll wait in the car," she said, and kissed my forehead.

He didn't move until she was gone.

Then he crossed the room in three steps, went down on one knee beside the table, and pressed his forehead to my hand.

"Thank you," he said, into my palm.

"For what?"

"For not letting them stop it."

I put my fingers in his hair.

It was the first time I had touched it.

At two in the morning the Beverly house was dark and quiet.

Gwen had gone upstairs.

Nunzio had walked her to her door with great formality, and left.

I stood in the upstairs hall outside my room.

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