The Clinic Swore the Baby Was His, So He Stayed When It Wasn't novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Heartbeat
Mats's POV
The sonographer turned a dial, and the room filled with the sound.
It was fast and wet and steady, a rushing gallop in the dark, much faster than anything I had ever heard a heart do.
I sat on a plastic chair beside the table with Liisa's hand in both of mine.
On the screen a gray shape turned over, and a tiny fist rose to a tiny face.
"One hundred and forty-eight," the sonographer said. "That's a good strong rate."
"Everything measures right on the date. Twenty weeks exactly."
Liisa was crying without making any noise.
I could not feel my hands.
"Would you like to know the sex?" the woman asked.
"She's a girl," Liisa said, with a wet laugh. "I've known since the first week."
The sonographer moved the wand, and looked at the screen, and smiled.
"Your instinct is good," she said.
I stared at the fist on the screen.
I had made a rule never to want what I could not carry in one hand.
Here was a girl smaller than my palm, and I would have carried her across the lake.
Liisa squeezed my fingers.
"Breathe, Captain," she whispered.
I held it together through the printouts and the paper towel, and the parking-lot ice, and the walk to the truck.
I held it together while I opened her door, and while she climbed up, and while I walked around the hood.
Then I got behind the wheel and shut my door, and the sound of that heartbeat was still going in my skull.
I put both hands on the wheel and my forehead on my hands.
It came up from somewhere I had not opened since I was twenty-seven in a paper gown.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of The Clinic Swore the Baby Was His, So He Stayed When It Wasn't are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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