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The next hour was a blur; she stumbled back to the villa, terror clutching at her as she felt a band of pain start in her lower back and radiate out. Contractions. She was having contractions, and she was so early in her pregnancy still.
‘Please, no,’ she gasped, and then she rang Yiannis. He was there in minutes, bundling her in his truck and taking her to the hospital in Naxos’ main town.
‘I must call Kyrie Santos,’ Yiannis told her as she sat in a plastic chair in the hospital’s crowded waiting room. Although Milly hadn’t spoken of it, she knew Yiannis suspected there had been an acrimonious separation between her and Alex. ‘He will want to know.’
Would he? Three weeks and there had not been one word. Not one word.
Milly had talked herself round and round in circles, first cursing herself for not being brave enough to tell Alex she’d fallen in love with him, and then trying to convince herself she’d done the right thing in leaving, when it had been so painfully obvious he was pushing her away. He didn’t want what she wanted. He wasn’t willing to take the risk. And in any case, this was what they’d agreed on, when they’d discussed those cold, clinical terms. This was what she’d expected all along.
But now all she could think about was her baby. Her precious baby, so tiny and fragile inside her. Stay safe, baby, please...
Yiannis left her to make the call, and when he returned his face was grim. ‘Kyrie Santos is sending an air ambulance immediately to take you to Athens.’
‘What? But—’
‘The facilities here are not adequate for emergency maternity care,’ Yiannis continued. ‘Many women go to Athens for such care.’ He squeezed her hand. ‘It is going to be all right, Kyria Santos.’
But Milly feared it wouldn’t be. And ridiculously, perhaps, it hurt that Alex was sending an ambulance rather than coming himself. He didn’t care about her; it was only his precious heir that mattered. Stay safe, baby...
The short flight to the hospital in Athens was the loneliest and most terrifying experience of Milly’s life. The contractions and bleeding had continued, making her dread the worst. As the helicopter could only hold one patient, Yiannis had not been allowed to accompany her. She was completely on her own, and she felt it every second of the hour-long flight.
The sense of fearful loneliness continued when she arrived at the hospital in Athens, and after some initial checks, she was scheduled for an ultrasound to check on her baby. Although some of the consultants and technicians spoke English, it wasn’t enough for Milly to understand whether they were reassuring or warning her, and her Greek wasn’t up to the standard to ask the questions she desperately needed to.
As she waited for her scan, still not knowing what was going on or whether her baby was alive or dead, all she wanted was Alex. She’d been so stupid, so stubborn and foolish and afraid. She’d gone back over that night in Rome and rewritten it a thousand times in her head, but now, facing this alone, she knew exactly what she should have done.
She should have been brave. She should have told him she loved him, no matter how much he was trying to keep his distance, and that the regrets of his past made no difference to her. She should have held him in his arms and kissed his scars and promised him that their love could heal him. If she’d done all that, all the things that had been in her heart, perhaps she wouldn’t be alone here now. Perhaps Alex would have admitted he felt something for her; perhaps he would have been brave enough to say what was in his heart.
But she hadn’t done any of it, Milly acknowled
ged in the cold, sterile loneliness of an anonymous waiting room. She’d looked at Alex’s furious face, heard his cold tone, and she’d taken him at his word and retreated. Every insecurity she’d ever had had begun to blare in her brain.
No one has ever loved you. No one has ever fought for you, or stood by you, or cared enough to take a risk. Why did you dare think this man would?
And so she’d stayed silent. And she’d let her heart break.
Worst of all, she feared now it was too late. Alex wasn’t even coming to see if she was all right; in three weeks, he hadn’t contacted her at all, not even to ask about their own child. If there had been a moment when he’d cared, or could have cared at least, it was gone. She hadn’t risked her own heart, just as she’d told Alex three months ago. She’d said she hadn’t seen the point, but unfortunately now she very much did. The trouble was, it was just too late.
* * *
‘Where is my wife?’ The words came out in a low growl of both menace and authority. The receptionist’s eyes widened as she took in the full force of him, six feet three of powerful male on a mission.
‘Your name, kyrie...?’
‘Alexandro Santos,’ Alex bit out. The nurse glanced at his scars but he barely noticed, hardly cared. ‘And my wife is Milly Santos. She was brought here by air ambulance twenty minutes ago for a suspected miscarriage.’ The words felt like a punch in the gut, leaving him breathless with pain. ‘And I want to see her immediately.’
It had been just over an hour since Yiannis had rung him with the news that Milly had fallen and her pregnancy was threatened. An hour of raking himself over the coals, again and again, because it would never be enough.
How could he be failing someone he loved again? Having walked away again, instead of staying where he was needed, if not wanted? He never should have let Milly return to Naxos alone. He should have never stayed silent, too proud and ashamed to reach out to her. If something happened to the baby...their child...he would never forgive himself.
‘Kyria Santos is in the ultrasound department,’ the receptionist told him. ‘If you go to the left—’
Alex went to the left. He strode down the hall, fists clenched, heart pumping. This time it had to work out. This time it couldn’t end in tragedy and despair, not like before...
But he, more than anyone, knew there were no guarantees. No fairy promising a happy ending, waving her pointless wand. Life didn’t work that way, and as he turned the corner he steeled himself for the worst.
‘Alex.’ Milly’s voice sounded as if it were torn from her chest, a ragged cry that reached in and wrapped around Alex’s heart.
He dropped to his knees in front of her, wrapping his arms around her slight frame as she pressed her face against his shoulder, her body shaking with the force of her sobs.
