I saw Dadi and Papa arrive, their faces stricken with worry. Saw Armaan speak to them briefly before returning to my side.
Then we were in the delivery room, and a doctor was explaining something to us, and my mind was having trouble keeping up because the pain was so intense and I was so scared.
"This is a critical case," the doctor was saying. Her voice was calm but serious. "The baby is premature. There are complications. We may not be able to save both mother and child."
The words hit me like ice water.
"What?" I managed to gasp out.
The doctor looked between Armaan and me.
"We need to know. If we have to make a choice, who do we save? The mother or the baby?"
I did not even have to think about it.
"The baby," I said immediately. "Save my baby."
"No."
Armaan's voice was hard as steel. Final. Brooking no argument.
"Save my wife."
"Armaan, no! You cannot—"
"Save. My. Wife." He looked at the doctor with an intensity that was almost frightening. "I do not care what you have to do. You save her. Do you understand me?"
"Armaan, please," I begged, tears streaming down my face. "Please. Our baby—"
He turned to me, and the look in his eyes made my breath catch. There was love there. Fierce, protective, all consuming love. But there was also fear. Raw terror at the thought of losing me.
"I cannot lose you, Viya," he said, his voice breaking. "I cannot. If I have to choose, I choose you. Every time. Always."
He cupped my face in his hands, his thumbs wiping away my tears.
"Do you understand? You are everything to me. You are my life. I will not sacrifice you. I will not."
And in that moment, looking into his eyes, seeing the absolute conviction there, something inside me shifted.
This was not obligation. This was not guilt. This was not a man trying to do the right thing.
This was a man who loved me more than anything in the world. Who would choose me over everything else. Who meant every word he had said over the past six months.
I could trust him. I could trust this. I could trust us.
"Okay," I whispered. "Okay."
Someone was putting a mask over my face. I heard the doctor giving orders. Felt Armaan's lips press against my forehead one last time.
"I love you," he said. "Come back to me."
Then everything went dark.
???
I woke slowly, fighting my way up through layers of fog and confusion. My body felt heavy and strange. There was a dull ache in my abdomen.
But I was alive.
