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Sidonie’s eyes opened and she winced at the bright light and the stark whiteness of the room. She went to move her arm and something pulled. She looked down to see a tube coming out of the back of her hand.
Her head felt slightly woolly. She noticed a movement out of the corner of her eye—someth
ing big—and then Alexio loomed into her vision. Tall and dark. His shirt open at the neck, looking crumpled. Stubble on his jaw.
The faint beep-beep sound got faster.
Automatically Sidonie’s free hand went to her midriff, where she felt the comforting swell of her baby. Even so, she looked at Alexio. ‘The baby?’
He looked grim. ‘The baby is fine.’
‘Tante Josephine?’
‘Is fine too. She’s been here all night. I sent her home a while ago.’
‘All night?’
‘You collapsed in the restaurant. I brought you straight to A and E in my car. You’ve been on a drip since you arrived and unconscious for nearly eight hours.’
‘Am I okay?’
Some of the obvious tension left Alexio’s jaw. ‘The doctor said you’re suffering from a mixture of exhaustion and stress and are generally run down.’
‘Oh.’
Alexio started to look grim again, making flutters erupt in Sidonie’s belly.
‘You’ve run yourself completely into the ground...’
Something dangerous welled up inside her at his obvious censure and she looked away, terrified of the way her throat was starting to hurt and of the emotion which wouldn’t go down.
In a voice that was far too high and tight she said, ‘Thank you for bringing me here. You can go now.’
Alexio merely walked around the bed until he was in her eyeline again and folded his arms. Succinctly he said, ‘No way.’
Just then the door opened and Sidonie turned her head to see a doctor and a nurse come in.
The doctor declared in French, ‘You’re awake! You gave us a bit of a scare, young lady...’
While he and the nurse did some tests and elaborated on what Alexio had told her Sidonie was busy trying to block out his presence in the room.
The doctor was soon sitting on the side of the bed and saying, ‘You’re due for your twenty-week scan in a few weeks, but after what’s happened I’d like to do a scan now, just so we can double-check everything is okay.’
He must have seen something on her face because he said quickly, ‘I’ve no reason not to believe everything is fine, but we’d like to be sure.’
Within a few minutes Sidonie was being wheeled in her bed to another part of the hospital. Alexio was by her side. She felt panicky. She was about to have a scan with Alexio looking on. She’d never envisaged this happening.
After they were wheeled into the room it all happened very fast. Sidonie’s belly was bared and they were smoothing cold gel over it. She felt acutely self-conscious all of a sudden—which was crazy considering Alexio had seen more of her naked body than she probably had herself.
When the doctor put the ultrasound device over her belly a rapid sound filled the room. The baby’s heartbeat. Immediately Sidonie’s focus went to the screen, which was showing a fuzzy grey image. Her heart thumped as emotion climbed upwards again—but this time it was a different kind of emotion.
After a few minutes the doctor smiled and said, ‘Everything looks absolutely normal. You have a fine, healthy baby, Sidonie—a little small, but developing well.’
Then he looked at her and at Alexio.
‘Would you like to know the sex?’ he asked. ‘It’s quite clear at the moment.’
Sidonie looked at Alexio, mortified that the doctor had assumed they were together. Even if Alexio was the father.
