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Please sit down, both of you: The obstetrician wasn't smiling any more. He was looking at the scanned images he had on his desk, moving them around. 'I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but it looks as though your baby may have a heart defect:
'A heart defect? What exactly does that mean? Will my baby—?' Emily couldn't get any further; her pent-up emotions were bursting out and making it impossible for her to speak.
‘The baby will have to be between twenty-two to twenty-four weeks before we can make a full diagnosis. At this stage, all we can tell from the scans is that there is a likelihood that your baby could have a foetal heart abnormality.’
‘You said there could be a heart abnormality.’
Marcos voice seemed to be reaching Emily from over a great distance, as though she weren't really here and taking part in this dreadful, dreadful scene, as though she and her baby had gone away somewhere private and safe where nothing bad could touch them.
'What exactly does that mean?' Marco questioned the obstetrician.
‘lt means that the baby's heart does not seem to be forming as it should. Now this can be a small problem, or it can be a far more serious one. We cannot tell which, as yet. That is why you will need to see a cardiac specialist. There is a very good one here in this hospital, who collaborates with our specialist neo-natal unit. My recommendation would be that we arrange for you to visit him as soon as it can be arranged:
‘Is...is my baby going to die?’ Emilys voice shook with fear.
‘No.’ the obstetrician assured her. But depending on how severe the abnormality is there could be a series of operations throughout his childhood and teenage years and maybe, if things are extreme, there will be the necessity for a heart transplant at some stage. Severe heart malfunctions do limit the kind of life the sufferer can live. If this is the case, your son will need dedicated care; boys like to run and play vigorous games, but it might be a possibility that hell not be able to do that.’
Her child could be a boy who might not be able to run and play like other children, a boy who could be subjected to operation after operation to keep him alive! But he would have a life, and she would give every hour, every second, of her life to him and his needs. Emily vowed fiercely.
Marco looked across at Emily; he could see the devastation in her eyes. He wanted, he realised, to take her in his arms and hold her there. He wanted to tell her that there was nothing to fear and that he would keep both of them safe, her and their child. He wanted to tell her that he was there for them whatever happened and he always would be and that they were the most, the only important things in his life. The news they had just received had at a stroke filled him with an emotion so complex and yet so simple that it could not be denied.
Love...
What he was feeling for Emily right now was love: a man's love for his woman, the mother of his child, for his companion and soul mate, without whom his life would never be complete.
Earlier, while watching the scan take place, he had experienced the most extraordinary sense of enlightenment, of knowing that he had to be part of his sons life. Now had come the knowledge that nothing could ever be more important to him than guarding this precious, growing life and the woman who was carrying it.
Not power, not wealth, nothing; not even the throne of Niroli.
Marco knew that others would not understand; he barely understood what he was experiencing himself. But somehow, it wasn't necessary for him to understand, or to be able to analyse; it was simply enough for him to know. Maybe he had been travelling towards this place, this crossroads in his life, for longer than he realised; maybe there had been many signposts along the journey that he had not seen.
However, now not only had the crossroads been reached they had been traversed simply and easily, without any kind of hesitation or doubt. He could not be Niroli's king and his child's father—certainly not this child's father, whose young life might always hang precariously on a thread, and who should never be subjected to the rigours of kingship. This boy would need his fathers loving presence. And he would have it. Singularly, neither he nor Emily was strong enough for their child, but together they would be.
‘I have to return to Niroli.'
They were back home in Emily’s kitchen. The necessary appointment had been made with the cardiac specialist, and now Emily inclined her head slightly as she listened to Marco.
‘Yes of course.' she agreed. She had been expecting him to say this, and she knew too that there would be no demands from him now that she should return with him so that his son could grow up on the island. The royal family of Niroli were arrogant and proud, too arrogant and proud to want to accept that one of their bloodline could be anything less than perfect. No. Marco would not want a sickly, ailing child around to remind him of that. She could feel the pain of the rejection on behalf of her baby, but she stifled it. It was Marco who was not worthy of their child, not the other way around. Not worthy of her child and not worthy of her love.
