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“Give him to me.” She had tears in her eyes.
“Can you manage?”
“You need your hands free. We aren’t finished yet.”
Sure enough, the next three babies—a girl, followed by two more boys—came quickly after the first. By the time they had been delivered, Amy was lying back on the ground, eyes closed, panting with exertion. She cradled three of them across her chest, and Adriano held the last one in his arms.
He moved now, coming to sit behind her, propping her up against his shoulder so that she could relax upright. He wrapped his arms around her and around all four of the babies, holding them cradled against her chest, and felt her arms relax inside of his.
“They’re here,” he said quietly.
“Are they all okay?”
He wished he could give a good answer to that question. They seemed to be—they were all fussing and crying, which he took to be a good sign.
“I think they’re all right,” he said. “The ambulance should be here soon.”
She nodded. “You were right,” she murmured. “You were right to send for an ambulance.”
He smiled. “Maybe this means you’ll listen to me in the future.”
“Well, I wouldn’t bank on that. But you were right this time.”
“Areyouall right?” he asked softly.
“I think so,” she said. “I’ll know more once I’ve seen a doctor, obviously, but from what I can tell—I mean, I’ve never done this before, but I think everything feels normal.” She sighed. “You were great, you know.”
“Was I?”
“I was so scared,” she said. “I was so afraid I would have to do that all alone. And then you came running up, and it was like…I can’t explain how that felt. It was like someone had answered my prayers.”
He felt a stab of furious guilt. “You should never have been out here alone in the first place,” he said. “It’s entirely my fault that you were.”
“It’s not worth getting upset about now,” she said. ‘You were just running late.”
“No, I wasn’t just running late,” he said. “I was afraid to show my face. That’s the truth. I’ve been horrible to you, Amy. I’ve been so distant, just when you needed me most. I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I am.”
“We don’t need to talk about it right now,” she said. “We need to talk about it, but…our babies are here. I don’t want this moment to be about anything else other than that.”
He nodded. “You’re right. Let’s let this moment be about our babies.”
And for a moment, it seemed as if that was going to happen. Amy was quiet, calm, looking down at the children in her arms. Adriano held her. It was almost possible to forget about everything that had transpired between the two of them.
She looked up at him. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I know I said we didn’t need to talk about this right now. But I have to know. Do you still want them?”
He was startled that she had to ask that. He’d known that he had made her feel as if he didn’t have time forher, but this was something altogether different. “Of course I want them,” he said. “Did you really think that I wouldn’t?”
“I don’t know what to think,” she said. “It’s been months, Adriano. Months since you showed any interest in this pregnancy. I was starting to wonder whether you’d even be there for their birth.”
“I was afraid you were going to disappear,” he said. “Take off somewhere and I wouldn’t be able to find you—and then you’d go back to America as soon as you were fit to travel. I was afraid I was going to lose you for good. And the worst part is that I would have deserved it. I would spend the rest of my life knowing that you gave me every chance to be a good father to these children and that I drove you away. I’m begging you to give me one more chance, Amy. I know I’ve burned up a lot of your good favor, but I also know these babies mean the world to you—just like they do to me.”
“Do you promise that you feel that way?” she asked. “Because I can’t take risks, Adriano. Not with the babies. If there’s even a chance you’re going to change your mind in a few months and put up a wall between us again…you can do that to me. I can handle that. But I won’t let you do that to our children. If that’s what you’re going to do, you have to be out of their lives from the start.”
“You have my word,” he said. “I’ll never do that to any of you again. I don’t have a good excuse for my behavior. It was selfish and horrible of me. But I’ve spent enough time with the consequences of my actions that I know I don’t want to let it happen again—and I never will, Amy. If you can trust anything I’ve ever told you, it’s this.”
He waited with bated breath. There was nothing else he could offer her but his word, and if she didn’t believe him—if she couldn’t give him her trust—he knew he would have no right to complain.
Please don’t let me have lost them. Not when I just found them again. I couldn’t bear it.
