Team Work [Sink or Swim Book 2]

Loose Ends - Chapter 1 Preview

The Palms luxury villa in Malibu was quiet. It was late at night and the trees from which the villa was named swayed gently in the warm late spring breeze. The night sky was clear and the stars sparkled in the darkness. From the Malibu location the lights of Los Angles could be seen glowing on the horizon. The sound of the ocean waves could be heard lapping at the beach and cliffs.

As everyone in the villa slept Joanne Wu stood in her room freshly showered, dressed only in her silk robe. The swimming team breast stroke specialist turned security and computer expert contemplated the events of the past few years. As a member of the fantastic four she had had Olympic dreams but since her involvement with the McIntyre family, then following her abduction alongside her boyfriend Martin things had been very different.

Jo opened up her robe and studied her changed body in the full length mirror. Her breasts once a small pert 30B had grown in size - she was now a 32D, her areola had grown and darkened significantly and her nipples had become swollen and enlarged. Her usually toned stomach was not yet back to its flat toned self, a small bulge still existed and stretch marks were present around the sides close to her tattoo. With her right hand Joanne reached to feel between her legs, she could still feel the scar tissue from the episiotomy. She was still too scared to look at this particular piece of damage that had been done to her body.

Joanne walked across the room and went to bed. She was tired - extremely tired but couldn't sleep. She lay in bed thinking before gradually drifting into a dream like state. Her mind wandered back to the experience she had been through at the hospital just one month earlier. She was rushed into the private maternity wing at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre having started contractions early one morning. Having decided on a water-birth things changed after consultants decided it would not be wise due to the babies position. To help speed the birth Joanne recalled the uncomfortable experience of a midwife slipping three finger inside of her vagina and using a tool to break her waters. Joanne insisted throughout on no pain relief or epidural and was supported by her three best friends. After around sixteen hours she felt exhausted and a physician needed to cut down her perineum in an emergency procedure to allow the babies to enter the world as it became distressed in the breach position whilst semi-born. It was the feeling and pain of being cut before the local anaesthetic had fully taken effect that stopped her sleeping.

Joanne sat up in bed and looked towards the crib in the corner as her month old baby started to cry. She got up and made her way over.

"Mia, hey, Mummy is here." Joanne said calmly lifting her carefully, "Hey, you feeling hungry?"

Joanne slipped open her robe on one side. Cradling Mia in her left arm and gently supported her breast with her right hand she offered the baby her nipple. Little Mia took the feed sucking gently feeling comforted by her mum. As she cradled the baby Joanne thought about Martin, his loan to the LA Galaxy football team failed to materialise so he was stranded back in London. He knew all about Mia, but Joanne had yet to pluck up the courage to tell him he wasn't the father, although she was sure he knew. The semi-blonde hair and Slavic features were the tell-tale sign. There was no way those features could be present with a Euro-Asian mother and Afro-Caribbean fathers heritage. She looked down at her baby and thought to herself, 'How am I ever going to explain to you about your father and how you came about. How am I ever going to tell your father you even exist?'

To be continued... Follow the link to the concluding part of the Sink or Swim Trilogy - 'Loose Ends':

https://www.wattpad.com/story/257527518-loose-ends-sink-or-swim-book-3?utm_source=web&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share_myworks