[[OLD]] A Handful of Daffodils (Forgotten Series, #7)

Chapter Seventy-Six

The walk to the main house and then to the infirmary was quiet. I wasn't sure what to say to Menza during the walk through the snow and the doctor seemed to be fine with being quiet. I felt a little unsettled. I hadn't known what to expect when I had arrived at the small territory I had never heard of before. Oblitus wasn't a territory that I really knew about and I doubted anyone else from Sublatus had heard about and I supposed that was the point. Menza was far away from anything to do with Sublatus and Stenton, no one could see her and report back about the pregnancy.

I wondered how they had come to the conclusion that this territory was the best one to have her go to but I didn't even know where to begin to ask. My heart had been in my throat when we had arrived and then taken the short walk to the nice looking home sitting further from the main house. It had a nice cheery blue exterior with a dark, shingled roof and the front porch decking was made with treated lumber and I could smell the fresh cut wood, as if it had been recently built.

The Alpha, Jace, had come over to speak with Councillor Jovan and from there Jovan had gone inside. I hadn't expected how hard it had been seeing Menza. Her curls had been pulled back into a braid, some curls had escaped, haloing her delicate face. She had looked healthy and filled with vitality but then she had seen me. Those beautiful brown eyes had grown wide and she looked scared. Terrified that I was there. I hadn't missed how she had clutched her skirt in one of her hands until her knuckles went white and how she shied away from me.

I hated that but I didn't blame her for it. I had done my best to make her terrified of me and I had to live with those consequences. It just hurt to see the consequences as they were. I didn't know what I had expected but I knew I should have expected that. I had barely been able to breathe. The contrast between how happy I was to see Maeve and how utterly saddened I was to see Menza like that, so scared of me.

The shame had nearly choked me as the regrets pounding through my veins. It had almost been enough to bring me to my knees but then we were heading to the infirmary. Then I was sitting beside a cot while the doctor started with an ultrasound. I stared hard at the grainy image and could see the little outline of a baby on the screen and swallowed hard.

The fear pounded through me as I looked at the image as the baby kicked out. "Everything is fine?" I couldn't look away from the screen. I wasn't even sure I could be considered as happy as I stared at the image before me. All I could remember was Chrissie. I remembered seeing Maeve on a similar screen and Chrissie and I had been so happy but Chrissie had died and now I was right back there and I was terrified Menza would die too.

"Baby is growing perfect. Measuring up at about thirteen inches and from what I can see, the weight is getting closer to two pounds. Top percentile for twenty-four weeks. Amniotic sac is looking great and so is the placenta. Healthy pregnancy by all accounts." At the words I clasped my hands tightly together, rubbing at my knuckles.

"How is Menza holding up?" I wanted to know how she was, wanted to know how it was affecting her.

"Menza?" The doctor's question had me glancing towards Menza and she gave a small nod as if giving permission. It was the same little display that was between her and the doctor when I had asked about the baby. "Her levels are all great. We're monitoring her closely. She gets blood work done weekly to ensure nothing is wrong. We watch her and baby closely to ensure that everything is where it needs to be and so if anything changes, we will take baby girl out immediately."

The words had my stomach dropping. "It's a female?" The words tasted bitter on my tongue. Another female? It was like the exact same situation as Chrissie, the situation that ended up with her dead. I wondered for a moment if I would have felt anything different if it had been a male but I sincerely doubted it. Menza was pregnant and she could die, that was all I could imagine.