The Queen of Hearts

Their Time Together Was Coming to a Close

The nurse noticed the rigidity in the man's neck and the stillness of his face and took a hesitant step into the room. She assumed his appearance stemmed from the stress of the situation with his wife, but this was far from the case. The man, whose name was Antonio, felt a strange recognition as he looked at Gabrielle's face.

In the few moments it took for him to bring the images of just short of an hour ago to the forefront of his mind, Gabrielle slipped out of the room unnoticed.

Antonio blinked with deliberateness as the door sluggishly slid to a close. The woman was not there. For a brief moment, he genuinely believed that his imagination was running rampant. Maybe he'd never spoken to the woman in the cafe. There was the possibility that she hadn't been hiding in the shadows behind the door.

He shook his head at those thoughts. Antonio was under an immense amount of stress, but he knew better than that. He knew that the woman had been in the cafe and had somehow followed him to the room his wife resided in. Adrenaline rushed through his body, making his heart pound so frantically that it was painful. Something wasn't quite right about that woman, and he'd seen it from the start.

She'd spoken to him in the cafe in a very forward manner, but she refrained from being hubristic. Under normal circumstances he would have instantly liked her. The very qualities Gabrielle had that compelled her to approach him are what attracted him to his own wife.

Antonio smiled at the memory of meeting his wife, Maria. He had actually been at a sandwich pub when Maria seated herself right next to him at his table. It had caught him off guard, but she had not let awkwardness set it. It was not long before Antonio found himself falling madly in love with her.

They had been married for five years and travelled the world. Maria became pregnant almost simultaneously with the discovery of her cancer. She very well might have lived to see another day had she terminated the pregnancy and gotten treatment for her illness. Instead she allowed the child to gestate and her love grew for her baby everyday. Maria committed to giving the ultimate sacrifice so that she could hold the child she loved so much. She knew that there was always the chance that she would not make it, even if she had decided to get treatment.

Their child would be the glue that held Antonio together when she finally passed away. As much as she wanted to live, to raise her baby, to love Antonio with all her heart, Maria knew that their baby was what Antonio would need.

But as with many pregnancies, there were complications with Maria's. She had given birth prematurely. Their child, Isabella, remained in a neonatal intensive care unit for several weeks. It was just a few days ago that she had been released to go home, but with Antonio's work schedule and visits to the hospital, Isabella remained with Maria's parents.

Maria's apnea became more severe, and a tear rolled down her cheek as she thought about the possibility of something happening to her baby after her death. All she wanted was to hold her baby one last time before she passed away. If she could simply feel Isabella's small heartbeat against hers she would be satisfied. She knew, however, that the chances of it happening were very slim.

It seemed that Antonio's mind was on a dark path as well, for his smile faltered at the thought of losing his wife and child in such a short period of time. They both knew that although little Isabella had been cleared to go home, she was not completely out of trouble. Isabella had a strict medicinal and diet regimen for the next several weeks in her short life.

As time ticked on, both Antonio and Maria knew their time together was coming to a close.