Helpless | A Modern Hamliza Story

Chapter Three

When Eliza woke up the next morning, she was feeling much better than the day before, much to her dismay. She hated being sick, but if being sick meant that she was pregnant, she would be okay with it. If she was getting better, does that mean she needed to give up hope?

She gained more hope when she got to the restaurant and smelled all of the food. She covered her mouth as she gagged, similarly to yesterday morning when she smelled Alexander's Saturday morning breakfast.

This was certainly not what she was expecting to happen after this morning when she told her husband that everything would be fine despite him telling her she should take it slow. She had assured him that she was feeling fine to calm his worries.

Eliza sucked away her disgust the second she saw her niece, putting on a happy face in front of her sisters. She'd have to mask her nausea for now.

Baby Catharine gave a huge, toothy grin when she saw Eliza, reaching her arms out excitedly. How could Eliza say no to that? She grabbed the baby from her sister, setting the ten month old on her hip.

"Hi, baby!" Eliza cooed as the little girl began squirming and playing with Eliza's face. Her heart swelled with joy seeing Catharine and how big she was getting. Her heart beat faster looking at the sweet baby girl, wishing she could also see Catharine's older brother—her sweet almost two year old nephew. If this is what it felt like to be a mother, Eliza couldn't wait.

She kissed the baby's cheek before addressing her sisters. "Ready to sit down?"

They found their table and ordered, although Eliza struggled to find something that wasn't making her nausea grow. Pancakes, French toast, eggs... they all seemed to make her stomach churn.

She instead focused on playing with her niece, praying that she'd be able to get through just this one brunch.

Peggy and Angelica's hearts couldn't help but ache watching their sister play with Catharine. She was a natural. If anyone was going to be the best mom, it was Eliza. She had the gentle touch, the big heart, and all of the maternal instincts down pat. To watch her struggle and hurt so badly absolutely broke them.

By some miracle, Eliza made it through the meal, though she was only able to take a few bites before calling it quits.

She turned to her niece again, trying to get her to babble a few words like Ti-Ti for tía or just simply Liza to simplify her name even further. Catharine seemed to try, but stuck with the three words she knew: dada, mama, and up. She was much more interested in grabbing Eliza's phone and pulling on the loose strands of hair falling out of Eliza's messy bun.

When they got to Angelica's place after brunch, the oldest and youngest sister didn't wait to bring up the tests long enough for Eliza to greet her nephew. The baby was taken from Eliza's arms by the youngest sister who wanted her fair share of auntie time.

"There's a test under the sink in the hall bathroom. Good luck, sis," Angelica smiled, sending the middle sister off to take what she thought must have been the hundredth pregnancy test of her life.

Eliza sat on the edge of the bathtub waiting her three minutes for her alarm to go off. She almost didn't need an alarm anymore. Her body knew when three minutes was up pretty well at this point. She still set the alarm to keep her feet on the floor and her anxiously beating heart in her chest.

Angelica and Peggy had seemed so confident to her that this was her month. Maybe her sisters really knew best, but a tiny voice tugged at her heart, whispering words of denial.

Her head was spinning—from fear, from anxiety, from overthinking, from sickness. One moment she thought she was going to pass out, but she grabbed the side of the bathtub just in time to hold her ground.