Reckless Temptations (Tempted #4)(106)

“You’re partially responsible for this bloodshed and you know it Parrish.” Brantley countered. “The Satan’s Knights have been taking the lives of innocent women for years. It doesn’t matter if that girl in there lives or dies. She’s better off dead,” he seethed.

I charged at him but I was too slow as Anthony got to him first, slamming the cop in uniform up against the glass window of the hospital.

“Anthony!” Adrianna shrieked.

“That’s my sister in there you pig,” Anthony seethed, slamming his body against the glass.

“You’re assaulting an officer,” Brantley warned.

“Then fucking lock me up, douchebag,” Anthony gritted, releasing his hold on Brantley.

“Excuse me?” A doctor said, speaking over the commotion. “Are you the family of Lauren Bianci?”

I turned on my heel and looked at the doctor, watching as she removed her paper mask and glanced around at us until her eyes focused on mine. She glanced down at my clothes before lifting her eyes back to mine.

I’ll never forget the worn and drained eyes that stared back at me sympathetically. And I’m even more sure I wouldn’t forget the words she was about to deliver.

“I’m her mother,” Maria declared. “Please, is she okay?”

The doctor turned her attention to Maria.

“She’s still in surgery. I’m the resident OBGYN and this, is Dr. Meadows, the head of Pediatrics,” she explained, motioning to the doctor standing off to the left of her, a man I hadn’t even noticed was there.

“Pea,” I whispered, looking back and forth between the two doctors who were about to tell me if mine and Lauren’s baby had survived. It was that moment I became a father first and foremost, when I understood what it was to be a parent. I was terrified that they were going to tell me that Pea didn’t survive. The old me would’ve walked away just like I always did when something threatened to hurt me and not in the physical sense. Physical pain I could live with. The pain that slices through your heart? That shit was different, and as tough as I claim to be, as brutal of human I am, I usually run scared when it comes to the heart.

But I’m someone’s father now and that someone comes before my fear. That someone is my heart. The reason I have one, the reason it beats.

“I’m the father,” I said, walking up to them.

“As you know the baby was under distress and before they could operate on Ms. Bianci we needed to perform an emergency cesarean to deliver the baby,” she paused for a moment.

“Ms. Bianci successfully delivered a baby boy, weighing three pounds, one ounce and I believe fifteen inches in length. I closed and the surgeons took over. I don’t have an update on her status but while I was performing the C-section she was stable and I delivered the baby in under two minutes,” she explained.

“A boy,” I said. “I have a son.”

He was born weighing three pounds, one ounce but his birth caused my heart to weigh a ton. Who knew such a revelation could make my heart feel so full? Not me. Not me at all.

“Is he okay?”

Dr. Meadows stepped up.

“I took over for your son once he was delivered and immediately began working on him. His lungs aren’t fully developed so we needed to place him on a ventilator. He is in the NICU right now, stabilized with the machine breathing for him. We also inserted a feeding tube in him and are carefully monitoring him.”

“But he’s okay? I mean, he’s little and all but he’s going to make it, right Doc?” I asked, unable to recognize my own voice.

“Mr. Bianci is it?”

“No, Montgomery.”

“Mr. Montgomery, your son was born twelve weeks early, aside from Respiratory Distress Syndrome, your son is still very much considered to be in critical condition. We are working to determine if there is an intraventricular hemorrhage, which is a brain bleed. If there is we need to monitor it very closely but they usually dissolve on their own accord. However, there may be lasting side effects that we won’t be able to determine right away.”

“Such as?” I asked, turning to Maria. “Please, listen in case I forget anything,” I pleaded.

She nodded, tears falling down her cheeks as she listened along with me as the doctor explained Pea’s condition and the illnesses he may face.

Cerebral Palsy.

Mental Retardation.

And that was just if he had a brain bleed.

I think.

All I knew was he spoke of things no parent wants to hear.

“Can I see him?” I asked, interrupting him as he went down the list of possible occurrences. Pea wasn’t going to get any of those things. I was sure of it. He was half Lauren and half me. He was his mother’s son and he was a fighter. He’d get through it.

Dr. Meadow’s eyes assessed me before he sighed.

“I’m going to get a nurse to give you some scrubs and get you out of these clothes. The NICU is a very sterile environment. You’ll need to scrub down and then of course you may see your son,” he said, turning toward Maria and Anthony. “The rest of you may see him from the window but at this time we’re only going to allow the father inside the unit.”

Maria nodded, turning to me.

“You tell that little boy he has a lot of people who love him and can’t wait to meet him. You tell him his mommy is the number one person on that list, okay?”