Loving Hart (35 page)

My heart broke into a million tiny pieces and I shook as sobs erupted from me.  “
It’s not your fault I fell. Accidents happen, and I don’t blame you at all.  But I can’t do this Spencer
.  It’s too late.”

I couldn’t even look at him, but I heard his sharp inhalation.  “No, Delilah, please don’t do this.  I swear to you that I’ll never let you down again. 
I didn’t mean anything that I said
, I promise you.  I just fucking panicked. I know I was an asshole, and m
y only
defense
is that I’m scared. 
I’m here baby, and I’m never leaving you or pushing you away again.”

I heard an inhuman wail and then was shocked to realize that it was me.  “I can’t even look at you now.
  You called our baby
‘it’.  You couldn’t even say the baby
was ours or yours.  You just kept saying that it was
my
baby.
 
Now that OUR baby is gone, you want to go back to the way things were.  That kills me Spencer, absolutely destroys me.  I lost our baby and you…”

He put his hand over my mouth, interrupting me.  “Delilah stop, you’re upsetting yourself for no reason. You didn’t lose the baby.  You’re still pregnant. 
Our
baby is fine.”

My heart stopped beating for a moment as I tried to process his words.  Lifting my pounding head up, I looked at him.  “But the doctor said there was a lot of blood, told me once I healed I’d be good as new.”

Cupping my face with his free hand, Spencer smiled through his tears.  “Oh angel… he was talking about your face.  You got a gash on your forehead and it was a gusher.  He ass
ured me that our baby is fine.”

I stared at him in wonder as my heart took flight.  Our baby was still growing inside of me, and I felt such joy that I was weak with it. 
I started to cry again, this time tears of joy.  My hand went to my stomach, rubbing gently as I mentally told our baby how happy I was, how much I loved
him
already.

When Spencer’s hand covered mine, I looked up in confusion.  He was still crying, his eyes pleading with me to listen.  “I don’t
think
I’ll be worth shit as a father, but I’m going to be here for you and our baby until the day I die.  I want you to know that I was relieved that our
baby is fine
, and
I was devastated whe
n I thought you might have miscarried
.  I’
m sorry
;
I was a jackass because I was scared shitless.  W
hen you fell, I was terrified that I’d lost you both.  I want
you to have
the baby Delilah.  I love you more than anything, and I’ll love the baby too.  How can I not when it’s a part of you?”

Grabbing his hand, I held it tight to my stomach.  “This baby is a part of you, and that’s why I couldn’
t have a termination. I was scared and upset when I found out that I was pregnant, but the truth is that once the idea settled, I was thrilled.  I couldn’
t help but fall in love with this
life
that
we created together.”

Watching his face, I realized that he wa
s terrified that
he’d fa
il as a parent.  But now that I knew
that he was
going to throw himself into it,
I knew that he wouldn’t
.
Spencer has never let me down, and I know he won't let our baby down either.
He doesn’t know that he was born to be a father, but I do. The baby and I just needed to show him the way.   We’d been given a second chance, and I was going to make sure we used it.

Reaching his hand into his pocket, he stared at me for a minute before pulling something out.  I watched in shock as he dropped to his knee and opened a white jeweler's box that held the most beautiful ring I'd ever seen in my life.
  Looking into my eyes, he smiled.  "I've had the ring for weeks Delilah.  I bought it because I had to, even when I thought we couldn't be together."  Putting his hand over his heart he went on, "In my heart, I've always been yours.  We're forever angel.  Will you marry me?"

I smiled like I'd just won the lottery.  "There is nothing in the world that would make me happier.  I love you more than anything, and I always will.  Of course my answer is yes!"

He put the ring on my finger as I cried tears of joy.  It was official! I was going to be Mrs. Spencer Cross.  My lifelong dream was coming true, and soon we'd be sharing our love with the baby we created together.  The night started off terribl
y
, but it was now easily the best night of my life.

We were interrupted by a nurse coming to kick Spencer out. He begged her to let him stay, but she stood firm. He asked her for just a few minutes so that he could say goodbye
,
and she
reluctantly
told him
that
he had three minutes
,
and not one second more.

I could see what it was going cost him to have to leave me, and my heart filled up with such love for him I thought I almost overflowed with it.  Any thought that I’d had about him not loving me
anymore
,
or hating me
for being pregnant
,
had clearly been preposterous.  I felt the truth of what he’d said
weeks ago
about my being his sun
,
and I smiled at him in wonder even as my head pounded. 

Leaning over the bed he held my hand and looked into my eyes.  “I love you Delilah
,
and I’ll love you until the day I die.  You’re the reason that my life wound up being worth anything angel, and I swear to you that I’ll move
Heaven
and
Earth
to be worthy of you, always.”

My eyes were filled with
more
tears as I lifted my free hand and brushed his hair off his forehead.  “Your life was always worth something baby, I just help you make sense of it all.  You’ve always done that for me too
,
you know.  You’re more than worthy.  You’re perfect for me because we were born to complete each other.”  Cradling his face in my hand, I smiled at him.  “I love you Spencer Cross, and we’re going to have a beautiful family.  Have faith.”

My heart lodged somewhere in my throat when he bent forward and laid his head on my stomach.  I knew he was struggling so I patiently ran my fingers through his hair.  Lifting his head up, he smiled at me.  “I bet she’s beautiful, just like you.”

Shaking my head, I beamed at him.  “Or
he
could be beautiful like you.  Whichever way it turns out, I can already tell that our baby will be perfect.”

I saw the panic in his eyes and I tucked that away in my head.  He was more afraid of having a son than a daughter, and I knew it tied right back to his childhood and the issues with his father.  I’d have to work on that with him, because I had a
very
strong feeling that I was carrying our son.

The nurse chose that moment to come back and boot him out.  He kissed me again, fighting panic as he turned to leave.  “I’ll be fine Spencer.  Tell the family that I can’t wait to see them tomorrow.  It’s just a few hours away baby.  It’s okay.”

Pulling my hand up, he kissed my engagement ring.  "I'll be here as soon as they'll let me in tomorrow.  I love you baby."

Smiling, I pushed his hair off his forehead.  "Love you too baby.  See you in a few hours."

It killed me to leave her in that hospital
room
all
alone
.  I couldn’t even tell myself that she needed her rest, because the nurse had already informed us both that they’d have to wake her up every ninety minutes through the night as a precaution. 

Once the nurse forced me out, I headed back into the waiting room.  Aunt Sandra, Dominique and Tally had been joined by Damien and Brooke, and when I walked in Damien jumped up and started barraging me with questions.  “Is she awake? Can she move? Does her head hurt? When can she come home? Do you
really
think she’s okay?”

Aunt Sandra put a hand on his arm to stop him.  “Honey, give him a chance.  He’s still upright
and functional
which
tells me that
she’s okay.  Am I right Spencer?” 

Right before I went to answer, I realized the key question that he hadn’t asked.  He didn’t ask me about the baby, which meant his still didn’t know.  I knew that everyone else in the room
knew
, with the exception of Brooke unless she'd been told, but apparently they hadn’t shared the information with him.

Deciding that I’d have to ask to talk to him alone, I started updating everyone on Delilah’s condition. 

“Aunt Sandra is right, she’s okay.  Delilah is awake and responsive and was her normal loving self.  Before I got the boot she asked me to tell all of you that she’s fine and she can’t wait to see you tomorrow.  Actually I guess I mean today, since
it’s the middle of the night.  Anyway, s
he’s got a rough couple of hours ahead of her because the nurses are going to wake her up every ninety
minutes or so, but in a day or two
we can take her home and she’ll be just fine.  They did a good job stitching up her forehead.  She looks good.”

While I was talking
,
Brooke had reached out and grabbed Damien’s hand, and now he had her cradled against his chest.  I could tell that he was having a hard time reigning himself in. “Thank god Spence.  I mean seriously, thank fucking god.  I thought the worst when we got the call.  I’m sure I don’t have to tell you the shit I imagined.”

I shook my head in the negative.  I didn’t have to imagine.  As long as I live, I’ll never forget the moment that she lost her balance
,
or the way
my heart felt when I heard the
sickening thud
as
she landed at my feet. 

Looking at Damien, the whole night came flooding back to me and I realized that I really needed to talk to him
about more than just Delilah
. 

Clearing my throat, I held his gaze.  “I actually really need to talk to you though.  Either I can go to your place or you can come to mine, but we need to talk.  It’s urgent.”

I heard the rest of the family tut-tutting and I knew they all thought that I was going to drop the pregnancy bomb on him.  I was, but I also had to lay out everything that Hank and Marceline dumped on me.

Giving me a nod
,
he said that I should meet him at his house and crash there for what little remained of the night.  I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I didn’t think either one of us was going to be getting any sleep after our talk.

As we were all hugging and saying our goodbyes, I pulled Aunt Sandra aside.  I made sure no one was listening when I asked her to meet us at Damien’s.  “I didn’t want to announce this in front of Dominique, but what we have to talk about is something you need to know too.  It’s got nothing to do with what just happened with Delilah though, so don’t panic.”

She gave me a nod, but I could see that she was concerned.  I got that, because I was concerned about telling them.  I hitched a ride with Dominique and Tally back to Delilah's place so that I could grab my car, and then I raced off to Damien's to tell him all about it.  By the time I got there, Aunt Sandra had already arrived.  Damien let me in with a worried frown. I followed him into the living room where Brooke and Aunt Sandra were already seated, and after he sat down next to Brooke, I took a seat in an armchair.

"Alright spill it Spence.  What's going on here?"

Taking a deep breath, I got right to it.  "For the last few weeks Marceline has been hounding me.  It was weird, but I didn't think too much of it since she'd hit me up for a loan that night she tricked me into going to her party.  I figured she just wanted money.  Anyway, earlier tonight when I left the wedding, I told you it was because I got a phone call.  What I actually got was a bunch of threatening texts demanding that I had forty-five minutes to get my ass over there or she was going to bring down the Hart family."

Brooke gasped, but Damien and Sandra just looked disgusted.  Now came the hard part.  I was going to have to lay it all out for them, and I knew that it wasn't going over well.

"
I went to
the
house.  Marceline and Hank met me at the front door.  That was my first clue that they thought they had something.  When I got inside, they gave me this folder.  I'll show it to you when I'm finished.  There's no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to get it out quickly.  The first thing is that Mike Hart isn't Dominique and Delilah's biological father.  Their father is a man named Todd Rand.  Todd has another child, a son.  His name is Flynn Rand."

At that, all three of them gasped.  You'd have to have been on Mars for the last decade not to know who Flynn was.