The Billionaire's Surrogate: A BWWM Pregnancy Love Story (22 page)

Christine came waddling
into the room, her stomach getting there about five minutes before
her. Max folded the Financial Times he’d been reading and
smiled up at her.

“
Good
morning ma chère,” he said.

“
Ma
chère my ass. Which is aching just so you know,”
Christine complained.

Max wrinkled his nose
and suppressed a grin, “TMI.”

“
Ha.
No such thing when you’re this pregnant. You broke it, you
bought it, you share in the pain of what a pain in the ass third
trimester pregnancies can be.”

“
You
know there are thousands of women who-“ Max began
sanctimoniously still trying to suppress the grin.

“
I
swear if you start up again with that ‘thousands of women who
would kill to be pregnant’ crap again I will kill you. You will
be deceased,” Christine threatened.

Max put up his hands
and cowered laughing. “I’m so scared,” he said.

“
Oh
you better be,” Christine said pulling the plate of taquitos
toward her. She’d developed a hankering for Mexican food in her
last month of pregnancy which was very inconvenient seeing as she was
also extremely prone to hyper-acidity. Max stood up, placing the
container of cold yogurt next to her as she dug in. It helped with
the acidity sometimes, other times she had to resort to antacids, a
huge jar of which stood on her other side. Max had tried to persuade
her to maybe not eat spicy foods instead of going through this circle
of suffering and had almost gotten a blade to his heart as a result.
He tended to be much more cautious in his approach these days. She
was just pouring herself a large glass of yogurt when she felt a
clenching sensation in her lower stomach. She bent forward clutching
at it, trying to speak and finding that she couldn’t. Max had
already left the room; was probably collecting his keys in readiness
to leave for work. As she looked frantically around for something to
call out with, a phone, anything, her eyes fell on the little silver
bell that Craddock had got her. It was supposed to be a joke because
she was constantly eating which meant she was constantly wandering
over to the kitchen and bumping into everyone and everything. So
Craddock had gotten her a bell to ring when she wanted something
brought. She’d responded by ringing it every five minutes for
the first three days but she’d gotten tired of his never ending
patience as he answered it so she’d stopped…unless there
was really something she wanted from the kitchen. She grabbed at it
now and rang it frantically, hoping for someone to come quickly
before she died of pain in her seat. She felt something vital loosen
and liquefy and then warm wetness spread down her tights.
Was
she bleeding?
Christine was now
genuinely terrified.

“
What?”
Max’s languid voice inquired from the doorway and then his tone
changed as he saw her hunched over in her seat. “Christine?
What’s wrong?” he asked urgently hurrying over to shake
her by the shoulder. That was not helping and she made an
inarticulate sound of protest.

“
Craddock!
Sarah! Anyone!” Max shouted trying to straighten her up. But
that just increased the pain so she resisted. Someone came hurrying
into the room in response to the urgency in Max’s tone.

“
Call
an ambulance!” he shouted to whomever it was and they went
scurrying off.

“
It
will be alright baby. What can I do?” he asked trying his best
to be reassuring as he rubbed at her back but the fear he was feeling
dripped through every word. Christine tried to say something but she
was too breathless to speak and the pain was unbearable.

“
Sarah!
Did you get an ambulance?” Max shouted as he tried to lift
Christine out of her seat.

“
They
said five minutes,” Sarah, the day maid said rubbing her hand
anxiously as she hovered by the door. “Can I do anything else?”
she asked then looked at the wet floor. “I’ll just wipe
that,” she said hurrying off to get a mop.

The
ambulance was true to their word and five minutes later they were at
the building. Max was outside waiting with Christine in his arms. He
had tried to wait but Christine’s continued distress got to him
so much that he had to feel he was doing
something
.
So he carried her down the stairs as she cried steadily.

“
Is
it supposed to be this bad?” he asked the EMT as they got her
on a gurney and placed an oxygen mask on her.

The EMT did not deign
to answer, stripping off Christine’s tights as the vehicle took
off and examining the bloody fluid that surrounded her.

“
It's
just bloody show, perfectly normal,” he said aloud as he took
Christine’s pulse. Her breath was coming in hitches and she was
still trying to bend over double as the EMTs pushed her back to lie
flat.

“
She’s
in pain, won’t you give her something for that?” Max
asked in distress. Christine’s eyes were wild and unaware,
staring into nothingness as she struggled for breath, her whole body
hitching with every intake and lurching with every exhale.

“
I
can’t give her something right now. We need to find out what
we’re dealing with first,” he said.

“
She’s
pregnant; can’t you see that?!?” Max asked on the edge of
hysteria.

“
Sir,
I’m going to have to ask you to please calm down. We are doing
our level best to ensure that your wife gets the best care possible,”
the other EMT said looking him in the eye. Max tried to calm down and
let them get on with it but it was hard to see her like this and not
want to beat somebody to a pulp for letting the pain continue. The
ride to the hospital was thankfully a short one and Dr. Mulholland
was waiting when they arrived. Max made a mental note to give Sarah a
raise for ensuring that the ambulance and Dr. Mulholland were
informed on where to meet them because his brains were scrambled
right now. The doctor was right there as the gurney was removed from
the ambulance, with Christine still trying her level best to hunch
into a tight ball of pain.

“
Christine?
It's me, Dr. Mulholland. Show me where it hurts,” she was
saying even as her stethoscope was out and she was touching Christine
in various places to see her reaction. The gurney was hurried along
past the emergency room and into an OR. A nurse stopped Max at the
door stating that there was some paperwork to be done and could he
step this way.

“
My
wife…I need to be with her,” Max said resisting her
attempts to move him from the door.

“
And
you will. Just, you need to complete this paperwork and then you can
scrub in. It won’t take more than a minute or two I promise you
Mr. Lestrange.”

Thankfully they’d
been taken to the fertility center where the staff were familiar with
them so it really did not take more than a minute to fill in the
forms. Then the nurse was leading him to a scrub room and showing him
what to wear and how to wash his hands. He did as he was bid and then
he was allowed into the OR where Christine was already sedated.

“
Max,”
Dr. Mulholland said as he stepped in the room, looking up quickly and
then back down to her work. “It looks like Christine has
suffered something called Placenta Abruptio. We must get the baby out
as fast as possible and then stabilize both mother and child. If you
are to stay in the room we’ll need you to be completely calm.
You may hold her hand.”

Max said nothing. He
didn’t think he was capable of saying anything but he stepped
forward between two nurses and took Christine’s hand in his.
Dr. Mulholland worked fast, she ripped into Christine’s uterus
and pulled the baby out. The baby was then rushed to another station
where a team of pediatric surgeons worked on it – Max didn’t
even know if it was male or female – while another team of
doctors worked to stem Christine’s bleeding and prevent her
from bleeding out on the table. Max stepped back and let them work,
praying to whomever was listening to just save his family.

There was a tense
moment when the machines around Christine began beeping in a very
alarming manner and Max wanted to scream at the doctors to do
something; make it stop. But he didn’t want to distract anyone
from their work. He looked toward the baby’s table, where
things looked calmer. They looked like they had done what they could
for the child, so either it was okay or…

Max moved toward the
child, his heart in his mouth. One of the doctors saw him coming and
smiled.

“
You
have a baby girl,” he said and moved out of the way so that Max
could see. A tiny child lay on the bed, with a head full of curly
hair and dusky skin. She looked upset, was moving her head about as
well as her limbs as if looking for something. Her mouth was pursed
as if she was about to cry.

“
Can
I hold her?” he asked the doctor.

“
Not
yet,” he said indicating the various tubes and wires linked to
the baby. Such a tiny thing to have so many things poking and
prodding at her. Max leaned forward to stare at her; he willed her to
open her eyes but they stayed willfully shut.

“
Hey
baby. It's okay. Daddy’s here,” he murmured softly. The
baby stopped moving for a moment and Max’s heart literally
stopped beating. Then she continued with her movements and Max’s
heart swelled with a feeling he had never experienced before. It came
from nowhere and suddenly he was its prisoner. A powerful need to
protect this little person came over him and he hunched over the
crib, surrounding her with his presence.

“
You’re
going to be just fine. And so is mama,” he told her and smiled.
The little girl opened her eyes and seemed to look at him for a
moment. She had honey brown eyes, just like her mother’s. It
almost broke Max’s heart to see it.

He straightened up,
moving toward the other table. The frantic activity had calmed down
somewhat, whatever the crisis was, it seemed to have passed.

“
Is
she alright?” Max asked Dr. Mulholland softly.

“
I
think she will be,” she said smiling at him. Max nodded his
head in gratitude.

“
Thank
you,” he said feeling a huge lump in his throat and moisture
blurring his eyes.

“
Don’t
thank me just yet. She’s not out of the woods. We’ll
watch her closer in the ICU for the next 24 hours to be absolutely
sure. Your little girl will go to NICU. It's going to be a long day
and night.”

Max nodded his
understanding. “Okay then. What can I do?” he asked.

“
Pray
I guess; if you’re the praying type.”

“
Just
tell me they’ll be okay.”

Dr. Mulholland looked
at him, shaking her head. “Not in my hands but I can promise
you we’ll do everything in our power to give you back your
family in one piece,” she said.

“
That’s
all I can ask,” Max said and moved out of the way for them to
move Christine and the baby out. He followed them until he was
stopped at the ICU door. He turned around and walked back to the
waiting room. He had calls to make.

He looked up and saw
Martha standing by the waiting room table watching him come.
“How
are they?” she asked looking anxiously at him.

Max tried to smile, he
really did, but he couldn’t quite manage it. Before he knew it,
he was folded up on Martha’s shoulder, weeping quietly.

“
They’re
alive? Tell me that they are alive,” she said holding tight to
him.

‘
They’re
alive. Christine was bleeding pretty bad though. And the baby…they
stuck all these tubes in her…”

“
Her?”
Martha said perking up. Max straightened up from her shoulder to look
her in the eye.

“
Yes.
We have a baby girl.”

Martha smiled. “I’m
so happy for you,” she said face beaming.

Max smiled back. “It's
wonderful right?” he said wetly.

“
It
really is,” Martha said. “And they will be just fine.
Both of them. I promise you that.”

“
You
promise?” Max repeated.

“
Yes,”
Martha said. She pulled out her phone. “Now, I need to call
some people and let them know.”

“
I
think you should wait. Christine and…the baby won’t be
out of danger for twenty four hours.”

“
All
the more reason why we all need to pray together on this one. We’re
going to form a prayer circle and keep them safe inside,”
Martha said.

Now Max wasn’t
what one would call a believer but hearing Martha say that made him
feel much better about everything. Somehow he knew they would get
through this in one piece.

*****

Christine and the baby
came home four days later in good health. Christine was a bit weak
with blood loss and the whole pushing a baby out of her body thing so
Martha was staying over to look after her. The announcement of the
baby’s birth had been placed in the paper to notify anyone who
needed to know. They didn’t have a name yet so for now they
were just calling her ‘baby’.

“
I
think all this post baby expelling of fluids is like…thee most
disgusting part of being pregnant,” Christine told Max as they
lay back in bed watching the baby sleep.

Max smiled. “It's
funny you should say that because I don’t think you’ve
ever looked more lovely.”

Christine gave him the
most intense side eye. “Really? It's one thing to be supportive
Max, it's quite another to tell blatant lies.”