Her Motherhood Wish (Parent Portal 3)

Something was horribly wrong. There were no breaks in Cassie’s moans. No seconds, let alone minutes, in between contractions. If it was contractions at all.

He knew all about healthy births. But nothing in their class had taught them preparation for anything like this.

He was almost there and hoped to God that she held on, that he wasn’t going to lose her. Or his son.

Sweating, he hollered, “Hello! Hello! Please pick up!”

“There’s no time to move her. Lay her back!” The voice was female. He didn’t recognize it, but then, other than Cassie’s paralegal, he’d never met anyone she knew. Not her partners, her friends, her family.

Suddenly that seemed abhorrent. Unbearable.

“Hello!” he screamed at the top of his lungs.

“Hello? Who is this?”

“Wood. Wood Alexander...” He wasn’t going to panic. He was going to be strong. And calm.

“Wood? Where are you?”

“I’m almost there.” And not making a lot of sense.

“This is Marilyn. I met you the...”

“...yes,” he interrupted as he pulled into the lot. “What’s going on?”

He heard the siren before he saw the ambulance.

“She’s having her baby,” Marilyn said. “We’ve called the paramedics, but I don’t think they’re going to make it.”

An almost inhuman scream of anguish came over the line.

Throwing the truck in Park, Wood grabbed the keys and ran.

Chapter Twenty-One

Memories of those next hours were going to stay with Wood forever. Marilyn had been waiting for him when he got in the door and took him back to the hallway of private offices. He hadn’t even thought about the locked door between the lobby and Cassie.

He saw bodies as he ran into the room, huddled behind Cassie’s desk, but wouldn’t have been able to identify a single one of them. There were at least three. One, a woman in dress pants and a light-colored blouse, was kneeling between her legs. He saw Cassie’s black dress bunched up around her, saw bare skin, and then saw her eyes. They were stark, glazed, like she was losing her mind.

He knelt at her shoulders, lifting her head, cradling it against him as he’d learned in class, sort of. He wasn’t helping her push. Or supporting her while she did. He had to be her calm.

“I’m here, Cass. I’m right here. You’re doing great. Everything’s fine. It’s fine. You’re doing great.” Over and over he said the words. As she moaned. When she screamed. He just kept repeating the words. Watching her face. Holding her gaze when she stared up at him.

He wasn’t even sure she knew he was there. Knew who he was. But he held on. Gave her his strength. Because that was what he did.

Everything changed when paramedics burst into the room. He caught a glimpse of worried-looking lawyer faces in the hall when the door opened, and then saw the blue-suited first responders as they went to work. Without any sense of panic, they instructed everyone to move away.

Wood stayed right where he was. He wasn’t leaving her. Leaving either of them. “I’m the father,” he said.

Maybe there were shocked gasps from whoever had been assisting Cassie. At the moment, none of that mattered.

“It’s going good,” he said to Cassie as a young man knelt between her legs and assessed the situation. “You’re doing fine,” he told Cassie, who’d been groaning since they came into the room.

“Boy or a girl?” the young man asked while an associate knelt beside him.

“Boy,” he said. “Alan.”

A stretcher appeared at the door, was in the room.