Part Five - A New Arrival

My first contractions woke me about two hours after I had gone to bed. To start with they weren’t too bad. I phoned Morgana to let her know what was going on and then I phoned the hospital to let them know that I would be coming in soon.

As they got closer together, I phoned the local taxi company to take me to the hospital. I would have liked a home birth but with the state of my housing at the moment it wasn’t possible.

I sat in the taxi on the way to the hospital. My contractions were very close together now and I was worried I wouldn’t get there in time!

As I arrived at the hospital I saw Geoffrey going in. I was still avoiding him. I hoped that he hadn’t been called in to deal with the birth of my son.

I was released almost exactly one day later with my beautiful son Hector. As I got into the waiting taxi, I didn’t notice Geoffrey walking towards me.

He got into the cab next to me. “We need to talk.” he said. I sat there in silence hoping that if I ignored him he would disappear. The cab started moving. There was no escaping.

“I know this baby is mine.” he said, “I don’t want anything to do with him or you. If you tell anyone he is mine I will deny it. I can ruin your career and your reputation” I tried to keep my face looking neutral. How could he say things like this to a woman who has just been through so much? When the taxi got back to my house, he followed me inside.

We started arguing. Well, actually it was mainly me shouting at him. 

‘You are so selfish!’ I screamed ‘What am I meant to do about housing? I have no space for a baby here!’ I could tell that he didn’t care from the look on his face.

‘What happens if he gets sick? I can’t afford medical bills and time off work! I could barely keep this house running with just me and now I have a kid to feed too!’

‘And what about his education? What about your son’s education?? I can’t afford to send him to school, the books, the uniform, the outings! Don’t you care about him getting a good education?’

‘What about the nights? Feedings, nightmares, nappy changes? How am I meant to cope with working all day and being up with a baby all night?’

Eventually I ran out of steam and he started. “Well what am I meant to do? I have a wife and kid, do you want me to destroy their lives??” he shouted “You could have solved this whole problem by just getting rid of him when you found out.” That was the final straw. I reached out my hand and slapped him.

He stumbled sideways.

For a minute I was worried that he might hit me back.

Instead, he just turned and left. I sat on the floor. I had put Hector on the bed to sleep so I had to use the floor but I was so exhausted  from the argument I didn’t care. Hector woke me 5 times in the night wanting to be fed. By the morning I still felt like I hadn’t slept for days.

I opened the door to go and get my mail from the box and almost didn’t notice the envelope sat on the doorstep.

I picked it up and opened it. There was a letter inside:

Ambrosia, please accept my apologies and this towards raising our son. I am leaving Sunset Valley today, I have taken a job far away. I do not expect you to forgive me for the way I acted last night but I wanted to say that I am very sorry. I wish you nothing but happiness in your future. G.

With the letter there was a cheque for §10,000. I couldn’t believe it. I stood on the doorstep and burst into tears.