Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Max and I looked like ordinary people walking out of the hospital. We didn’t appear to be new parents, holding our baby and putting her in her car seat for the first time. We left holding only the bag Max had packed for me. I gulped as I watched a new mom smiling down at her baby as she handed him to his father to be put in the car. Tears started to fill my eyes, and the overwhelming feeling of loneliness crept inside me.
“Come on, Emma. Get inside the car.”
I slid inside and wiped the tear that fell from my eye. Max took hold of my hand and kissed the side of my head without saying a word.
I stepped inside my apartment first while Max followed behind with my bag, and Darren carried up the flowers. I walked straight to the nursery and looked at the empty crib that was waiting for Sarah.
“It wasn’t supposed to be this way. I was supposed to bring her home and show her how beautiful her room is.” I wiped another tear that fell.
“I know, sweetheart, but you will be bringing her home, and we need to be thankful for that.”
“Every new mother is supposed to bring her baby home. Not leave her alone in a hospital!” I yelled.
“She’s not alone, Emma. She’s being well taken care of and looked after.” He lightly gripped my shoulders, and I jerked away from him.
“I’m her mother. She’s supposed to be with me! With me.” I began to cry.
Max cautiously wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into him, holding my head tightly against his firm chest as I continued to sob. We both slowly fell to the ground, and he continued to hold me without saying a word. Once I calmed down, Max told me he had something for me. He got up and said that he’d be right back. A few moments later, he walked back into the room and handed me a long, red velvet box with gold trim. I slowly opened the lid, and inside sat a silver bracelet with three dainty silver charms. One of the charms was round and had a baby’s footprint and Sarah’s name engraved underneath. The other round charm said “Mom,” and the third charm was of a beautiful silver butterfly.
“Max, it’s beautiful.”
“Do you really like it?”
“I love it. But you didn’t have to do this.”
“You’re right. I didn’t have to. I wanted to.” He smiled.
He took the bracelet out of the box and placed it around my wrist. I looked up at him as he softly wiped away my tears and placed his hands on either side of my face. “We’re in this together, Emma. You don’t have to do it alone. I’ll be there every step of the way. I know you don’t want to hear this right now, but I came back for you because I love you. I’m so madly in love with you, and being away for five months drove me insane. I’m here for you whether you want me to be or not.”
I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him, burying my face in his neck. I didn’t know where this was going, and I was scared. I was so scared that I couldn’t even tell him that I loved him too.
“Why did you leave me?” I blurted out unexpectedly.
“Because, at the time, I thought it was the right thing to do. I was trying to save you from me. I was scared, Emma, frightened of my feelings for you. I was confused and unsure. I was so focused on getting out of New York and getting out from under my father’s control that I couldn’t see straight. Had I known you were pregnant, I never would have left. Did you know you were pregnant?”
“No. I didn’t find out until a week later, the night your father paid me a visit.”
He broke our embrace and looked at me. “What? He came here?”
“Yes. We got into it, and he grabbed my arm and called me a filthy whore.”
“WHAT?!” he shouted, and I flinched. “He put his hands on you?”
“I found out I was pregnant that night after he left. I started having really bad cramping, and Kara took me to the hospital. I thought it was appendicitis because I had been sick prior to that. It was when the doctor did an ultrasound that I found out.”
Max got up. “I need to leave for a while, but I’ll be back. Go lie down and get some rest.”
“Max, no. Don’t confront him.”
“I have to, Emma. He won’t get away with this. He had no right.” He walked out of the room and out of my apartment.
Max
The rage I felt inside me was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. How dare that man harass Emma as he did. I took a cab over to my parents’ house and called Darren to meet me there and wait outside. I ran up the steps and threw open the door. My mom came running down the stairs.
“Max. What the hell is going on?”
“Where is he?!” I yelled.
“Who?”
“Bradshaw. Who else?”
“What the hell are you doing here?” my father asked as he stepped into the living room.
Just the mere sight of him made me sick. I lunged at him and threw a punch, hitting him hard as he went down.
“Oh my God, Max. Stop!” My mom grabbed my arm and tried to hold me back.
“Did he tell you, Mom? Did he tell you how he went over to Emma’s apartment and grabbed her arms, calling her a filthy whore?”
“What? Bradshaw, did you do that?”
He lay there on the ground, holding his jaw. “Yes. I did.”
“Why?” my mom asked in anger.
“Because she wouldn’t cooperate and tell me the truth.”
“You son-of-a-bitch.” I lunged at him again and grabbed him by the shirt. “Don’t you ever fucking go near her again. After you left, she had to go to the hospital for severe stomach pains due to the stress you caused her. You know what she found out? That she was pregnant with my child.”
My mom placed her hand over her mouth and lightly touched my arm. I jerked away from her.
“Don’t you dare touch me,” I snapped at her. “A few days ago, Emma gave birth to our baby two months early, and now my daughter is fighting for her life in the NICU.”
“A girl? I have a granddaughter?” She started to cry.
“No. You have nothing because you will never ever meet her, and she will never know that the two of you exist.”
“You can’t do that,” my father spoke.
I sharply turned towards him and saw the fear in his eyes. “You’re no father. You’re nothing but a filthy rich depressed man who’s so unhappy with his life that you have to go and fuck every young woman you can get your hands on.”
“Max! That’s enough!” my mom screamed.
“Turn the other cheek, Mom. Because God knows you’re so damn good at it. Stay by his side all you want. You both are dead to me, and I will never raise my child in a home like I was raised in.”
I stormed out of the living room, and my mom ran after me, grabbing hold of my arm.
“Don’t go. You’re obviously upset and hurting. Let’s talk about this and about your daughter.”
“No. I tried to talk to you for years, and you always took his side. Well, now you can be alone with him because you no longer have a son, and I suspect, before too long, you won’t have a daughter either. How does it feel to lose both your children?”
I opened the door and walked out as my mom screamed my name from the doorway. I hopped in the front seat of the Rolls Royce and told Darren to pull away immediately.
“I’m sorry, Max.”
“It’s fine, Darren. I’ve said what I came to say, and now I’m going back to Emma. I have my company and my own family to focus on. I told her that I loved her today.”
“How did she respond?”
“She didn’t.” I sighed. “I’m just going to wait for her for as long as it takes, and I pray to God she still loves me.”
Emma
I heard the door open as I lay on the couch. I sat up and looked at Max as he walked towards me.
“Are you okay?” I asked as he sat down next to me.
“I’m fine. I said what needed to be said and told them about Sarah and that they will never meet her.”
“Max.”
“No, Emma. Don’t. I don’t want to think or talk about them. They no longer exist in my life. The only thing that matters to me is you and Sarah.” He put his arm around me and pulled me into him, kissing the top of my head. “How are you feeling?”
“Okay, I guess. I can’t stop thinking about Sarah, and I want to see her so badly.”
“I know. Me too. We’ll see her first thing tomorrow morning.”
There was silence for a while before I decided to bring something up. “I never talked to you about how I felt before we called off the engagement.”
“What do you mean?”
“I never told you how I felt about you. I never told you that I was falling in love with you because I was scared that you didn’t feel the same way, and I didn’t want you to feel guilty. Maybe I should have told you, but you were so excited about going to Chicago and starting your own business, and I didn’t want to ruin that for you. It was your opportunity to shine, and I wasn’t going to take that away. But when you left, I hated you for leaving me, even though you didn’t know how I felt.”
“But I knew, Emma. I knew you were in love with me. Why do you think I wrote you that letter? I swear to you I never meant to hurt you, and the more time I spent away from you, the more I drank to get you off my mind until, one day, I couldn’t take it anymore. I missed everything about you. I missed your smile, cute laugh, how you smelled, kissing your beautiful lips, and waking up to your body wrapped around mine. You had dreams here in New York, and I couldn’t risk you losing them for someone like me. I would never ask you to give up your dream of going to Parsons. When I finally came back home and saw you were pregnant, the worst feeling in the world washed over me. I was so scared that she wasn’t mine. If you’re scared that I’ll become my father, you don’t have to be. I would never do that.”
I needed to ask him a question, but I was too scared to know the truth if he would even tell me the truth. I took in a deep breath.
“Did you sleep with anyone while you were in Chicago?”
“No,” he replied without hesitation. “I didn’t want anyone else. Only you.”
“You’re a guy, and guys have needs.”
“Yes, I do have needs, and it wasn’t a problem every time I looked at your picture, and there may have been some porn involved.” He winked.
I couldn’t help but smile. I stared into his eyes as he stared back. I stared so hard that I could see his soul. His beautiful, apologetic soul.
“I love you, Emma.”
“I love you too, Max. I never stopped.”
“I’m going to kiss your soft lips that I’ve missed so badly.”
“Please do because I’ve missed yours too.”
He brought his lips to mine and softly kissed me. It felt good to touch him again and even better to be loved by him.
“Will you stay with me tonight?” I asked.
“I’m never leaving you again.” He smiled.
“We can’t have sex for at least six weeks.” I pouted.
“I know, and I’m okay with that because as long as I can kiss your lips, hold your hand, and wrap my arms around you, I’m good, and I can wait.”