Chapter Twenty-Five
Abel
Her soft snores fill my ears soon after the words slip from my lips.
I wasn’t looking for her to say it back to me, I just needed her to know how I felt about her.
She barged into my life when I least expected but needed it. Her kindness called to my cruel ways, threatening to make me change who I was just for her.
Her spirit was like fiery bursts of embers that lit up my sky.
She’s everything I could ever want or need in a woman.
I don’t know what she’ll say about moving in with me, but I hope her final answer is yes. That way, I can take care of and spoil my girls whenever I want to.
Family is everything to me, and I don’t want us to be separated again, and our kid caught in the middle of that. In the end, the child would be the one to get hurt most of all.
I didn’t come from a broken home, and I’ll be damned if I allow my kid to grow up that way.
I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that Santiago is her father. What are the chances that this was fate’s way of stepping in and intervening in all of our lives?
I’m not entirely sure I believe all that mumbo jumbo, because there’s gotta be a logical explanation as to why he denied her all this time.
The last few days have proved to be one clusterfuck after another, but it’s ending on a good note.
I drift off to sleep with my girls snuggled in my arms.
In the following days, Ivy spent a lot of time at my place. I stayed true to my word and spoiled her every chance I got.
Turns out, we’re both great cooks, but she’s a phenomenal baker.
I knew my girl had many talents, but I didn’t think that was one of them.
I love watching her work in the kitchen, the way she gets so engrossed with it all is intoxicating.
The facial expressions she makes when she thinks no one is looking, like when she pokes her tongue out of the side of her mouth while measuring something with the measuring cup. Or when her hair is straightened and wrapped up in that messy bun I like, with her pencil sticking in there but forgets where it’s at.
These moments are priceless.
She’s also been venturing out in her studio, painting new art. When she mentioned she’d been very inspired lately, not only did I provide her some mind-blowing sex to further her creative spirit, but I gave her the space she needed to get it done by converting one of the rooms in The Sandlot just for her work.
Lately, she’s been telling me how tired she’s been. It’s hard to believe she’s seven months already.
The moment she mentioned her tiredness progressed, I ordered several different tests, but nothing came back abnormal. She came into the office a couple of days ago for blood work, and I’m yet to get the results back.
The suspense is killing me.
Taking my mind off things, I bought her a lunch time snack that consists of a turkey sandwich, apples, yogurt, and bottled water.
I head to her studio to sit with her while she eats.
Opening the door, I call out to her. “Where is my Marrone Dolce?” Looking around the room, I step inside and notice her slumped on the floor. The tray slips from my hands as I run to her. “Ivy! Ivy?” I yell, rushing to her.
Dropping to my knees I cradle her head in my lap. “Baby, answer me!”
Slowly, she cracks her eyes open. “Abel?”
“Yes, amore mio.”
“What happened?” She asks, completely oblivious to the fact that she passed out.
“What’s the last thing you remember?” She tries to sit, but I keep her head in my lap. “Don’t move, I don’t know if you’re seriously hurt or not.”
“I don’t think I am.” She says, reaching up to touch her head. “My head hurts, Abel.”
“Did you hit it going down?”
“I’m not sure, maybe.”
“Come on, let’s get you up. Do you think you can stand?” She nods. Slowly, I help her get up as she wobbles to stand on her own two feet. “Careful.”
“I just feel so tired today.”
“I want you to come home.” I say, causing her to lift her head and stare at me. Her eyes shine with unshed tears.
“Home?”
“Yes, I want you to come back home. We’re gonna make a stop on the way there, just to make sure you’re okay.” I say, escorting her out to the car.
“Okay.” She says weakly as I lead the way.
Thirty minutes later and we’re sitting in the doctor’s office.
With her hand tucked snuggly in mine, I lift it to my lips, pressing a gentle kiss to her knuckles.
Shortly after, the door flies open and in walks, “Micha Shepard? Is that you?”
His head swivels up, eyes coming to rest on me as his face breaks out into a smile. “Well, I’ll be damned. Abel Iverson.” He walks right up to me, pulling me into a hug. Slapping his hand across my back, he says, “How are you?”
“I’m great, but my woman fainted while working today and before I took her home, I wanted to make sure she was completely okay.” I watch something flash across his face before he speaks.
“From the blood we drew today, I had them run several tests to rule out any and every possibility that something could be wrong.” He says with his head hung low.
“You didn’t find anything, right?” The moment his head twists around to face me, hollow eyes drilling a hole in the center of my skull like there’s a little, red dot there… I know what he’s going to say.
“I’m sorry, Abel, Miss Huntington, your blood work came back positive for sickle cell.”
“No!” We shout at the same time.
Ivy is the first to speak. “What about our baby?” She yells, pressing a hand to her growing belly.
Glancing between us, he says, “You’re in your third trimester, that is good, but still very risky for you and the baby.” He shifts his full attention to Ivy. “Miss Huntington, what about your parents' medical background? I don’t think this was ever discussed. Do you know if one or both of your parents may have had the disease or is a carrier?” Micha asks.
“No, I-I don’t know. I haven’t been in contact with either of them for a long time. My grandmother raised me, before you can ask, she died last year.”
“You don’t have any siblings?”
“None that I know of.”
“Fuck! Micha, what can we do?” I ask, needing to find a solution. There’s no way I can lose either of them, not when it feels like I just got them back.
“There are ways to treat it, but they are all high risk since she’s pregnant.”
“Tell us.”
For what feels like an eternity, we listen to what he has to say. There are pills she can take such as, hydroxyurea, that may help prevent red blood cells from sickling. If she gets too sick from the disease, then she would need a transfusion. “Now these are just some things that may be done. Ultimately, she’ll need a bone marrow transplant. With the baby taking a lot from her, she’ll need this done because it replaces the unhealthy blood-forming cells, stem cells, with healthy ones. I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but this is all that can be done since she’s pregnant. If we do nothing, she’ll continue to pass out from fatigue, be too tired or sick to even carry on with the pregnancy let alone labor and delivery.”
“Abel?” She whispers my name on the verge of tears.
Holding her close, I promise, “We’ll get through this. Remember, I told you I’d never leave you.”
“Never leave me.” She repeats.
“How can we find out who could be a potential donor?” I question.
“It’ll definitely have to be one of her parents, and even that's rare because they are usually the carriers of the disease. That’s why I find it so hard to believe you just magically developed it without knowing it.”
“Could she have just been a carrier, too? And the pregnancy is the reason she now has it?”
“I’ve never heard of that before, but there is always a first time for everything.” He says, making me feel better about the next steps we need to take. “Ivy, you definitely need to work on finding your parents. They both need to get tested.” Little does he know, we’ve already found her father. But she doesn’t need to tell him that.
She laughs. “Yeah, like that’s gonna happen. I have no way of knowing where my mother is, and my father may as well be dead.” She spits.
“Marrone Dolce, if it means I get to have you and the baby until the end of time, then locating your mother will be next. I don’t care if I have to drag them both in kicking and screaming, that’s what I’ll fucking do because you and our baby are worth it.”
When we leave the doctor’s office, it all still seems unreal.
Is this what it feels like when your world seems to be crashing down on you?