Chapter Thirty
Ivy
“Shit on a stick! Abel, I fucking hate your guts, you shit head!” I scream at the top of my fucking lungs. It’s not meant to come out like it sounds, but it feels like I’m being ripped from the inside out. “Where is my fucking epidural? If I don’t get some drugs I’m going to kill every one of you fuck faces!”
“Quite the filthy little mouth on her, huh?” One of the other nurses in the room says as a contraction took over me.
“I’ll take every curse word and every name she calls me under the sun, because that fucking woman is my everything.” Abel tells the nurse, shifting his gaze to me. “Marrone Dolce, I’m not sorry I got you pregnant, because I don’t regret it one bit. As a matter of fact, I’ll do it again and again until you can’t have anymore.” His words penetrate my ear, making me go soft, but worry creeps in.
“Shit, Abel, I can’t do this.” I whisper on the verge of tears and wanting to give up. “There’s no way I can push a watermelon out of my sweetpea.” Another sensation comes over me, something in my stomach. “Why am I cramping so bad? Oh God, it feels like I have to poop!”
“Lie back, let me see how far you are now.” Please, Lord, let it be ten centimeters I think as I insert two fingers inside her. “You’re ten. Come on everyone, it’s go time. Let’s get ready to deliver my baby!” Abel fires off directions as everyone scurries around the room while I just lay there. Feeling more and more tired as my eyes get droopy.
“Abel, I’m scared.”
“Baby, I’ve done this so many times I could probably do it in my sleep.” He grabs my hand, bringing it to his lips and pressing a kiss there. “Do you trust me?”
“With all my heart.”
“I know, now let’s have a baby.”
“Push, Marrone Dolce. Give it all you’ve got. This is the final one.” Abel chants for what seems like the millionth time.
“Get her out of me, Abel!” I scream at the same time the cries of our baby girl fill the room.
It’s one of the best sounds in the world. I thought I’d never be the one to experience.
Kids were the furthest thing from my mind. I had my career I was working on, goals I wanted to pursue, and a certain place in life I wanted to be before I brought a tiny human into this world.
But life has other plans for you.
Always.
Nothing goes as you think it should and sometimes that works out for the best.
“Abel, let me see her.” I whisper.
My throat hurts.
It’s hard to breathe.
Cleaning her off a little, he places her on my chest as the warmth from my body eases her cries. “Hi, baby. I’m your mommy.” I whisper. “I’m so glad you’re here. Mommy loves you so much.” I say, slipping into darkness.
I hear Abel shout something in the background. “Take the baby, her vitals are dropping. Ivy! Ivy, don’t do this to me. Listen to my voice.” I can hear him saying, but there’s another sweet melody that’s calling out to me.
I’m going to answer.
“She’s losing too much blood! I need a crash cart in there, now!” He yells when his warm hand grabs my face. “Don’t you fucking do this! Don’t you leave me!”
“Abel, I love you. Take care of our baby.” And then… I go home.
Voices.
Loud voices call to me, telling me to come back as a bright light reaches out to me.
It’s so green, sunny, and bright here.
I feel like I know this place, like I’ve been here before.
Looking around, I see trees and the most colorful, vibrant flowers you can imagine. A stream of water flows right next to me as I hear birds chirping.
There are so many animals here, but no people.
It’s absolutely beautiful.
All of a sudden, I hear the most magical voice known to mankind. “It’s time for you to go back, child.”
“Go back where?” I ask, completely dumbfounded.
“To your family. It’s not time for you to come home yet.” The voice sounds so loud, like it’s in my head but all around me at the same time.
“But it’s so pretty, peaceful, and quiet here. I don’t think I want to leave.”
Speaking with authority, the voice tells me, “That isn’t for you to decide.” I hear rustling, but I’m unable to see the cause of it. “Your parents, they are there too.”
“My parents? Yeah right. They don’t care about anyone but themselves. They’re dead to me.”
“Listen to me, daughter, your parents are with you, and you must find it in your heart to forgive them for their sins.” I don’t know about that. “Do not defy me, child!” Something begins to shake, instill fear in my already frail body.
“Yes, sir, I’m sorry.”
“Good. They have repented for their sins and vow to be there for you, in order for you to come back when it’s time, you have to find it in your heart to forgive those who harm you or cause you pain. Forgiveness and love will set you free.”
Slowly, I start to fade away from the beautiful place filled with every shade of green you can imagine.
“You get your fucking ass in there and save your daughter! I don’t care which one of you does it, but you better fucking do it.! If she dies, you’re both dead.” Abel!
The love of my life.
Why does he sound so far away? I can’t see him beyond this beautiful place.
“It took us a while to find her. I still don’t believe we are the ones that did, yet here she is.” Travis! If he’s here that means...
“Yeah, so there’s that.” Camden says, and I can feel my lip twitch into a smile. “Hey, look at that! Her lip just quivered.”
I try to speak so I can tell him how dramatic he’s being, but nothing comes out.
“Ivy? Sweet brown, come back to me. Our daughter needs you. I need you.” A single tear cascades down the side of my cheek as I get choked up. Not being able to talk sucks. “Both your parents are here. They’re gonna save you, you just have to hang on.” Abel whispers, nipping the shell of my ear.
Oh how I love it when he does that. It sends a cosmic shock through my whole body.
“If we’re doing this, it needs to happen now. She’s already lost a lot of blood.” I recognize my primary doctor’s voice.
“Move the fuck out of my way! Where is my daughter? I want to see my baby!” I wish I had the strength to call out to her. To let her know that I’m not mad anymore because she left. I don’t understand why she did it, but I forgive her. “Oh, my sweet girl.” She says, tenderly, but then I hear her say, “What the fuck did you do to her?” She yells when it sounds like she’s hitting something or someone.
“Dahlia, vongole te stesso, you are making yourself look like a fool.” Santiago steps in, trying to calm her down.
“Toglimi le mani di dosso.” She growls. Great, I’m the only one who doesn’t speak the native tongue. “What do I have to do?” She asks.
I can hear the doctor telling them what happens next before the loud silence fills the room.
Slowly opening my eyes, greeted by the blinding, overhead light, I crane my head from left to right. Everything is still foggy, except for the dreams I had.
I still don’t know what to think of that voice.
There’s got to be a logical explanation.
“Ivy?” I hear Abel’s voice break through the fog.
Focusing my unsteady eyes on him, he finally comes into view, looking sexy as ever even though his brows are creased with confusion.
“Abel? What’s going on? Where is the baby?” My throat is all scratchy and hurts.
He shakes his head and smiles as he reaches for the water Cam has in his outstretched hand. He’s doing a good job hiding how worried he is, but I still see it. “Don’t talk. The baby is fine. You’re fine.”
My heart seems to skip a beat as I reach up and take the cup from him, feeling the moment our hands brush together.
Brining the cup to my parched lips, I take a sip. Swallowing, letting the water coat my throat, I say, “If everything is fine, why do you look so worried?”
He simply smiles again, reaching out to touch my face, scared I may disappear or somethin’. “Marrone Dolce, don’t you ever scare me like that again. I fucking mean it, or I’ll find you just to bring you back and punish you.” A bubble of laughter leaves my lips when I stare up at him.
God, I’m burning up underneath this heinous hospital gown.
“Punish me? Really? Wanna say that loud enough for my mother to hear?” My mother, it feels weird saying that after all this time. Thankfully, whoever was speaking to me set me straight.
My mother and father both needed me to forgive them for what they did.
I’ll never know the reason behind their actions, but I should thank them, too. I didn’t have a horrible childhood and being raised by my grandmother was the best thing that ever could have happened to me.
“Oh, so ya’ll are like besties?” Camden asks, sitting on the other side of me.
“I didn’t say that, Cam, I just, I don’t know. What I do know is that I need to see my baby girl. Where is she?”
“The doctor is gonna come in and check you out first, then they’ll bring the baby in. Which reminds me, you still need to pick out a name.” Abel says.
“Abel, how long was I out?”
“Well, the surgery took a few hours, but you just didn’t want to wake up. You scared us half to death. But don’t worry about that, quit stalling. What’s our baby’s name?”
“Yeah, a name.” After all this time, I never put any thought into her name.
Like the entire pregnancy, so I have no earthly idea what to name her.
“I hear my patient is awake.” The doctor comes in saying. Clearly he stole that line from Carlisle in the Twilight Saga movies. I silently nod while he does what he has to do.
Tuning them all out, I can’t help but stare at my parents, noticing their eyes glued to mine. My mother has a silly grin on her face, but behind her happiness is something else.
She’s hiding something.
My dad, too, but I already know what he’s got going on. Imagine that, my father is affiliated with the mafia.
Great, just great.
Life is like the pages of my favorite book. Sometimes they don’t start off right, but by the end of it… Everything falls into place.
My God, I know what her name will be. “Poet Oakleigh Iverson. That’s her name. She is the beginning of our new chapter, my greatest achievement.”
Even though they were staring at me, I didn’t know they had been arguing, but their voices fall silent when I mention the baby’s name. “I-I love it.” Mom says.
Just as I’m about to thank her, the doors open, and the little bassinet holding my baby is wheeled up to my side. Abel turns around and scoops her out and hands her to me. “Here is your greatest achievement. She’s fucking beautiful, baby.”
My dad walks to the side of the bed where Cam was sitting and peers down at his granddaughter with tears in his eyes. “I’m so sorry I denied you all these years. I’ve missed out on everything. All your firsts.” He whispers, forcing the words to pass his lips. “I knew you were my daughter, but I couldn’t have you mixed up in the life I lived, and I hated that. More than you know. If you will allow me to, I want to be there now. Make up for all the lost time we didn’t get to share by sharing it with the two of you.”
“Over my dead body.” My mother shouts.
I’m putting a stop to this. “For the love of God! I need you two to act like adults. Neither one of you was there for me, yet I’m giving you the opportunity to be there for her, for us now. Don’t make me fucking regret it.”
“You watch your mouth, young lady.” My mother says, making me snort with laughter, just as the baby begins to wail. “What? Did I say something funny?”
“Yeah, you did, I think she might be hungry, and if none of you wanna see my tits, I suggest you exit stage left.”
“Already seen them.” Abel, Cam, and Travis all say.
“Rude. Anyone else? No, okay.” I say, pulling down the gown just enough to expose my boob. Finding the best position to hold her in, I bring my nipple to her mouth as she latches on. “Oh, that’s different.”
“Is it hurting?”
“No, I feel relieved. Like her, drinking the milk is helping with how full they feel.” I haven’t been able to take my eyes off her since they handed her over. “God, she’s beautiful.” I whisper, looking at her gorgeous vanilla dusted skin. To say I didn’t have heartburn one single time, she has a head full of hair.
Black hair, just like me.
“She’s perfect, just like you are.” Abel says, dropping a kiss on my forehead, looking at me with so much love, it hurts. “I can’t wait til you’re better. I’m going to put another baby in you.” I snort again, because surely he’s joking.
I see the heated look etched on his face and know he’s not.
Turning my attention back to Poet, I just watch her feed, enjoying our bonding time together. As soon as she starts to fall asleep and I don’t feel her sucking anymore, I lift her up and see Abel watching me. “Do you want to burp her?” I ask him, watching the emotions swirl on his face.
Instead of answering, he very carefully picks her up, carries her with him to sit down and begins to burp her.
If anyone would have told me that this would be the single most sexiest thing I could ever witness in a man… I would have said they were lying.
Watching him with her turns me on in a way that I never imagined. I think I’ll take him up on his offer sooner rather than later.
The last days have been some of the wildest days of my life.
My parents are both here, and I forgive them for leaving me. They’re over the moon about their granddaughter and couldn’t be more proud, but there’s still that underlying feeling that something more is going on that I can’t seem to shake.
Now isn’t the time to get into it, but I’m definitely gonna find out, and how Santiago is mixed up with Abel, and where my mother resurfaced from.
For now, I’m content with everyone here.
All is right in the world… Even though it’s not.