Chapter 2
Chapter
Two
SETH
The lights burned my eyes, but I couldn’t blink. Not when Stormi was laid out on that cold ass table, her belly cut open, her body fighting for every damn breath. My son, our son, was somewhere between this world and the next, and I wasn’t leaving them.
“Sir, you can’t be in here.”
“I said I’m not leaving.” My voice came out like gravel. My jaw clenched so tight I thought my teeth might snap. I scrubbed in, hands clean, and grown on, like I was the surgeon. I was here to make sure my wife, and son made it out of this alive.
One of the nurses shifted like she wanted to argue. I stepped closer, my eyes locked on hers. “You focus on saving my wife, not on me. You got that?”
She nodded quickly, eyes dropping. I moved to the corner of the room, arms crossed over my chest, rage pounding through my veins like wildfire. Every beep on the monitor was a warning bell in my head. Every drop of blood I saw felt like another second Stormi slipped away from me.
I leaned forward, my voice low but sharp, cutting through the silence. “Stormi, baby… you hear me? You hold on. Don’t you dare leave me, you hear?” My throat burned, but I kept my voice steady. “We got a son now. He needs you. I need you.”
The doctor muttered something to the anesthesiologist, and I swore for a second, I caught doubt in his tone. My hands curled into fists.
“Hey,” I snapped. “Don’t whisper. Don’t look at each other like that. You fix her. You bring my wife through this, or I swear on everything holy and unholy, nobody’s making it out of this room tonight.”
The doctor glanced up, his eyes wide, then back down. Good. Let ‘em know. I wasn’t bluffing.
My chest rose and fell heavily, each breath feeling like it could be my last with her.
I wasn’t just angry. I was feral, undone.
The only thing keeping me from tearing through the city right now and putting a bullet in everyone I saw was the sight of Stormi’s chest rising and falling, faint but there.
I took a shaky step closer, my voice breaking even though I tried to sound hard. “You don’t get to leave me, Stormi. Not like this. Not when I just got you. Not when we finally got everything to lose. You fight; you hear me? You fight cause I’ll burn this whole world down if you don’t.”
The beeping sped up. Nurses moved quick. Somebody said, “We’ve got him; baby’s out!”
For one second, I let my eyes shift to the tiny, fragile cry that filled the room. My son, my flesh and blood, had made his grand entrance into this world.
But then I looked back at Stormi looking pale and still. Too still for my liking.
“Stormi!” My voice cracked like a whip. “Baby, open your eyes. Give me something. A squeeze, a blink, I don’t care. Just… don’t leave me.”
The rage boiled so hot inside me it felt like my veins were on fire. Whoever pulled that trigger? Whoever thought they could take her from me? They already signed their death warrant.
But right now, I needed her to live long enough to give me permission to finish it. The sound hit me like a shotgun blast. That flatline. That long, ugly scream from the machine that said my whole world just stopped breathing.
“No!” My roar shook the damn room. “No, she’s not gone! Bring her back!”
The doctor shouted orders. “Code Blue! Chest compressions!” And nurses swarmed her, hands pressing on Stormi’s chest, voices overlapping. None of it sounded fast enough like the room had started moving in slow motion.
“Don’t touch her like that!” I lunged forward, my hands trembling, fighting the urge to rip them off her. “She ain’t some practice, dummy! That’s my wife! Do it right! Save her!”
“Sir, you need to step back.”
“Say that again and I’ll put you through that wall.” My voice was raw, and my whole body was shaking with fury. “If she dies, you all die. So do your fucking job.”
They kept pumping, kept shocking her, the machine beeping, stuttering, going silent again. My chest caved in with it.
I pressed my fists to my head, teeth grinding so hard it felt like they’d crack. “Stormi, don’t you leave me. Don’t you fucking leave me. You hear me?!” My throat burned, voice cracking. “We ain’t done yet, baby. You promised me forever. Don’t you break that promise now.”
The monitor shrieked again as it flatlined. Something inside me snapped. I slammed my fist against the counter so hard the instruments rattled. “Work, damn it! Shock her again! Don’t you stop!”
The doctor’s voice shook, but he barked, “Charging! Clear!”
Stormi’s body jolted, her chest rising off the table, then falling limp. Nothing.
“No, no, no, no…” I staggered closer, heat burning my eyes. My voice broke. “Stormi, open your eyes! You ain’t allowed to leave me. You ain’t allowed to leave our son. You hear me? He needs his mama. I need my wife. Don’t make me raise him in this fucked up world without you.”
The monitor flickered. A hiccup. A blip.
“Again!” I shouted. “Do it again!”
They shocked her. And this time, the faintest rhythm stuttered across the screen.
“Come on, baby,” I whispered, my fists trembling, rage giving way too much desperation. “Come back to me. Breathe. Please…”
The beep found its rhythm again. Weak, but there. And I dropped my head, swallowing a sob so heavy it split me open inside.
I lifted my gaze, eyes blazing at the team. “She lives. You keep her here. If she goes under again, you bring her back. I don’t care what it takes. You don’t stop until she’s back in my arms.”
And then I turned my eyes back to Stormi. “You hear that, baby? I ain’t letting you go. Not now. Not ever.”
I stood at the glass, my hands braced against it, staring at the tiniest piece of me I’d ever seen. My son. My Shiloh. He was fighting already, chest rising and falling steady under that too bright light, wrapped tight like he knew the world wasn’t safe unless I was right here.
I stepped inside, slow, careful, but my voice came out steady and low.
“What’s up, little man.” My throat thickened.
“It’s your pops. First time I seen you, I swear my heart ain’t even know what to do.
You got her lips, that same little pout Stormi used to give me when she was mad.
And I’m tellin’ you now, you got a whole army waiting to ride for you. ”
I pulled up a chair beside the crib, leaned close enough for him to hear me.
“You don’t know it yet, but you saved me, Shiloh.
You saved us both. Your mama’s fightin’ right now, and I swear she’s gon’ pull through, cause she ain’t never backed down from nothin’.
And I’ma be right here, making sure this world don’t lay a finger on you. ”
I sat there, just breathing with him until I heard the door creak open.
“Can I… can I come in?”
Jo’s voice.
I didn’t look back at first. My jaw tightened, my chest was heavy. Out of all the people I expected, she was the last. But I nodded. “Yeah. Come on.”
She came in quiet, like the weight of every mistake was sitting on her shoulders. Her eyes went straight to the crib. I could see her fighting tears, biting her lip.
“He looks just like her,” she whispered.
“Yeah.” My voice was rough. “He does.”
We sat in silence for a beat before I turned, locking eyes with her.
“Listen. I’m gon’ be straight with you. Stormi needs you.
Not the version of you she been gettin’ all these years but the mother you were supposed to be from the jump.
She gon’ wake up, and when she does, she’s gonna need her mama.
The real one. The strong one. Not the one that let the drugs take over. ”
Jo didn’t flinch as tears slid down her face. “I know, Seth… I know I failed her.”
I leaned forward, my voice hard but not cruel. “Then don’t fail her again. Don’t let this push you back into old habits. You can’t fuck up your recovery right now. Not when she’s laid up fighting for her life. You hear me?”
She nodded fast, her hands trembling. “I hear you.”
I softened, just enough. “Jo, she never stopped loving you. Deep down, she’s been waiting her whole life for you to show up for her the way she deserved.
Don’t waste this chance. ‘Cause when Stormi opens her eyes, she’s gon’ need the mama who’s ready to be her anchor.
You got a grandson now, who’s going to need his grandmother too. ”
For the first time since she walked in, Jo looked me in the eyes without shame. “I’ll be there. I promise.”
I turned back to Shiloh, placing my hand gently on his back. “Good. ‘Cause I already told my son he got an army. And I’m expectin’ you to be part of it.”
Jo sniffled, wiping her eyes. “He will. I will.”
And for the first time in a long time, I believed her.
The NICU nurse gave me the okay. Shiloh was cleared to be wheeled down. He was bundled so small it didn’t seem real. I pushed the bassinet slow, steady, every step heavy with a prayer I wasn’t used to saying out loud.
Stormi’s room was quiet, too quiet. Machines hummed, monitors beeped, but my wife, my fighter, still hadn’t opened her eyes. I parked Shiloh beside her bed, then pulled a chair close.
“Stormi…” My voice cracked. “I brought him. Our boy. Shiloh.”
I leaned over, brushing my fingers against her hand, cold but warm enough to keep me hoping. “I been talkin’ to him all night, baby. Told him how strong you are. Told him his mama ain’t never folded for anybody. And now he’s here, waitin’ on you to prove me right.”
I picked him up, careful, heart pounding as I held that tiny weight against my chest. His little face scrunched, and he let out a soft whimper.
“See? He already knows your presence, baby. He feelin’ you, even now. He needs you to wake up and hold him.”
Jo slipped in behind me, quiet, her hands clasped tight. She didn’t say anything, just watched, as tears spilling down her cheeks.
I lowered Shiloh closer, tucking him into the crook of Stormi’s arm. “Here he is, Stormi. Flesh of our flesh. You fought to bring him here. Now fight to stay with him. Stay with me.”
For a second, nothing. The monitors beeped steadily, the air was thick.
Then I felt it. The faintest twitch of her fingers curling against his blanket. My heart stopped.
“Stormi?” I bent closer, my forehead nearly touching hers. “That you, baby? You hear me?”
Her lips parted, a shaky breath slipped through. Her eyelids fluttered, heavy, like lifting bricks. And then… brown eyes, weak but alive, blinked up at me.
I damn near broke in half.
“Thank you, God.” My voice cracked wide open. Tears I didn’t even know I had burned down my face. “You back, baby. You came back to us.”
Shiloh whimpered again, and her eyes shifted slowly, locking on him. Her chest hitched, a whisper escaping her throat. “Our baby…”
I pressed a kiss on her forehead, my whole-body trembling. “Yeah, baby. Our baby. Shiloh.”
Jo sobbed behind us, covering her mouth, but I didn’t look back. My whole world was right here in my arms, in this hospital room.
Stormi was awake. Our son made it into this world and S3 was safe. And I swore right then and there, nothing and nobody would ever come between us again.