Chapter Nineteen
BELLA
“Here are the forms you need to fill out. This is for the birth certificate. This one is for the insurance. This one is for the application for a social security card.” I stare at each form and try to remember what each one is for as she continues her list.
“I’m going to go check on a couple other patients while you’re filling these out,” the nurse says before leaving. The entire staff here have all been wonderful. The data processing woman continues to explain the forms to me when the phone rings next to the bed for the millionth time.
“Mom, can you answer it?”
“Sure, honey.”
I take the forms from the woman and hand Tristan the baby so I can fill them out.
The baby. That’s what everyone keeps calling her because I haven’t decided on a name yet.
Only I have decided, but I’m afraid to say it out loud.
The minute I woke up from surgery and they wheeled her into my room, I almost had a nervous breakdown.
She’s literally a spitting image of Marco.
It’s almost like I wasn’t even a part of conceiving her.
I’m sure other people have noticed, how could they not? But nobody has said anything.
“Marco?” Someone says his name and I look up and see Marco standing in the doorway glancing from me to Tristan.
“I need to speak with Bella,” Marco says, his eyes locking with mine. He looks good. Nothing like he did the last time I saw him when he told me I was dead to him. He’s a bit less built than he used to be. It looks like he’s lost some muscle mass, but he looks good, nonetheless.
“Son, I don’t think right now is the best time.” Caleb puts his hand on Marco’s shoulder.
“I understand that, but it’s important.” Marco’s eyes plead with me.
“Bella, I think something is wrong with the baby,” Tristan says. I drop my pen to take a closer look at her. It looks like she’s having a difficult time breathing.
“Mom, get the nurse!”
My mom rushes out, and a few seconds later, she’s back in with the nurse.
“It looks like she’s having a difficult time breathing,” I say, starting to freak out. I attempt to get out of the bed, but my dad stops me. The nurse takes the baby from Tristan, puts her back in her rolling bassinet, and says, “I’m going to get her checked out.”
“Can I go with her?” Tristan asks.
“It’s best if you stay here. I’ll come back in and update you once we know something.”
“Oh my God!” I start to breakdown. “What could be wrong with her? She looked perfect.”
My mom comes around to the side of the bed and holds me tight. “Don’t freak out, Bella. It could be nothing.”
The room is silent for what feels like an hour, everyone worrying about the baby. The tension in the room is so palpable that it’s beyond uncomfortable. Finally, the nurse and doctor walk back in.
“After running a battery of tests, we have concluded she’ll need a blood transfusion,” the doctor says.
“What? What’s wrong with her?” I cry out.
“It appears she’s anemic and the lack of red blood cells are what’s causing her to have trouble breathing.
The issue is she has a rare blood type. Her blood type is O and only another person with an O blood type can donate.
There was an accident a couple days ago, and that patient required the same blood type, so we have put a call to the hospital closest to us for them to send some over; however, if one of the parents or a family member could donate it, it would speed things up. ”
“Mom, what am I?” I ask.
“Your blood type is B, Bella.”
“Okay, then the father has to be O,” the nurse states matter-of-factly.
“No, that can’t be right,” Ashley says. “Tristan is AB.”
“Are you sure?” the nurse asks.
Before Ashley can answer, Hayley says, “Marco is O. He got a horrible stomach virus when he was thirteen and was admitted to the hospital. Because I wasn’t sure, I asked the nurse when she took blood and she told me.”
Everybody’s heads swing toward where Marco is standing.
“Fuck,” Tristan says. “Bella…”
“Okay, come with me,” the nurse says, leading Marco out in a rush.
“Wait!” I shout, Marco and the nurse coming to an abrupt halt. “He’s a drug addict. Can he give blood?”
The nurse looks at Marco then to me. “It will go through a process. If it’s not clean, he can’t.” Then she turns to Marco. “When is the last time you did drugs?”
Marco shakes his head in shame, but I don’t give a shit. This is my damn baby and she isn’t going to be given blood from a drug addict.
“It’s been ninety days since I’ve touched a drug,” he says, causing me to gasp because holy shit, Marco is clean!
“Then we’re good, but all blood will get checked before they begin the transfusion. I will keep you updated.” Once Marco and the nurse are gone, the room goes silent for a beat and then there’s an uproar.
“Bella, what’s going on?” my dad asks.
“Bella, tell me this isn’t what I think it is,” Tristan says softly.
“What’s going on?” my brother, Nathan, asks.
Suddenly, it feels like there are way too many people in this small room.
“Okay, everyone needs to calm down,” Hayley says over all the questions and accusations. “There’s a baby who needs our thoughts and prayers right now. We can deal with this after we know she is okay.”
“Why don’t we go down to the cafeteria and get a bite to eat?” Ashley suggests to Kaden, taking Nathan and Lilly with her. Mason is at the hotel watching the other kids, but my siblings insisted on coming to see their niece.
“We’ll join you,” Caleb says, he and Hayley following them out.
“I need to go for a walk,” Tristan murmurs and walks out the door without looking at me.
Once it’s only my parents left in the room with me, my dad says, “Bella, you’ve gotta talk to us. My imagination is running wild here.”
“Cooper, her baby is sick and getting a blood transfusion. This can wait,” my mom admonishes.
I close my eyes and think about how I’m going to handle this.
I was so stupid to think I would ever get away with nobody finding out Marco is the father of my baby.
I don’t regret my decision because I did what I felt was best at the time, but now that it’s coming to the surface, I need to handle this.
I need to woman up and face this head-on.
Marco said he didn’t want a baby. He recommended I have an abortion.
There was no way I was going to tell him I was pregnant with his kid after the things he said.
What I do regret, is lying to Tristan—even if it’s only technically by omission.
He should have known Marco is the dad. He’s been nothing but supportive, and for him to find out I kept this from him is such a slap in his face.
I can’t even imagine how betrayed he must feel.
I need to explain things to him, make him understand why I kept this from him.
I’m not sure how long I lie here thinking about how bad I’ve fucked up, but when the door opens and I see Tristan and Marco walk in, the blood in my body goes cold.
“I donated the blood. They said once they run it through the tests, as long as it’s clean they’ll do the transfusion.”
“Is it clean?” Tristan sneers.
Marco’s nostrils flare and his fists clench as he tries to compose himself. “Yes, it’s clean. I’ve been clean for three months now.”
“This is unbelievable,” Tristan booms. “I want the truth, Bella.”
“Not now,” my mom pleads, but Tristan ignores her.
“Is Marco the baby’s father?”
“Yes,” I say, done with the lies.
My mom covers her mouth, and my dad lets out a loud growl.
My mom has hinted to me several times that she knows who the dad really is, so it doesn’t surprise me that she isn’t shocked.
My dad, on the other hand, looks like he’s about to murder someone, which means my mom never mentioned her assumptions to him.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Tristan punches the wall. “Wait a second, you said the father of your baby didn’t want the baby.” He turns to Marco. “Did you tell Bella you didn’t want this kid?” He stalks up to Marco and gets right into his face. “Did you?”
“No, I didn’t know…” Marco begins to say, and his lie sets me off.
“You told me to have an abortion. You told me you didn’t want a baby.”
“You did what?” my dad booms. “You knocked up my fucking daughter and then told her to have a goddamn abortion!” My dad grabs Marco by the collar and shoves him against a wall.
“I didn’t know she was pregnant with my kid, I swear. I was fucked up. I was on drugs and I didn’t know. I don’t even remember sleeping with her.”
My dad’s fist cocks back and it lands straight on Marco’s jaw, his face jerking to the side from the impact. At that moment, Caleb and Hayley come in. Caleb rushes over to my dad and Marco to separate them, but then Tristan is in Marco’s face.
“I have spent my entire life loving this fucking girl and you had her and can’t even remember it.
We’ve been friends for fucking years! How could you do this?
Then, because you chose to get high instead of dealing with the accident, you told her to abort her baby.
And all of this was before you showed up at our apartment yelling and screaming at her because she tried to get you help! ”
Tristan doesn’t even cock his hand back when he sucker punches Marco.
All the guys grab them, tearing Tristan away from Marco.
Once he gets himself somewhat composed, Tristan looks me dead in the eyes and says, “You should have told me, Bella. You should have told me the father of your baby was our best friend. It’s one thing to raise a stranger’s baby, but you were just going to let me raise our friend’s baby without me knowing. ”
My eyes close as I will the tears to stop. I know I’m wrong here, I don’t deserve to cry, but the tears come anyway.
“I’m so sorry,” I say. It’s not directed at any one person.
“Okay, we need to calm down. Bella just had a baby and that baby is getting a blood transfusion as we speak. All of this can be dealt with later. We need to focus on the baby right now,” Hayley begs.
“I gotta get out of here,” Tristan huffs and walks out of the room, slamming the door behind him.