Chapter 72: Love at First Sight
Moana, My eyes widened when I saw Edrick, but at the same time, my body relaxed knowing that he was here to — hopefully — help us. He glanced over at me, but clearly didn’t want anyone to know we were together, and walked up to the desk.
“Is there a problem here?” he asked the receptionist.
“Yes, Mr. Morgan,” she said, gesturing to me, “this woman is a human and she’s trying to be served before werewolves. It’s our policy to serve werewolves first.” Her eyes were wide as she spoke, and her voice shook a bit. I could tell that she knew that she would be in deep trouble if Edrick Morgan himself was here.
“Well, break policy just this once,” he said. He turned to the werewolf couple next, who still stood nearby looking utterly confused. “So sorry about that,” he said, then turned to Selina and me and addressed us. “I’ll take you to the VIP room.”
With that, he turned on his heel and began to walk toward the examination rooms. Meanwhile, the director dealt with the receptionist and the werewolf couple. I couldn’t make out exactly what was being said to the receptionist, but she seemed as though she was being reprimanded — and rightfully so, in my opinion. Just because it was policy to serve humans after werewolves didn’t mean that it was morally right to treat humans like inferiors.
Still, I followed Edrick, keeping my head down to avoid the strange looks from other patients with Selina trailing behind me. Once we were out of the waiting room, I let out a sigh of relief.
“Thank you,” Selina said, scurrying along to keep up with Edrick. “That receptionist–”
“It’s okay,” Edrick said calmly. “She was only doing what she thought was right… It is policy to serve werewolves first.”
Selina frowned, but said nothing. Edrick led us to a spacious private room. Selina went to sit on a chair in the hallway to give us some privacy, but Edrick stopped her and gestured for him to come in with us. “You deserve to see the baby, too, don’t you think?” he asked.
The housekeeper’s eyes widened. She looked back and forth between Edrick’s face and mine, finally landing on mine. I nodded approvingly with a smile. “I’d like you to see it.”
Her face went red, but she followed us in, where the doctor was waiting.
The doctor, a middle-aged woman with mousy brown hair, welcomed us with a smile.
“Good morning,” the doctor said, holding out her hand for me to shake. “I’m Doctor Melrose. I’ll have the pleasure of being your doctor for the duration of this pregnancy; if you ever need anything, you can always call me, no matter the time of day or night. Here’s my card.” She pulled a business card out of her pocket, which I took gratefully. Seeing as how nervous I was becoming over the effects of a werewolf pregnancy on my body, I already had a whole host of questions to ask the doctor.
Next, the doctor helped me up on the bed. She asked if it was okay to lift up my dress for the examination around Edrick and Selina, to which I nodded — and she covered my lower half with a sheet, which wasn’t entirely necessary, but I supposed it would make things a little less awkward around Edrick in particular.
“This is going to be a little cold,” she said as she picked up a tube of ultrasound gel. She squeezed a generous amount on my belly, which I gladly accepted over the internal ultrasound that I had when I went for the abortion. “Just a little pressure now…”
The room fell silent as the doctor moved the probe around on my belly. The only sound that filled the room was the soft sound of my own pulse echoing from inside my body on the ultrasound machine.
“And… There’s your little one!” Doctor Melrose exclaimed.
I gasped. On the screen, for the first time, we saw the little fetus inside of me. It was tiny, not even the size of an avocado, but it was there and it was alive. Seeing it for the first time filled me with such a strong and vast array of emotions that I didn’t even know what to do with myself.
“Looks like it’s going to be a healthy little one,” Doctor Melrose said with a smile. “Give it a few more months, and we’ll be able to tell the s*x. What are you hoping for?”
I blushed, dabbing at the tears of joy in my eyes with a handkerchief. “I don’t know… I don’t think I would have a preference. What about you, Edrick?”
I looked up at him, and just then, I realized I was holding his hands tightly without even knowing it. I suddenly felt a little inappropriate and quickly released them, but he didn’t even seem to notice as he was staring intently at the screen with a childlike wonder on his face that I’d never seen him display before.
“Edrick?” Selina asked.
He shook his head and blinked rapidly as he was broken from his trance. “Sorry… Uh, I wouldn’t mind if it was a boy or a girl, honestly.”
Doctor Melrose smiled. “It’s funny,” she said, “in my years of working as an obstetrician, I often hear that same thing. I think that most people have a preference until they see the fetus for the first time, and then they suddenly don’t care about the s*x so long as it’s healthy.”
“It’s true,” Selina chimed in. “I was a midwife for many years… I saw some of the most stony-faced fathers who only ever wished for a boy ultimately melt into puddles of pure love when they held their baby girls for the first time.”
As Selina spoke, I glanced up at Edrick again and imagined how his face would look when he held our baby for the first time.
…
After my appointment, Edrick led us out of the hospital through a private entrance and drove us home. He didn’t say much during the car ride, but I could see a slight sparkle in his eyes that had yet to go away even when we pulled up to the penthouse.
Selina, who also had a new spring in her step after the ultrasound, helped me get out of the car. She chatted about heating up some soup that she’d prepared in advance for me since the ultrasound took some strength out of me as we took the elevator — meanwhile, Edrick continued to stare off dreamily into space as though he was somewhere else entirely. Watching him made me feel overwhelmed with emotion; despite all of our troubles, I was glad to know that he would at least love our baby.
However, that dreamy expression changed when the elevator doors opened to reveal the sound of Verona’s voice coming from the living room.
“Mom?” Edrick called, furrowing his brow as he followed the sound of her voice. I followed behind him, grateful then that I was wearing a loose-fitting dress to hide my belly.
“Hello, darling,” she said, getting up from where she was sitting on the couch with Ella. “I hope you don’t mind a surprise visit.” She kissed him on the cheek, then came over and kissed me on the cheek as well.
“Not at all,” Edrick said as he began to guide his mother back over to the living room. “It’s just a little unexpected.”
“Well, that is the whole point of a surprise,” she chortled.
Suddenly, I started to feel a little lightheaded from the events of the morning. Selina, seeing this, took my arm and led me to the kitchen. “Come, I’ll make you that soup,” she said quietly, and together we left Edrick and his mother to continue their conversation privately in the living room.
I let out a sigh of relief as I sat down on the stool by the kitchen counter and watched Selina pull a bowl out of the cupboard. She clicked on the stove, then pulled a pot out of the fridge and set it down on the burner.
Behind me, however, I heard Verona’s voice drop low. It sounded as though she didn’t want anyone else to hear… Which meant that I couldn’t help myself from pricking my ears to listen.
“Edrick… Is she pregnant?”
