‘I’ve booked you a flight home.’
Marcus blinked. ‘You what?’ he asked quietly.
‘You know you’ll come back home.’ She shrugged. ‘Might as well just rip the band aid right off.’
There were a lot of things about this situation that Marcus couldn’t control but he was damn sure he was going to control the things he could.
And Melbourne didn’t feel like home anymore.
‘I don’t know what I’m going to do yet but I do know I’m not rushing into anything. There are things that need settling here. I can’t just take off.’
‘You mean you won’t,’ she said, her voice sharp.
‘I need time.’
‘So you can make up with your girlfriend?’ she asked, her emphasis disparaging.
‘Oh I think you’ve killed any chance of that.’
‘God...this is just like before,’ she said bitterly, her voice raising an octave. ‘You didn’t want a baby then either.’
Marcus sighed. ‘I was twenty-two.’
‘Well, no need to worry,’ she said standing. ‘Maybe I’ll conveniently miscarry this time again.’
She glared at him across the desk before turning on her heel and storming out of his office and slamming his door.
***
Two hours later Marcus was seeing a client out when his mobile rang. Again he got his hopes up but again it was just Tabitha’s number flashing on the screen.
‘Hello,’ he said tersely.
He couldn’t make out a word she said initially she was crying so much. ‘Slow down, Tab,’ he said, ‘I can’t understand a word you’re saying.’
‘I said,’ she said hiccuping as she drew in a couple of deep breaths, ‘you got your wish, you slime ball. I’m bleeding. I hope you’re happy.’
Tabitha dissolved into more tears and Marcus took a few seconds to fully comprehend what she’d said. Oh, no! Not again. Tab had been devastated the first time around, depressed for months after.
‘What am I going to do, Marcus?’ she wailed. ‘I can’t go through this again.’
His heart went out to her and his medical training came to the fore. ‘What do you mean, bleeding? Fresh blood or more like spotting?’ he asked.
‘Spotting.’ She sniffled.
‘Any cramping?’
‘Not yet.’ Her voice wobbled.
‘It’s probably nothing, Tab,’ he said reassuringly.
‘This was how it started last time,’ she sobbed.
‘Come down here immediately,’ Marcus said. ‘They have a basic ultrasound machine next door, we’ll do a scan and see what’s happening.’
Marcus made some phone calls. Three to cancel all his remaining afternoon clients and one more to Maddy, who thankfully picked it up without looking at her caller ID.
‘I know this is asking a lot but Tabitha is spotting. She’s hysterical. Can I bring her in for a quick scan?’
Madeline couldn’t quite believe what he was asking of her. She wanted to scream into the phone and hang up loudly in his ear. But despite everything, Madeline felt for Tabitha. Many of her patients had suffered from the devastating loss of a pregnancy. It was only natural for Marcus to turn to the most readily available source of medical equipment especially when he was new in town and hadn’t made a lot of contacts yet.
‘Of course,’ she said politely. ‘Is she cramping?’
‘No.’
‘How far is she along? It’s probably nothing,’ she said to him unnecessarily.
‘I know, that’s what I told her, but she’s been through this once before. She’s ten weeks. She’s really upset, Maddy.’
She heard the apology and the strain in his voice. ‘Bring her straight in,’ she said briskly, and hung up.
Once her hands had stopped shaking and she could think rationally, Madeline hoped for Tabitha’s sake everything was okay. And she was glad that Marcus had asked her. This way she got to see the baby, too, and it would seem much more real to her than it did at the moment.
Everything from last night onward seemed surreal. Seeing Marcus’s baby on the screen, while devastating, would also help her face reality. Confirm that it was actually happening — that he had responsibilities and she wouldn’t stand in his way.
Madeline maintained her professional veneer as she ushered the man that she loved and the woman he had impregnated into the examination room a short time later. Tabitha, her eyes red-rimmed, got up on the couch and pulled her skirt down a little to reveal her still flat stomach.
She switched on the machine. It may not have been a high tech unit like those at a radiology clinic, but even a basic device these days was hugely sophisticated – it would do the job.
Tabitha reached for Marcus’s hand and he took it, automatically. ‘You’ve been spotting?’ Madeline asked, needing to say something to stop the roar of blood in her head. Watching their easy familiarity was torture.
‘It started an hour ago.’
‘And what were you doing at the time?’ she asked, pretending that this was just another client as she palpated Tabitha’s abdomen. She could easily feel the bulge of the burgeoning uterine fundus and frowned slightly. At ten weeks she shouldn’t be able to palpate the fundus yet. It didn’t grow up from behind the pelvic rim until about twelve weeks.
‘Marcus and I had had an argument,’ she said, her voice tight. ‘I was crying.’
Madeline glanced at Marcus, the guilt on his face heartbreaking. Damn it. And damn him. Here she was, caught up in a bizarre triangle with the absolute right to feel pretty damn aggrieved, and all she wanted was to take him in her arms and comfort him.
‘And have you been taking care of yourself?’ she asked. ‘Eating well, sleeping well?’
‘I had my best night’s sleep in a long time,’ Tabitha sniffled. ‘I’ve always slept best in Marcus’s bed.’
Marcus gaped at Tabitha as Maddy flinched. She covered it swiftly but he could see his ex-wife’s barb had hit hard. What the hell? It was unlike Tabitha to be so cruel.
There was something screwy going on with her.
He clenched his fists. ‘I slept on the couch,’ he clarified tersely, relieved to see Maddy’s shoulders relax.
Madeline squeezed some gel onto Tabitha’s abdomen and didn’t feel the least bit sorry at the other woman’s swift intake
