Madeline ran the transducer through the gel as the image of a very healthy-looking foetus flickered on the screen. The heart beat strongly and nothing appeared obviously irregular or out of place. If Tabitha had been in the early stages of miscarrying, Madeline would have expected to find an abnormality with either the foetus – like no heartbeat - or an irregularity in the sac or the lining of the uterus.
But nothing was obvious.
Madeline’s suspicions were confirmed, however. No way was this a ten-week pregnancy. She’d guess it to be closer to fourteen weeks, definitely second trimester. She knew that the machine would give her an actual gestation at the end but wondered if Marcus had picked it up.
‘The baby looks fine. It has a very strong heartbeat,’ Madeline said to Tabitha.
She sneaked a peek at Marcus and wished she hadn’t. The look of wonder on his face made her feel physically ill and she knew it was all over between them. Irrational tears sprang to her eyes. How would it feel to have Marcus’s baby inside her? To have him look at their baby like that?
Like it was the most precious thing he had ever seen.
The yearning was intense and she almost wished she was also pregnant. At least she would be able to take a little of Marcus away from this mess and she’d never be alone again.
Marcus was totally caught up in the image on the screen. He remembered seeing the twelve-week ultrasound pictures of the baby Tabitha had miscarried years ago and clearly remembered not feeling anything other than a sinking sense of dread.
He hadn’t seen the fuzzy images as the wonder and awe of new life but a representation of the end of his life as he’d known it. But right now he felt a weird connection with the strong yet fragile new life. His baby’s heartbeat blinked rapidly at him and he felt a primal urge to protect it from any harm.
He looked up and saw Maddy staring at him with glassy eyes and he realised there was only one thing wrong with this picture — it was the wrong woman lying on the couch.
If only he had that magic wand Maddy had accused him of having at their first acquaintance. Looking at the baby and feeling his love for it rising in his chest, he realised everything would have been perfect had it only been inside Maddy — the woman he loved.
He knew in that instant if this mess was ever sorted out and he could convince Maddy to take him back, that he wanted to do this with her. If that’s what she wanted, too. He wanted to see their baby on a screen. And growing inside her and coming into the world and being cuddled into her breast.
He wanted it so badly it hurt.
And then he realised that there was something else wrong with the picture. He’d been so caught up in the image and the unexpected rush of love that he hadn’t seen the most obvious thing. He looked at Maddy and knew that she had spotted it, too.
‘What’s the gestation?’ he asked, a sinking feeling in his gut.
Madeline’s hand shook as she pressed the button, fully aware that Marcus had seen the discrepancy. ‘Fifteen weeks one day,’ she read off the screen.
A storm of emotion swamped him as the implications became clear. He couldn’t be the father. ‘The baby’s not mine.’
‘What?’ Tabitha rose up onto her elbows. ‘No, that’s impossible.’
‘I’m afraid it is,’ said Madeline.
Then Tabitha lay back and burst into tears.
CHAPTER TEN
MADELINE made a huge show of unplugging the machine and cleaning the transducer as Marcus stood beside Tabitha, patting her back. She watched their casual intimacy with a sick fascination. Part of her wanted to run from the room but her body was reacting sluggishly to the frantic get-out signals from her brain.
‘I’m...so...sorry,’ Tabitha faltered out between huge sobs. ‘Please don’t h...hate me. I’m so...sorry.’
‘Come on, Tab. Stop crying.’ Marcus wiped the goo off her tummy gently and pulled her shirt down. There was obviously more to this story. ‘Sit up, dry your face and tell me what’s going on.’
Tabitha did as he asked and Madeline handed him a box of tissues before heading for the door. She had to get out of here. Marcus and Tabitha needed to talk and she needed to leave them to it.
‘I have a patient to get back to,’ she said as she opened the door. ‘Take as long as you need.’
‘Wait, Maddy,’ Marcus said.
Madeline shook her head, refusing to look at him. ‘I have to get back.’
And she stepped out of the room and shut the door.
Marcus’s heart felt like a hot stone in his chest. She looked miserable and he couldn’t blame her. Performing the ultrasound must have been difficult and he really wished he could go to her. But, whether he liked it or not, this thing with Tabitha took precedence right now.
Grabbing a glass of water from the sink in the corner, he handed it over. ‘Talk,’ he said eventually, when her sobs had slowly dried to the odd hiccup.
‘It’s Tony’s.’ Tabitha stared into the glass of water. ‘That’s why he left me. I told him I was pregnant and he freaked.’
‘But...why?’ Marcus could understand a twenty-two-year-old freaking out but a guy in his mid-thirties with a career and a stable source of income?
‘Something about not having a clue about kids. I think he just panicked, it wasn’t like we’d planned it or anything. And then you came along that night and I thought maybe if I got back with you then Tony would be jealous and realise that he couldn’t live without me. Or the baby.’
Marcus shut his eyes. ‘God...Tab. What the hell were you thinking? This isn’t like you.’ None of her behaviour since landing on his doorstep
