Blackout After Dark (Gansett Island #21) - Marie Force Page 0,7
anything other than the appointment that loomed over them like a dark cloud. Something wasn’t right. Abby was almost to the end of her first trimester, but she looked much further along. From the outset of her high-risk pregnancy, David and Victoria at the Gansett Island clinic had advised them to seek out a specialist on the mainland to be doubly sure everything was okay.
They’d made an appointment at Women & Infants Hospital, waited weeks for the date to arrive, and in the next hour or two, they’d know more. Except he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
If something was wrong…
His heart broke at the thought of that. Abby had been through so much before they’d found each other, and even since then, being diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome and told she might never conceive. They’d adopted their son, Liam, last winter, but Abby’s pregnancy had been a complete shock to both of them.
Their baby was a miracle, and he was determined to do whatever it took to make sure she and the baby were all right. Even if that meant moving to Providence for the duration of her pregnancy. They’d do it if they had to.
They’d hired a young woman named Candice to help run Abby’s Attic at the Surf this summer. Candice had been a godsend so far, and if they had to rely on her to finish out the season at the store, so be it. Whatever it took to get Abby and the baby successfully through this pregnancy.
A chirp from the portable crib let Adam know eight-month-old Liam was awake. He went to retrieve him and found that Abby already had him up and was changing his diaper.
“I can do that if you want to sleep for a little while longer,” Adam said.
“I didn’t sleep at all, so I’m glad to have something to do.”
“I didn’t sleep either.”
They worked together to get Liam washed up, dressed and fed.
“How about some breakfast?” Adam asked.
“I don’t think I could eat. Maybe after the appointment. But you go ahead.”
“I sort of feel the same way.”
They put Liam on the floor in the living room to play with toys while they killed the last hour before it was time to go.
At the hospital, they were taken directly to the ultrasound department for the first of several appointments and tests that would be conducted before they saw the specialist.
Adam held Liam as the ultrasound technician moved the wand over Abby’s protruding abdomen. He watched the screen but couldn’t make heads or tails out of what he was seeing.
The technician moved the wand around, clicking something on the computer. Each click was like a shot to his nerves. What did it all mean? He took comfort in the very strong sound of the baby’s heartbeat. After Mac and Maddie had lost their son Connor in utero, Adam had feared the same silence that had confronted his brother and sister-in-law at a routine ultrasound appointment.
“Excuse me for one minute,” the tech said as she left the room.
“What’s happening?” Abby asked, her brown eyes gone wide with fright.
“I’m sure it’s nothing. You heard the heartbeat. That’s what matters.” He said what she needed to hear even as he tried to hide his own panic. He’d seen enough movies and videos to know that nothing good ever came of the tech leaving the room.
The tech returned five excruciating minutes later with another woman, who introduced herself as a doctor of radiology.
Adam didn’t catch her name and didn’t care what it was.
They started the entire process again from the beginning, as Adam and Abby were forced to wait in agonizing silence for someone to tell them what was going on.
Finally, the doctor looked up at them with an odd expression on her face. “Did you undergo fertility treatment?”
“No,” Abby said. “Why?”
“Has anyone mentioned the possibility of multiples to you?”
“M-multiples?” Abby asked, gazing frantically at the doctor and then at Adam.
The doctor pointed to the screen. “We’re detecting four heartbeats.”
Adam’s knees wanted to buckle under him. “Four?”
Still gesturing toward the screen, the doctor counted. “One, two, three, four.”
Now that she pointed to each of them, he could see them. Four. Four babies. Quadruplets.
“I have PCOS. They…” Abby choked on a sob. “They said I couldn’t have babies, and we… This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“Well,” the doctor said with a cheerful smile, “there’s no question you’re carrying four babies, which is why you’re showing so early. Sometimes people with PCOS will suddenly drop a bunch of mature eggs.