Moreno's (Moreno Brothers Series) - Elizabeth Reyes Page 0,66
mother if it’s in there too long. At this point we can’t be sure, but Dr. Hadichi estimates it’d been at least twenty-four hours since it died. Long enough to cause the infection in the bloodstream and why she had such a high fever.” She paused for a moment as if to choose her next words cautiously. “She fell into a coma a few minutes after the fetus was removed.”
Alej’s jaw dropped and his heart raced. This was so much worse than he’d walked in thinking.
“That’s actually a good thing, Mr. Moreno. It gives the brain time to recover from any damage that may’ve been caused by the infection. Reduces the work of the brain cells. We suspect the infection had reached her brain and that’s usually why the body automatically goes into protective mode. While the rate of survival when something like this happens, especially to someone as young and healthy as your wife is a good one, I do need to inform you that there is a slight chance she might not come out of it.”
For as indifferent an asshole as he’d been acting like since the festival, Alej struggled to keep his lips from trembling. The tears were already dripping out the sides of his eyes.
“Do her parents know?”
They shook their heads. “All we were able to tell them when they asked about the pregnancy was that there no longer was one,” Dr. Hadichi explained. “We had to wait until you arrived per our privacy policy. As the husband, you call all the shots now when it comes to your wife, including who gets informed of her condition. Unless you sign off on them.”
Alej swatted tears away. How the fuck was he supposed to tell her parents? After they explained the treatment plan, what they’d be monitoring closely and the test results they were still waiting on, Alej’s cowardly ass asked if there was a phone he could use before heading out to the waiting room. As if they understood his hesitation to return to the waiting room where her oblivious parents were, Dr. Hadichi pointed at the phone on her desk, and they left the room to give him some privacy.
“She lost the baby and she’s in a coma,” Alej said as soon as his dad answered, his voice breaking in the process. “Her parents don’t know yet,” he went on, desperately trying to swallow back the emotion. “I don’t know how to tell them, Dad.”
“Coma, how? Why?”
Explaining quickly, Alej got back to his dilemma. “Her mom was already crying when I got here, and all she knows was that Carmela had lost the baby. How do I tell them?”
“You just do, Son,” his father said firmly. “Maybe you start off with what the doctor said about the coma being a good thing.”
His father told him to stay positive and that he and Lucia would meet him at the hospital in a few. As expected, Maria and Pepe were beside themselves. They insisted on seeing her, but because of her condition, she’d be in isolation for the first eight hours. After being there for several hours, knowing it’d be at least another five before he’d be let in to see her, Alej and his family left. Her parents did too but only to eat and said they’d be back after.
Alej couldn’t shake the guilt. Carmela was their only child. From what she’d told him, they’d completely spoiled her all her life. He wouldn’t even think about the possibility of her not making it. But he had kept to himself what else the doctors had touched on. Because of the emergency surgery they’d had to do to remove the fetus, there was a chance Carmela might not ever get pregnant again. Even if they got through this, with no further tragedies, they may never be grandparents.
Positive thoughts.
It’s what his dad kept saying when he’d see how down he was, and the inevitable tears would escape his eyes. He’d gone down to the hospital’s chapel several times in the time they’d spent there that day. He knew everyone was thinking he was there praying. He was, but he was also asking for mercy. Praying to be forgiven for what felt like retribution for being such an ungrateful asshole. A penance he’d brought on himself. He was suffering the heartfelt grief over the loss of his unborn child, a gravely ill wife—a good woman he should be grateful she genuinely loved him—despite her not being the one.