care, so be it—she wanted this baby and would do whatever to have it.
“We will be cautious. You will see me more often than normal. You will have some early tests and screenings. We will get you on blood pressure meds as a preventive. And you will follow all my directions, right?”
“I followed your directions to a tee with the twins.”
Allie laughed at that.
“Hey! I did—for the most part.”
“Now, there’s one thing I did want to discuss—your weight. You’re barely over one hundred pounds. At your height, you should be between one hundred twenty and one hundred forty pounds. I really would like for you to gain twenty-five to forty pounds … more like forty.”
“Dammit, Mia,” Allie cursed. “Luke said you weighed nothing and he was right. One hundred pounds?”
While she had been preparing for the movie with Austin, she’d lost a lot of weight because the character she played had been ill. If they knew how low she’d actually gotten …
Dr. Kendall looked at her and she grumbled. “I’ll gain the weight.”
“See that you do,” he stated as he moved a rolling cart closer to her. “Now on to the next item. I’d like to do an ultrasound after my exam, okay?”
“Yes,” she said. In a few minutes she would get to see her baby on a screen, hopefully hear its heartbeat for the first time.
She laid down on the table and let the doctor do his exam. She didn’t think to be alarmed when he started with a breast exam, not until he had the gown open and let out a whistled breath.
“Mia …”
“Ah, well, about those …”
“I’m waiting,” the doctor said.
“Uh, rough sex?”
“Mia,” Allie chided.
“Well, that’s what it was!”
The doctor palpated her breasts and held her eyes. “Mia, what’s going on?”
She didn’t want this going any further. She definitely didn’t want the media to get a hold of it. What happened between her and Ethan stayed between them … and their best friends.
“Marriage difficulties. That’s it.”
With an understanding nod, Dr. Kendall performed the ultrasound. Allie held her hand this time as the wand was inserted into her. Her eyes were fixated on the screen, waiting to see how many babies were in her uterus.
“Just one baby this time, Mia,” the doctor said as she breathed a huge sigh of relief.
He took her blood pressure—totally fine. Calculated her due date as January eighth. And he left her with a reminder about her weight and stress.
Hmm … maybe I can drown out my stress with food …
Hopefully that would work.
Mia
Pulling her car into the garage, Mia immediately noticed Ethan’s car in the port next to hers. She had hoped he’d be gone. Where, she didn’t know—just somewhere other than home. She didn’t want to face him right now. The wounds were too raw, too fresh. But she had to swallow that fear if she wanted to get her sons. She didn’t know what Ethan’s reaction would be when she told him she’d be taking the boys with her. Would he try to stop her? Would he fight? Twelve hours ago, she never imagined she’d be in this position—the wife to an adulterer.
She needed out of this house and was taking her sons with her. She hadn’t seen them in the flesh in over four weeks and was desperate to have their little arms wrapped around her neck—to wrap her own arms around them.
That got her out of the car. She crossed the concrete floor of the garage and opened the door to the mudroom but stopped with the sounds and smells of dinner time. How many meals with her sons had she missed these past few years because of her career and all the touring? She couldn’t answer that—more like she didn’t want to. She’d save that soul-searching for a later date.
And she had lots of it to do.
Mia stood in the middle of the room, her nerves deciding they weren’t done with her yet. She took a deep fortifying breath, put a smile on her face, and walked into her house. Passing through the mudroom, she stopped in the kitchen at the sight before her. Ethan and her boys sat around the table with smiles on their faces, enjoying their dinner. All three of them looked up from their meal and when her little boys saw her, they screamed her name in joy.
“Mommy!”
Ethan looked relieved to see her yet, at the same time, confused. He hadn’t expected her to return.