squealed. “Ah, they are so…c-close!” Each word came out through a painful huff. The contractions were so fast now. Things were happening. She didn’t have time to think about anything other than the baby.
“All right!”
The door opened again, and this time the doctor swept in with a nurse beside him. “Who’s ready to have a baby?” he asked, his over-pronounced joy bouncing off every surface in the room.
Nina wanted to murder him.
“We are!” Caitlyn rejoined, squeezing Nina’s hand even tighter.
Nina turned, even as nauseating levels of pain swept through her. “We?”
Caitlyn turned back to the bed with a weak smile. As the contraction grew, she squeezed as hard as Nina did, biting her lip with effort but never once letting go.
“We,” she said with surety Nina couldn’t feel. “I’m here, N, I promise. Until the end.”
Chapter Twelve
December 2008
“Here we are, Mrs. Gardner. Looks like they’re all ready for the season, aren’t they?”
Through the backseat windows of the big black Escalade, Nina peered up at her grandmother’s familiar Park Avenue building. The Escalade was new, just like the chattering driver, Davis, whom Calvin had hired after the birth. He had insisted that it was ridiculous for them to take taxis or hire town cars. People like us have their own drivers, he’d argued.
Us? Nina wanted to ask. Or me?
Either way, she didn’t really care about the answer. And she had learned quickly over the last few weeks not to provoke the beast.
This was one of her first nights out since the birth. From the wide window sill in her suite, she had nursed Olivia and watched Christmas bloom in the city streets below. The world had been quiet. Calvin was gone most of the time, thankfully, showing even less interest in his supposed “daughter” after she was born than he had before. And for the last nearly two months Nina had been given a sanctuary from her marriage.
It also gave her time to think about its end.
A year, they’d said. Enough time for Calvin to get his business off the ground. Enough time for her to avoid the scandal of having a baby out of wedlock. It was half over now. She could hire a lawyer, make sure the terms of the prenup would be upheld. Plan a life outside of her tower for her and the baby. Together.
Nina sighed as she looked up at the traditional garland and lights decorating the familiar brick building. The problem with getting out of the marriage was that she didn’t know what that life was supposed to look like afterward. Money wouldn’t be an issue. But it wasn’t like she would be able to jump right back into being an impetuous college student. She had a child to care for now. She had to think about where she wanted to raise her. Whom she wanted in their life.
Giuseppe.
The letter had sat on the desk in her room for over a month until she finally got up the nerve to send it to the university.
Peppe—
Buongiorno from Novo York, as one might say! I hope you’re doing well and have a good Christmas planned with your family. The museums here are dressed in garlands, but every time I visit the Met, I take a peek in the Renaissance section and remember your lectures on perspective.
I am planning a visit to Florence again next year with some family to show them everything you taught me. If you have time, it would be lovely to get an espresso and learn a bit more from you.
xNina
It was harmless. Nothing more than a polite hello from a former student, in the event anyone else discovered it. More importantly, she couldn’t imagine telling Peppe they had a child together in a simple letter. Some things had to be said face-to-face.
Regardless, over a month later, she hadn’t heard back. Now she was wondering if she and the baby would have to make a surprise trip. If she got up the nerve to do it at all.
Once, she’d had a bit of nerve. Down several blocks, the light marking the entrance to the subway blinked, a beacon for the constant stream of people pouring in and out of the tunnels. For a moment, Nina could see herself, glancing this way and that to make sure none of the family’s security or staff were following before darting underground where no one could find her. A sixteen-year-old girl’s small act of defiance. Girls like Nina weren’t supposed to take the subway. But she had. Just