Chapter 8 - The Night She Called His Name
By February, Emily had stopped measuring Dominic’s efforts in grand gestures.
There were none.
There was a message asking whether she wanted company at an appointment.
There was a corrected insurance form.
There was Dominic arriving on time, carrying the exact snack she had requested, without bringing three alternatives or asking Catherine what would be best.
There were therapy sessions.
Some alone.
Some together.
At the first joint session, Emily said she didn’t know whether she could forgive him.
Their counselor nodded.
“Then we won’t make forgiveness today’s assignment.”
Dominic looked relieved.
Emily did too.
The investigation continued outside the quiet routines they were building.
Vivian’s foundation accounts remained under review. Martin had lost his role representing Dominic and faced questions about his own conduct. Adrian’s attorney disputed parts of the allegations.
Emily stopped reading every update.
Rachel told her what she needed to know.
She was allowed to have afternoons that belonged to something other than the case.
At twenty-five weeks, the twins had become distinct personalities in her imagination.
One kicked when Frank played old rock songs in the store.
The other seemed determined to lodge beneath her ribs whenever she tried to sleep.
Dominic called them Baby A and Baby B until Emily told him they sounded like suspicious entries in a spreadsheet.
“What should I call them?”
“Your children.”
He smiled.
“Our children,” he said carefully.
She let the words stay.
One rainy Thursday, they attended an ultrasound together.
The earlier bleeding had resolved. The doctor reviewed their growth and scheduled the next checks.
Dominic watched the screen with the same astonishment he had shown the first time.
Outside the clinic, Emily asked whether he wanted coffee.
He looked at her as though she had offered him something impossible.
“It’s coffee,” she said.
“I know.”
“Then stop looking so terrified.”
He laughed.
For forty minutes, they talked about names.
Not lawyers.
Not Vivian.
Not the marriage.
Names.
Emily liked Lucy.
Dominic liked Eleanor.
They both rejected Frank’s suggestion of naming a baby after his favorite baseball player.
That evening, Emily returned upstairs after closing the store with her father.
Halfway through putting away laundry, she felt a tightening low in her abdomen.
She waited.
It happened again.
Then again.
Her doctor’s instructions were on the refrigerator.
She called.
Within minutes, she was told to come in for assessment.
Frank reached for his coat.
Emily reached for her phone.
For a moment, she stared at Dominic’s name.
Then she called.
He answered on the first ring.
“I need to go to the hospital.”
“Are you alone?”
“Dad’s here.”
“I’m coming. Do you want me to meet you there?”
“Yes.”
No demand for details she couldn’t give.
No order to wait for him.
At the hospital, he was standing near the entrance when they arrived.
Emily saw him and began crying.
“I don’t know what’s happening.”
He moved closer.
“May I?”
She nodded.
He put an arm around her.
Inside, clinicians assessed her and monitored the babies. The hours moved slowly. Questions were asked, examinations completed, plans explained.
Dominic wrote down what Emily wanted remembered.
When she was frightened by an unfamiliar term, he didn’t supply his own explanation.
He asked the doctor to repeat it.
When someone addressed him instead of her, he said, “Emily asked the question.”
Near dawn, the doctor told them the immediate findings were reassuring. They would continue observing her before deciding when she could go home.
Emily sagged against the pillow.
Dominic sat beside the bed, still wearing his coat.
“You can sleep,” she murmured.
“So can you.”
She studied his face.
Six months earlier, she would have been afraid to ask him to stay.
Now she reached for his hand.
“Don’t leave.”
His eyes filled.
“I’m here.”
She fell asleep holding two of his fingers, just as she had at the first appointment.
This time, when she woke, his hand was still there.
Sunlight crossed the hospital blanket.
Her father snored softly in a chair.
Catherine arrived carrying clean clothes and terrible coffee.
For the first time in months, Emily looked around a room and felt no need to make herself smaller.
May you like
Everyone she needed had come.
And nobody had asked her to earn it.
