After the nurse walked out Sarah grabbed her phone and texted Syd. When she’d first fallen the absurd thought that it was God’s way of punishing her for loving Sydney. Maybe it was wrong. Maybe she shouldn’t feel for him what she did. But now she realized that was silly. She loved him like she’s always loved him—like the very best friend anyone could ever ask for.

She explained to him what happened and assured him that she was fine then ended the text with a goodnight and again she told him she loved him. Then she finally fell asleep.

She woke up about five in the morning feeling strange. Angel wasn’t on the recliner but his keys and jacket were there; he must’ve stepped out. Something was wrong. They’d dimmed the lights in her room but even with the darkened room she could see something when she pulled up the blankets. She reached for the lights and thought she might faint when she realized she was bleeding. Swallowing hard and trying to hold it together she rang for the nurse. Within seconds the nurse was there.

“I’m bleeding!”

The nurse quickly assessed Sarah’s condition then called the nurses’ station and Sarah heard the most frightening words she’d ever heard. “Get the doctor here ASAP, looks like Moreno is going to deliver.”

“Deliver? I’m only thirty three weeks!”

“I don’t know honey. Something’s happened and this baby is coming now.”

Sarah was already in tears. “Where’s my husband? I need him here.”

“You just relax, we’ll get him for you.”

The doctor was there within minutes. After examining her he confirmed what the nurse had said that she would have to deliver. He explained that the most common damage a fall or any kind of trauma that occurs during pregnancy is tearing of the placenta. It’s what had concerned him and why he’d kept her. Apparently he made the right call.

Angel rushed in just as the doctor explained what would happen next. At this stage of her pregnancy he strongly recommended no pain medicines for the delivery. “It’ll make the baby sluggish. Any chance of survival, we’ll need this baby as alert as can be. You’ll have to do this on your own.”

“Then don’t give me anything!” Sarah cried.

Angel held her hand tight, his face as terrified as she felt even though she could see he attempted to keep it together.

“Okay.” The doctor nodded. “Lets get started.”

CHAPTER 5

Eight days

Four hours later, after agonizingly having to endure seeing Sarah in so much pain, she delivered a tiny baby boy. She’d cried when they whisked him away so fast she never even got a chance to see him. Angel’s heart ached for her and as much as he wanted to go investigate—find out just how his baby was doing—he couldn’t tear himself from her side. She was so incredibly sad and he wanted nothing more than to comfort her. He knew she had to be replaying the same words in her head that he had ever since he heard them. Any chance of survival.

He’d hardly slept the entire night; he’d been tossing and turning, worried that something like this would happen. After hours of crying Sarah had finally fallen asleep. As tired as he was Angel refused to leave the hospital until Sarah left with him. The nurse said she would be setting something up for him to sleep in. In the mean time he was finally able to go into the NICU and got the first glimpse of his son.

After walking by several other tiny babies hooked up to all kinds of tubes looking dreadfully sick he almost smiled when he saw the incubator with the Moreno label. He didn’t look much smaller than what his nieces looked like when they were born but he did have a million tubes hooked to him.

The labels said he was three pounds thirteen ounces. That wasn’t that bad. He’d read some of the others who were only one or two pounds. Here his son was almost four. Something beeped and a nurse came over and opened the incubator. Immediately alarmed he asked the nurse. “What’s wrong with him?”

“Bradycardias,” she said, massaging the baby’s chest with her fingers.

She could have been speaking German and he wouldn’t have understood less. “What is that?”

“Heart is too slow,” she clarified.

Angels eyes widened.

“Normal for a preemie,” she added quickly. “I stimulated his heart. See.” She pointed at the monitor as if Angel knew what any of the numbers meant. “Already better.”

Angel stared at the baby and could hardly believe he was his. It felt surreal. He and Sarah had made this little guy. He wished she could be there with him but in a way he was glad she wasn’t. The baby’s appearance would probably make her sad. He did look positively fragile.

It wasn’t until he walked into the waiting room and was immediately surrounded by his family that he let out everything he’d felt that night the knot in his throat, finally gave and he wept in his mother’s arms as she stroked his head and his back. “Cry, mijo. Let it out. It’s okay. It’s okay.”

His brothers assured him they had everything under control at the restaurant—told him not to worry about anything. After letting them know Sarah probably wouldn’t be up to any visitors until maybe that evening they left. Angel visited his son again. Then went back to the room. Sarah was awake.

“I wanna see him,” were the first words out of her mouth when she saw Angel.

“You can’t, babe.”

The doctors had described Sarah’s postpartum bleeding as “on the heavy side.” They were monitoring her closely to make sure it didn’t crossover to hemorrhaging. That was common when there is damage to the placenta which in Sarah’s case they were almost certain that’s what had happened. They wanted her to stay in bed for at least a day before attempting to walk.