Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 77398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
How did we get back here?
“I’m on my way,” I told Jackson, rushing out of the hospital with my mind on one person and one person only.
My baby girl.
Because the alternative hurt too fucking much.
Chapter 16
<>Aiden<>
As soon as I pulled into the garage, I could hear Journey’s ear-piercing wails, causing my blood to run cold and my mind to spin.
I grabbed my medical bag from the passenger seat and jumped out of my car, darting toward the door to get to my baby girl. My heart pounding a mile a minute.
“I know, Little Miss… I know… Daddy’s on his way to make you feel all better, I promise…”
“DA! DA! DA!” she screeched in a high-pitched tone when she saw me sprinting through the door in the kitchen. Her chubby little arms reaching for me like her life depended on it.
Camila spun instantly with a troubled Journey in her arms. Her face was bright red and frightened. I’d never seen her so thrown off course and it stopped me dead in my tracks.
Dragging me back to another place and time.
“Bailey, you’re doing great, Beauty. She’s almost here, our baby girl is almost here.”
“What’s happening?”
“Journey’s on her way to us, baby. The doctors are getting her out now.”
“What? Why? It’s not time.”
“It’s tim—”
Monitors started going off.
“She’s hemorrhaging!” Dr. Stein shouted. “Get the baby out of there now!”
“DA!” Journey screamed, making me feel like I was losing my goddamn mind. She kicked her legs, twisting everyway she could to get out of Camila’s arms and into mine. “DA!” She crudely smacked her in the face, causing Camila to grimace with a pained look in her eyes. “DA!”
“Journey, please…” she begged, holding onto her as best as she could.
“Here, I’ll take her again,” Jackson intervened with a worried Jagger standing right beside him. Both of my boys helping Camila and my baby.
Because of me.
For me…
Journey wasn’t having it, she slapped him too. Grasping only for me from Camila’s arms. “DA!” Throwing her body backwards, she tried to get free. Choking out, “DA!”
I couldn’t take it any longer, my restraint, my sanity, my fucking conscience was burying me alive.
Watching Journey need me, want me, have to have me was enough to break me free from the chains holding me down. Her agony resonated somewhere deep inside me, till I had no choice but to make it stop.
There wasn’t a chance in hell I could deny her anymore.
“Come here, baby. Daddy’s here, I’m here,” I soothed, grabbing her from Camila.
Journey immediately latched onto me, wrapping her arms around my neck. She laid her head on my shoulder, hyperventilating through her rapid breaths.
Her skin felt like a house engulfed in flames, the fire seizing into my chest.
“She’s burning up,” I stated out loud, hurrying toward the nursery with all three of them trailing behind me.
“I know! I’m so sorry! I should have had Jackson call you earlier!”
“Da,” Journey weakly moaned, hanging onto me as I rubbed her back, trying to feel her lungs against my hands.
“I know, baby girl, I know. I’m going to make you feel all better. I promise. I got you… shhh… I got you now.”
She calmed down a little, listening to my soothing voice reassuring her that I was there now.
Once we made it into her nursery, I nodded to the changing table. “Jackson, grab the blanket from her crib and lay it across the top.”
He didn’t waver, moving quickly.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Camila fervently shaking her head, staring at me with tormented eyes.
“I swear she wasn’t this bad before her nap,” she stressed a mile a minute. “When she woke up this morning, she was really quiet and wasn’t acting like herself all day. I’m so sorry! Please don’t be upset with me,” she pleaded, hanging on by a thread. “I thought I could figure it out. I thought I had it handled. I should have called you earlier. This is my fault. This is all my fault. I let it get this bad.”
“Da!”
“I know, baby. I know. It’s okay, Daddy has to lay you down now.”
“Da!” she shrieked, holding onto me tighter.
“Camila, help me. You’re going to have to hold her down while I check her vitals.”
Her hands were shaking. “Okay.”
“Relax.” I glanced at her, coaxing, “You did nothing wrong.”
“No. I should’ve called you. I don’t know why I thought—”
“Enough of that. Hold her down, please.”
Journey bawled, getting hysterical.
Camila grabbed her arms while Jackson gripped onto her legs, locking her in place as she threw a fit. A full meltdown. Yelling my name over and over again. Breaking my fucking heart.
There was no use in trying to get through to her, all that was left for me to do was find the root of the problem.
I pulled my medical instruments out from my bag, and swiftly went to work. My professional instinct kicked in at rapid speed.