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He Delivered My Baby Early So His First Love Could Once Mother
NovelShort
Completed
When his first love had only a month left to live, my husband, the director of the maternity hospital, decided to deliver my daughter early and give her to that woman as a last birthday gift. I wept and shielded my belly, refusing to agree. But Lyndon forced me to sign the surgical consent form with his own hands. "Hilda can never have children in this life. Her greatest regret is that she'll die without ever once being a mother. The baby will only come a few weeks early. I won't let anything happen to him."
Chapters (4)
第1章
With only a month left to live, my husband's first love was going to get one last birthday present. He was the director of the maternity hospital, and he decided to cut my daughter out early and hand her over.
I cried and held my belly and refused.
But Lyndon Prescott forced me to sign the consent form with his own hand.
"Hilda Fox can never have children. Her greatest regret is that she'll die without ever being a mother once. The baby's just coming a few weeks early. I won't let anything happen to her."
My six-year-old son tugged at me too.
"Mommy, just lend the baby sister to Mommy Hilda. You still have me anyway."
They wheeled me into the operating room. I hemorrhaged and went into shock.
The daughter I nearly died bringing into the world—I didn't get to see her even once before Lyndon carried her up to a ward.
When I woke, a photo he'd sent popped up on my phone.
Hilda holding my daughter, blowing out candles, a card pinned to the baby's swaddle.
"A birthday gift for Hilda."
What Lyndon didn't know was that after that surgery, I no longer had a lifetime left to wait for them to give my daughter back.
1
"Give my child back to me!"
I ripped the IV needle out of the back of my hand, braced myself against the wall, and rushed into Hilda's ward.
My daughter had already cried herself hoarse. She was barely ten-odd hours old, a preemie born at thirty-five weeks who should have been in the neonatal unit, and instead Hilda was holding her, posing for pictures.
A cake, flowers, and a set of pink mommy-and-me pajamas sat by the bed.
Lyndon frowned and blocked me.
"Hilary Swanson, your incision hasn't healed. Who told you to come up here?"
"I'm asking you—why is my child in here!"
I reached out for my daughter, and just as I was about to touch her, Lyndon knocked my hand away with a slap.
Hilda's eyes went red at once.
"Hilary, please don't be like this, you're scaring me. I only wanted to be a mother once before I die. Don't be angry, I'll give the baby right back to you."
Her mouth said give her back, but her hands didn't loosen. If anything she gripped tighter, and the baby cried harder, her whole body nearly trembling.
It broke my heart.
I didn't care that my body was still bleeding. I snatched her into my arms.
Strangely enough, the little one who'd been crying so hard she couldn't catch her breath went quiet, bit by bit, the moment she was against my chest.
Her wrinkled little hand grabbed at my hospital gown, and my tears fell in an instant.
My daughter. From the moment she was born until now, this was the first time I'd truly held her.
"Baby, Mommy's here."
I bent down and kissed her forehead.
But the next second Lyndon was already reaching out, trying to wrench the child straight out of my arms.
"Give the baby back to Hilda!"
I clutched her tight and looked at this father who cared only about pleasing his first love, who'd forgotten this was still a premature baby.
"Lyndon! Our daughter should be in an incubator right now, not here!"
"Hilda's been waiting a long time for this birthday present."
He glanced at the pale-faced Hilda on the bed, his voice unbearably gentle.
"Let her stay with Hilda today. I'll send her back to the neonatal unit tonight. Don't worry, Hilda's a good mother. With her here, nothing will happen to our daughter."
I stared at him, unable to believe it.
"Mother! What right does a woman who's never even given birth have to be called a mother!"
A slap cracked out. Lyndon's face went dark, and my cheek burned.
"This is a maternity hospital. I'm her father and a doctor. I understand the baby's condition better than you do! Hilda has twenty-nine days left at most. Let her feel what it's like to be a mother. So what? How can you be so vicious?"
Vicious?
My chest felt like it had taken a punch, an ache and a bitterness I couldn't put into words.
Hilda wiped her tears and said quietly,
"Lyndon, let it go. I was never meant to be a mother anyway."
The moment he heard that, his brow tightened. He stopped bothering to reason with me and just tore the baby out of my arms.
I lunged to grab him. A sharp pain shot through my abdomen, the freshly stitched incision felt like it was ripping open, and warm blood quickly soaked through my hospital gown.
A nurse rushed over in fright to hold me up.
"Director Prescott, Dr. Swanson's incision is bleeding!"
Lyndon glanced back.
Just one glance—and Hilda pressed a hand to her chest and started gasping.
"Lyndon, I don't feel well!"
He immediately carried the baby over to her.
"Get oncology up here now!"
I gripped the edge of the bed, in too much pain to stand straight.
"Lyndon, give me my daughter back. She's so small, she can't stay out here like this, something will happen to her!"
He turned to fit the oxygen tube over Hilda, then looked back and snapped at me, impatient.
"Shut up! Stop making such a fuss. I've got my eye on the baby, nothing can go wrong!"
The words had barely left his mouth when the infant in his arms suddenly stopped crying.
The nurse's face changed all at once.
"Director Prescott! The baby's lips are turning blue!"
第2章
“We're losing her! Get her to the neonatal unit, now!”
The nurse had barely grabbed the baby from me when I stumbled forward two steps, and a savage pain tore low in my belly, blood running down the inside of my pant leg.
I dropped to my knees, and all I could do was watch Lyndon Prescott chase the crash cart out the door.
Hilda Fox pressed a hand to her chest and called his name, and his steps stalled. He turned back, lifted her into a wheelchair, and said,
“Hilda's not well. I'm taking her down to the ER with me.”
Even now he was still worrying about Hilda. I looked up at him, my eyes splitting with fury.
“Where's my daughter? I want to see her.”
Lyndon's face was black.
“The doctors are already working on her. Can you just be quiet? Haven't you caused enough of a scene today?”
Be quiet? I froze.
After the door to the resuscitation room closed, I braced myself against the wall and forced myself upright.
The head of the neonatal unit came out, forehead beaded with sweat.
“We've got her stable for now, but her gestational age is very low and she just went through oxygen deprivation. From here on she has to stay in the incubator. No one is to take her out again.”
My legs buckled, and just as I started to fall, Lyndon reached out to steady me. I threw his hand off hard, staring at him through my tears.
“I told you! She was barely a dozen hours old, and you dragged her out of that incubator just so Hilda could have a birthday! Something happened to her, and now you're happy!”
Lyndon's face darkened.
“Enough. The baby's been saved. If you hadn't come charging in to snatch her back today, she never would have cried herself into that state! Her own mother doesn't even feel for her—what were the rest of us supposed to do?”
I stared at him, stunned.
Our daughter had nearly died in their hands, and somehow, in the end, the one in the wrong was still me.
Hilda was wheeled back out, her eyes red-rimmed.
“Hilary, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. I never should have wanted to be a mother.”
Lyndon went straight to her.
“It's got nothing to do with you. You only wanted to be a mother. What's wrong with that?”
The words had barely left his mouth when Jared ran out of the elevator. He threw himself down at Hilda's bedside, crying frantically.
“Mommy Hilda, are you feeling sick again?”
I looked at my own son, calling another woman his mother, and for a long moment I couldn't get a single word out.
He hadn't even asked one thing about his little sister.
Hilda stroked his head and shot me a smug glance.
“Auntie's all right, sweetie. It's your baby sister who nearly got hurt. Hilary won't let your sister be my daughter. Jared, will you help me talk to your mommy?”
Jared whipped his head around and glared at me.
“Mommy, why do you always pick on Mommy Hilda? Daddy said it—Sister's just being lent to her for one month and then she'll come back to you. Why can't you even wait one month?”
My voice shook.
“Jared, I'm the one who gave birth to her.”
“But Mommy Hilda is going to die soon!”
He was screaming through his tears now.
“You still have me, and Sister, and Daddy. You have everything. Why do you have to fight Mommy Hilda for this? You're a wicked woman, and I hate you! Why can't you be the one who dies instead!”
Every word landed like a knife, and beside him Lyndon didn't so much as flinch.
I couldn't say anything anymore.
Every last one of those lines was something Lyndon had said. He had taken his own favoritism and taught it to our son, one sentence at a time.
I coughed up a mouthful of blood, and only then did Lyndon frown and reach for Jared.
“That's enough. Stop it.”
But Jared burrowed into Hilda's arms.
“I like Mommy Hilda! She's never mean to me like Mommy is!”
The nurse came running after me, and when she saw the blood on me her face went white.
“Dr. Swanson, your incision has split open again. You need to come back right now and get it treated!”
I didn't move.
In the resuscitation room lay my daughter, a day old. In front of me stood the husband and son who thought I was in the way. I looked down at the hospital gown soaked through with blood, and all at once the pain didn't seem to be worth anything anymore.
I lifted my head and asked Lyndon,
“If I died, you'd be satisfied. Wouldn't you?”
His face turned dark in an instant.
“Hilary Swanson, who are you trying to threaten with your death this time?”
I looked at him for a long time, then gave a small smile.
“All right. I won't threaten you anymore.”
第3章
Jared's words kept circling in my ears. Why couldn't you be the one to die.
When the doctor stitched my wound again, I shook all over from the pain, but I didn't make a sound.
The nurse had just hooked up the blood bag when I reached up and pulled the needle out. She cried out.
“Dr. Swanson, you've lost too much blood, you can't do this, you need the transfusion!”
Through the doorway I saw Lyndon holding Hilda, comforting her, Hilda leaning into his shoulder. The three of them stood together like a real family.
And suddenly I thought Jared was right. If I were the one who died, all of them would probably breathe easier.
While the nurse went out to call for help, I braced myself against the wall and slipped into the fire stairwell, climbing floor by floor.
By the time the wind on the rooftop hit my face, I couldn't feel the pain anymore.
I had just swung one leg over the railing when Lyndon's furious voice tore out behind me.
“Hilary Swanson!”
He rushed over and dragged me back. I hit the ground, and the wound on my belly, freshly stitched, began to bleed again.
He clamped down hard on my shoulders.
“Are you insane? Why would you go somewhere that dangerous!”
I looked at him.
“Jared wants me dead. I want to die too. Why did you bother saving me?”
His face went ugly at once.
“A six-year-old says something in anger and you take it to heart? You're his mother. Can't you act like an adult!”
“And what about you?”
The tears wouldn't stop.
“You had our daughter cut out early to give to Hilda. The baby nearly died, and you blamed me. My wound split open, and you told me to keep quiet. Lyndon, I've given you our daughter, I don't want our son anymore, so what's the point of me staying alive?”
His breath caught, and then his face hardened again.
“Enough! Do you have to make everyone miserable in Hilda's last month? Fine, I promise you, once she's gone I'll make everything up to you. Is that enough!”
“I'm warning you one last time. Don't think using death can threaten me. I don't care!”
Threaten? He thought I was threatening him?
I was about to speak when hurried footsteps came from below. The head of the neonatal unit rushed onto the rooftop, her face bloodless.
“Director Prescott, the little miss is in severe respiratory failure again. They're trying to save her right now!”
My mind went to static. I scrambled up and ran down the stairs.
By the time I reached the resuscitation room, doctors were already crowded inside. Through the glass, all I could see was my daughter's tiny body ringed by machines.
I kept pounding on the door.
“Let me in! I'm her mother!”
Lyndon held me back, his arms locked around me.
“You'll only get in the way in there. Stop it!”
An hour later the door opened. The department head pulled down her mask, her voice so low I could barely hear it.
“Director Prescott, I'm sorry. We couldn't save her.”
My legs gave out and I dropped to my knees. Everything around me went silent.
Lyndon stood frozen for a long time, then suddenly seized my arm, slapped me across the face, and cursed at me.
“If you hadn't stormed into Hilda's room today to grab the baby, if you hadn't threatened to kill yourself, she wouldn't have been put through shock after shock! It's all your fault. Now Hilda's one birthday wish can never come true!”
I looked up at him and laughed, bitter.
So even now, the one he cared about was still Hilda. Even our daughter's death meant nothing to him.
Hilda leaned in, crying.
“Lyndon, don't blame Hilary. She just lost her child, it's hard for her too.”
His eyes red, he cut her off.
“Don't stand up for her! You're too kind, that's why she keeps walking all over you!”
I watched the two of them and found I couldn't even cry anymore. After a long while, I said quietly,
“Lyndon, our daughter is dead, and Jared doesn't want me either. So take my death and give it to Hilda as her birthday present.”
“A dead woman can't fight her for anything anymore.”
第4章
He didn't say yes, because my mother arrived.
"Lyndon Prescott, are you even human!"
She rushed into the corridor and slapped him hard across the face. Then she saw me sitting on the floor, covered in blood, and the tears came all at once.
"Hilary, where's the baby? Where's my granddaughter?"
I opened my mouth, and not a single word came out. Beside me, a nurse lowered her head, eyes red.
Something seemed to break in my mother. Her body swayed.
"She's gone?"
I finally sobbed out loud.
"Mom, I'm sorry. I couldn't save her."
She held me tight and shook with weeping.
"What did you do wrong? The baby was only thirty-five weeks! He was the one who insisted on cutting her out!"
She spun around, grabbed the birthday photo off the table, and hurled it at Lyndon.
In the photo, Hilda held my daughter, and pinned to the swaddling blanket was that card—the birthday gift for Hilda.
Seeing it, my mother lost herself completely.
"My daughter nearly died bringing that baby into the world, and you took her to celebrate some other woman's birthday? Now the baby's dead. Are you satisfied?!"
Hilda spoke up, her eyes reddened.
"Ma'am, I never thought anything would happen to the baby!"
"You shut your mouth!"
My mother reached over and flipped what was left of the birthday cake off the table by her bed.
"You want to be a mother, then go have your own! What gives you the right to steal my daughter's child!"
Hilda flinched back, her face going white in an instant.
Lyndon moved at once to shield her.
"Mom, Hilda has late-stage cancer. She can't take this kind of shock!"
My mother's chest heaved with fury.
"Don't call me Mom. You don't deserve to. My granddaughter just died, your wife's belly is still bleeding, and you're worried about upsetting a slut?"
"Lyndon, when I gave Hilary to you, you knelt in front of me and swore you'd cherish her for the rest of her life! Is this how you cherish her!"
A crowd had gathered in the corridor, and Lyndon's face grew uglier by the second.
Hilda suddenly clutched her chest, her breathing quick and shallow.
"Lyndon, I can't breathe, am I dying!"
Lyndon's expression changed in an instant. He caught Hilda up in his arms and barked at security,
"Get her out of here. No one comes in without my order. No one upsets Hilda!"
Two guards stepped forward and pulled at my mother.
"Don't touch me! My daughter is still here!"
My mother fought them with everything she had, and I bit down on the guards' hands as hard as I could, but even when I drew blood, they wouldn't let go!
In the chaos, my mother's foot found empty air, and the back of her head slammed against the stairs.
"Mom!"
In that instant, every agony played out before my eyes like a spinning lantern. I threw myself at her, but she was already still.
Blood seeped slowly from the back of her head and mingled with mine, and the world darkened, then darkened again.
I knelt on the floor, my hands shaking too hard to cover the wound.
"Doctor! Save my mother!"
A nurse rushed a crash cart over.
Lyndon had frozen too, but Hilda was crying in his arms that it hurt.
He hesitated only a few seconds, then turned with her still in his arms.
"Take Hilda to her room first!"
I watched his back, and suddenly I forgot even to cry.
Her again. Every single time, her.
They worked on my mother for two hours. When the doctor came out, he couldn't meet my eyes.
"Dr. Swanson, there was a massive intracranial hemorrhage. We did everything we could."
The death notice for my daughter slipped from my hand to the floor, and beside it now lay one for my mother.
In a single day, my daughter was gone, and my only mother was gone too.
When Lyndon hurried back, I was kneeling at my mother's bedside, smoothing her hair. His voice was hoarse.
"Hilary, what happened was just an accident."
I looked up at him and closed my eyes.
"Get out."
"I'll make it up to you. Anything you want."
"Get out!"
I grabbed everything by the bed and threw it at him, and a tearing pain ripped through my abdomen.
The next second, blood poured out from beneath me.
A nurse screamed and rushed in.
"Dr. Swanson is hemorrhaging again!"
As they wheeled me into the ER, Lyndon finally panicked. He chased the bed the whole way.
"Hilary, look at me!"
I closed my eyes and let the tears fall. My daughter was dead, my mother was dead, and there was no one left in this world waiting for me to come home.
Before consciousness slipped away completely, I heard the doctor's terrified shout.
"Blood pressure's dropping! Director Prescott, Dr. Swanson's heart has stopped!"
