“We’re having a baby.” She cried.
“We are.”
“I thought I’d loss him.”
“You can’t. He’s an Einsenberg.”
“He’s an Einsenberg,” she agreed, taking a big swallow.
Silence circulated.
“Luca.” Slowly, she breathed out.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.”
“I’m sorry to… bring you into my… into my mess.”
“Don’t apologize and stop trying to talk, Ever. You’re doing more harm than good.”
“I’m sorry,” she whimpered, tears falling on the side of her face.
“Shhhhh.”
“Everything hurts,” Ever complained. “Every- everything.”
“I know, baby. I know.”
“He… He took the girls.”
“Shhhhhhh. We’re going to get them back. I’m going to get them back. I just need you to focus on getting better and bringing a healthy boy into this world, aight? I’m bringing our girls home,” I assured her, placing my hand on her belly.
When it was quiet again, I could finally hear the rhythmic beat on the machine that wasn’t far away.
“What’s that?”
“What’s what?
“That sound.”
“The beeping?”
“Yeah.”
“His heartbeat.”
“He has a heartbeat?”
“Yes.”
Silence followed. I listened intently to the sound of my son. Even through the brutal beating his mother had taken, he was alive with a heartbeat as strong as mine. He was, in fact an Einsenberg. He was, in fact a boy.
“I want my girls.”
“Me, too. Laike has his boots on the ground searching for them as we speak. Aside from the bullshit, how are you feeling?”
“My heart hurts.”
“Mine, too.”
