In a voice that was far too high and tight she said, ‘Thank you for bringing me here. You can go now.’
Alexio merely walked around the bed until he was in her eyeline again and folded his arms. Succinctly he said, ‘No way.’
Just then the door opened and Sidonie turned her head to see a doctor and a nurse come in.
The doctor declared in French, ‘You’re awake! You gave us a bit of a scare, young lady...’
While he and the nurse did some tests and elaborated on what Alexio had told her Sidonie was busy trying to block out his presence in the room.
The doctor was soon sitting on the side of the bed and saying, ‘You’re due for your twenty-week scan in a few weeks, but after what’s happened I’d like to do a scan now, just so we can double-check everything is okay.’
He must have seen something on her face because he said quickly, ‘I’ve no reason not to believe everything is fine, but we’d like to be sure.’
Within a few minutes Sidonie was being wheeled in her bed to another part of the hospital. Alexio was by her side. She felt panicky. She was about to have a scan with Alexio looking on. She’d never envisagedthishappening.
After they were wheeled into the room it all happened very fast. Sidonie’s belly was bared and they were smoothing cold gel over it. She felt acutely self-conscious all of a sudden—which was crazy considering Alexio had seen more of her naked body than she probably had herself.
When the doctor put the ultrasound device over her belly a rapid sound filled the room. The baby’s heartbeat. Immediately Sidonie’s focus went to the screen, which was showing a fuzzy grey image. Her heart thumped as emotion climbed upwards again—but this time it was a different kind of emotion.
After a few minutes the doctor smiled and said, ‘Everything looks absolutely normal. You have a fine, healthy baby, Sidonie—a little small, but developing well.’
Then he looked at her and at Alexio.
‘Would you like to know the sex?’ he asked. ‘It’s quite clear at the moment.’
Sidonie looked at Alexio, mortified that the doctor had assumed they were together. Even if Alexiowasthe father.
Alexio looked inscrutable and then said, ‘It’s up to you.’
Sidonie wrenched her gaze away from his with more effort than she liked and looked at the doctor again. She said hesitantly, ‘I...I think so.’ And then more firmly, as a sense of excitement took hold, ‘Yes. I’d like to know.’
The doctor beamed at them. ‘I’m very pleased to tell you you’re having a baby girl.’
Sidonie felt something joyous erupt in her chest and heard a slightly choked sound coming from beside her. She looked up to see Alexio’s eyes fixed on the screen, and there was an expression on his face that she’d never seen before. A kind of wonder.
Her belly swooped. She’d never allowed herself to imagine this kind of scenario. She’d expected to have the baby and then see how she felt about informing him, making sure she did it in such a way that he knew she wasn’t telling him in order to get his money.
The thought of being likened to her grasping mother again had made her feel sick. But now that had all been taken out of her hands and she had the very uncomfortable sensation that Alexio was about to get a lot more prominent in her life.
Especially when the doctor wiped the gel off her belly, rearranged her clothes and said, ‘We’ll keep you in for one more night to help you get your strength back, and then I’ve been assured that your partner here will be getting you the best care and attention until you’re back on your feet.’
Sidonie’s head swivelled from Alexio’s determined expression to the doctor’s equally stern-looking face.Her partner. The words sent more flutters into her belly. After three days of being followed, she knew the likelihood of shaking Alexio off when she was feeling weak and vulnerable was extremely unlikely.
She looked at Alexio and said, ‘I don’t have much choice, do I?’
‘No,’ he agreed equably.
And that was that.
A week later
‘You’ve donewhat?’ Sidonie’s mind was hot with rage and she felt her heart-rate zooming skyward, the flutters increasing in her belly. She even put a hand there unconsciously, barely noticing how Alexio’s eyes dropped to take in the movement. She was too incensed.
Alexio faced her across the expanse of the beautiful first-floor apartment living room, overlooking the Jardin du Luxembourg. He was dressed in a steel-grey shirt and black trousers and Sidonie didn’t like the way she was soawareof his physicality. The way she became even more aware of it each day as she grew stronger.
Alexio’s voice was low, deep, ‘I should have known Tante Josephine couldn’t keep it quiet. I asked her not to say anything until you’d had a few more days’ rest. But I didn’t want her to be worried with you out of work.’
Sidonie struggled to take this in—along with the reminder that Alexio and Tante Josephine seemed to have forged a mutual admiration society.
