His Wife (A Contract Marriage Story) by Heer Mangtani

Chapter 78 SOPHIA 3 days later: "I know he's just born, but he looks just like Gabriel," Alice sighed dreamily, pointing at the glass of the incubator.

Tired as I was after a labor that lasted almost eight hours, I smile Even two days of rest wasn't enough after that, because I spent every minute worrying about my little ones who were both in the NICU for being born early. The doctor reassuredsaying the incubators were just a precaution and they were both going to be just fine, but I worried.

And, I was exhausted already.

As if understanding what Alice was saying, he blinks his brown eyes that he undoubtedly gets from his father. It wasn't just the eyes, but also the nose, the jaw... two days old, and he looked just like his father already.

"He does, I pouted. I carry him for eight months and he comes out looking just like his father? Well, at least I had my little girl. I smile at the thought, watching her sleep peacefully. She was the tinier one, the baby whose growth was restricted.

"You can nher Alice after me, you know." My best-friend teases, "I would absolutely be honoured." 1 giggle.

"I did think of names when I found out I was pregnant. I tell her "I'm just having doubts now." "Take your time." She talks towhile cooing at the baby inside the incubator. "I can't wait to hold you. Yes, you! I'm going to spoil you so much all the time. I love you" 1 giggle again. I was so utterly exhausted and I think this was the first tin the past two days that they were both resting. but I didn't feel like sleeping. I wanted to bask in the quiet moments with them, in the loud moments with them, in everything, every second.

It still felt unreal that I had two little ones.

"I think I'm just going to go with the names I have thought." Alice's eyes twinkle. "Finally, I wouldn't have to call them baby boy and girl." "Aurora," I say, eyeing my little girl. "Aurora Baker Whitlock." "Aurora. She repeats after me, "That's so pretty." My smile deepens. "And Alex." "Alex Baker Whitlock." She smiles, "So perfect." The hospital policy is for new mothers to stay for forty-eight hours after delivery for precaution," My doctor tells me, his wrinkled face displaying a rare smile. "Since it's been two days and you and your little boy are both doing perfectly fine, we can discharge you. Your little girl, however, we would like to keep her in the NICU for a week for observation." My heart beats louder in my chest the moment his words register. "Why? Is she not okay?" I ask, fear gripping me.

Alice's hand reaches mine, and I grip it tightly.

1/3 The doctor's eyes flicker to that, and he shakes his head. "She's doing just fine too," he tells me, "But as you know, her growth was restricted in your womb. I just want to observe her growth for a week before we let her go hwith you." I nod, passing him a half hearted smile.

"Since your little girl will stay here, I assyou wouldn't want to leave the hospital just yet." I shake my head. "Of course not." "Would you like to be shifted to a room for another week then?" I nod. It's not like I had much choice. I wouldn't have minded sleeping on the little couch in this NICU room for the rest of the week, but Alex needed space too. Once he is out of the incubator, I couldn't make him stay within this make-shift little bed.

He was just two days old after all.

I needed to keep the room so that Alex can have his little baby bed,this hospital bed while Aurora stays in the incubator so that I can be there with both my babies at once.

The doctor left, and how I was going to pay for all this dawns over me. I paid for this room and the birth with Gabriel's card which he had thankfully not blocked yet, but I was sure he would have done that now that I made a transaction of thousands of dollars. I was so glad he didn't call the bank for it, declaring it as a fraud.

T have savings. Alice says, as if reading my mind. She sits in front ofon my hospital bed, and I cross my feet in front of me, my body slouching.

"No." I tell her, my voice firm.

"Soph... Her voice softens, eyes filling with tears. "You went through all this alone. I wasn't there for you. I was your best friend and I promised you I would be by your side pomatter what and you had to go through all this alone. Jim's passing, Lily, the divorce, living alone? L. Letbe there for you now, please." "And, you are, I tell her. "You didn't leave my side these three days. You stayed by the babies all night long when I was too tired to stay up. You and Luna... you both have done so much. This, however... I have to do this for myself and my babies, okay?" "How?" She asked in a little whisper.

"I don't know, I'll figure it out. I mortgaged my father's London House, so I still have that money. If I need more, I'll ju a loan or something." I try playing it off as no big deal, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't stressed.

She nods, unconvinced. "Sam called again. This would be his fifteenth call in the last three days, She sighs, "If it were up me, I would cut him off and never speak to him again. But he's calling for you, so... what do you wantto tell him?" "I don't know," I bite my lower lip. "Do you really think he did that? That Cabriel really asked him to calland he didn't because he thought he had a chance with me?" Her theory did line up with him offering to step up, but to be this conniving? To deprive my children of a father andof my husband just because it was him who was selfish and wanted me? That seemed too wicked for the man I had known all my life.

"I guess you should just ask him, see what he has to say for himself Alice was pissed at Sam, and if her theory was remotely correct, pissed wouldn't be the right word of what I would be with him.

I dismiss those thoughts. "Yes. Just call him tomorrow. The visitation hours are over for today" She nods, and 1 get up from the bed. I check on the babies. Aurora was still asleep, but Alex seemed to have gotten cranky. Luna was sitting next to them, watching them dotingly. I smile at her before I get Alex out of his little glass box and feed ter 78 15 him. He falls asleep during that, and placing him back in the incubator that he would cout of today, I shower.

It was the first shower I took alone in the past three days, with no nurses. I didn't expect my body to go back to pre-pregnancy immediately after giving birth, but the changes in my e. body weren't as drastic as I had expected. Nothing major except saggy stomach skin with stretch marks. That could have been a little to do with the yoga I had practiced over the months, or the fact that I had a small waist and I didn't grow much; which is why the restricted uterus growth complication occurred in the first place.

The reason I was happy with this shower, however, was that I didn't om have to slip into the hospital gown after. I changed into loose and comfortable black sweats, ready to shift rooms. When I got out of the shower, there was no one outside.

"Alice" I called for her, loudly, which was dumb ofbecause there weren't many places to hide in this room unless she was under the bed.

She wouldn't leave without telling me.

My eyebrows knit as 1 step out of the room. "Alice?" I called agam, a lot softly this tsince my voice reverberates in the hallways She doesn't answerback, but a rather loud chaos from outside makes its way to my ears.

Curious about who was making so much noise in the hospital and a little enthusiastic now that gould walk around without feeling like my insides would fall out, I walk all the out of the hallway to the desk at the entrance of the private labour Tooms.

"Sir, the visitation hours are over. Please understand, I might lose my job if I let you in. The receptionist begs. There really was chaos there. Too many men for my liking, all in black.

1 shake ПY head, wondering what must've happened to garner a reaction like this from someone, but I knew better than to poke my nose where it doesn't belong.

When I turn to leave. I freeze.

"Where is my wife?!" A familiar voice. A voice I knew. A voice I loved.

My heart skips a beat and I turn back so fast, it givesa whiplash.

As if just on queue, Gabriel looks around in utter frustration, and when his eyes meet mine, it's as if he stops breathing.

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