Chapter 161
Chapter 161
Lucky
I clutch my stomach; the pain is intense ripping through my body. Instinct wants me to roll onto the floor. Oh, God this wave is immense. The contractions have started and I have to admit this little boy or girl, is pretty much on time as predicted by the hospital team and my close physician.
“Are you okay, Lucky?” Alex asks as I sit with my feet up on the cream chaise-lounge in the sun room where I have been talking Alex through some amendments I’d like making to a contract for a supplier for the internal fittings for Arizona. Then it will head over to legal to be finalized.
She looks concerned as she pushes her glasses up to the top of her head. “I told you; you shouldn’t be working so close to your due date.”
“Pah, you can’t really call laying around working, Alex. It’s nothing.”
“Mm, it doesn’t look like nothing to me. It’s your contractions. I know this because my mother had four children, three were younger than me.”
I stroke my stomach and do some deep breathing exercises like I was taught to do. When Nico could, he came to the session in our home that we had. A lovely lady did all the classes with me, a sweet Swedish woman, Ingrid. Where the hell is Ingrid now when you want her?
“Let me call Nico,” she says.
“No, he is in an important meeting,” I tell her. Thankfully, Nico has not travelled in the last three weeks. He has stayed close to me incase I go into labor. And it looks like today will be the day that we are going to meet our baby for the first time. My heart flips at the thought of holding my baby in my arms. I literally cannot wait.
I’ve waited nine months for this experience and love curses through my entire body just thinking about it.
“Look,” she says pointedly. Alex sure can be a bossy little thing when she wants to be. “At this moment you are not my boss, you are my friend. And as your must trusted friend, I am telling you that you are going into labor and we need to get you to the private wing of the hospital and get Nico here, stat. He won’t want to miss this Lucky; he wants to be part of everything.”
I let out a sigh. Of course, I want my husband close to hold my hand and to guide me through this, but at the same token I don’t want to disturb his syndicate meeting. They have recently been discussing a take over in Arizona. Not an easy mission since it is already run over by way too many men in his line of work.
“Hey, Nico,” Alex says without even waiting for me to respond as another pain washes right through me, sweat builds up on my forehead. God, it’s very hot in here. I need to move but find myself unable to do anything right now as it grips me so bad.
“Yes, she is going into labor. Can you come now?”
There is silence whilst she waits for Nico to reply. Honestly, I’m relieved he is coming.
Twenty minutes later I am in the back of the blacked-out SUV with fake plates, two guards in a vehicle in front of my vehicle and two guards in a vehicle behind. Nico is holding me and saying all manner of soothing words. “I love you so much, darling. You are the most amazing woman.”
I grit my teeth and try hard not to push down even though I want to. There is no preparation or classes that actually let you know precisely what this is like. But the thought of seeing our little one fills me more than the intense pain I am going through. Another contraction hits, I squeeze Nico’s hand digging my nails into is hand. He says nothing but takes it like the man that he is.
“You look hot,” I tell him to distract myself. And indeed, he does in his dark suit and white, crisp shirt with the top two buttons undone. His hair is immaculately styled today, moved back off his forehead and hanging down to his chin.
“You look radiant, the most beautiful woman in the world. The mother of my child,” he says as he then presses a soft kiss to my cheek.
The car finally pulls up outside the private wing of the hospital in Atlanta, where Nico donates millions each year. And paid for the entire wing. He is also talking about a project for me to take over that will be to build a hospice for the children with cancer. Naturally, it is something I am more than keen to take on with Alex. Dario will stay across Arizona whilst I spend time with our baby for the first few months. Then in four months, I and the baby will fly back out to Arizona and stay there permanently for the next year until the build is completed.
It's a rush job but the quality of the work is impeccable. We have teams of people working around the clock and we have desperate clients all wanting to buy their lifetime sub.
I stay in labor for another twelve hours, they assure me this is perfectly normal. Nothing about my body, however, feels normal right now. But it’s time as I lay on the bed with my legs wide open and Nico standing by my shoulders. His one arm resting across my back, looped under my neck and the other hand holding mine tightly. I cling on for dear life.
“Push,” the midwife tells me. “Push really hard now, Lucky. Let’s get this little one out and with its momma. You’re doing really well,” she assures me.
I grunt and groan and push as hard as I can. God this is exhausting, Nico kisses my forehead. “You can do this, Princess. You can do this.”
“Fucking this is all your damn fault,” I spit at him angry, in pain and wanting to be anywhere else right now than here.
“Of course it is, sweetheart. All my fault for putting a beautiful baby in your belly.” He chuckles. I glare at him like burning fire is coming out of my eyes.
“Come on Lucky, I can see the crown. Just a little bit more, just a little more. One last push, dig deep.” I want to slap the bitch, even though she is helping me bring the most precious baby into the world.
I let out a long groan and push down digging deep for all the strength I can muster after a twelve-hour stint. I’m absolutely exhausted but can feel the movement below.
Screaming fills the room as the midwife takes the baby and holds it up and places it straight on my chest. “It’s a girl,” she says. “Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Santangelo.”
The moment I feel her on my chest and look down at her thick, mop of black hair I fall in love with her. Those tiny fingers, those tiny toes, the button of her nose and squished up eyes make my heart squeeze as my tears of happiness begin to roll down.
Nico bends forward and kisses me fully on the lips. “Thank you, Princess for giving me the most beautiful baby girl in the world. You are the world to me, you and our daughter both.” He then places a delicate kiss to our baby girl’s head.
“Valentina, Lucky, Rose, Santangelo, your daddy is going to treat you like a princess and spoil you rotten,” my husband says with deep emotion.
I burst with emotions of overwhelming love seeing him so close to our baby girl. And like her name indicates, Valentina will be both strong and healthy.