My Abandoned Ex-Boyfriend Burst into the Emergency Room with a Child, but When He Saw My Belly, the Color Drained from His Face

The doors of the emergency room opened at the moment when the child’s father ran in shouting, holding the bloody fingers of a girl in his hand. At that moment I had my hand on my belly, but as soon as I saw his face, I forgot how to breathe.

Elias.

Six months ago, this same man looked into my eyes and told me that he was not ready for a family. Now, with a broken tie, a crumpled expensive jacket, and eyes full of panic, he was following his daughter.

“Dad, my hand hurts,” the girl cried.

“Everything will be all right, Sophie, do you hear me? The doctors will help us,” he told her, but there was such fear in his voice that he himself did not believe his words.

I entered the trauma room and fixed professional calm onto my face. The small copper stethoscope pendant hanging on my chest touched me with every beat of my pulse. My grandmother had given it to me and told me that a real doctor must first learn to calm her own heart.

Now that pendant trembled on me as if my grandmother, too, was giving me a warning.

“I am Doctor Adelaide,” I told the girl. “What is your name?”

“Sophie.”

“Sophie, now I will examine your hand. It may hurt a little, but I will be beside you.”

“Will Dad be here too?”

“I am here,” Elias answered immediately.

I did not look toward him. I knew it would take only a few seconds for him to notice my belly.

“Vital signs, a neurological examination, and a picture of the left hand,” I told the nurse. “Move her carefully.”

Sophie’s wrist was swollen. Her skin was hot, and on her fingers she wore a sparkling pink bracelet, one bead of which had rolled across the floor. I bent down and picked it up.

“Do not lose this,” I whispered.

“Mother had it made for me,” she told me. “And Dad says that everything valuable must be kept.”

I heard Elias’s breathing behind me.

“Doctor…” he began.

“Sir, please step back. We are examining your daughter now.”

“Adelaide?”

His voice pronounced my name as if not six months but six minutes had passed since our last conversation.

I looked at him.

His eyes first collided with my face, then slid downward and stopped on my belly. At that moment I saw how the color disappeared from him.

“This…” he barely said.

“Let us talk about the patient’s condition.”

“You are seven months along.”

“Focus your attention on Sophie.”

“Adelaide, this child…”

“She is your daughter, and she needs you now.”

I said the words calmly, but something inside hurt. Not because I still loved him. Because once I had believed that this man could stand beside me.

The picture of Sophie brought us good news: it was a small fracture of the wrist, not a serious injury. We would keep her overnight for observation.

In the evening, by the window of the pediatric ward, Elias stood alone. He watched the sleeping Sophie and squeezed his fingers as if punishing himself.

“She will survive and will soon be all right,” I told him.

He turned around.

“Is the child mine?”

My hand involuntarily touched the pendant again.

“Sophie needs a father now.”

“I did not know.”

“You never tried to find out.”

“I was afraid.”

“I know.”

“This was the biggest mistake of my life.”

Before I could answer, Sophie opened her eyes and sat up in bed. First she looked at me, then at her father.

“Dad,” she said quietly, “is my little brother in this beautiful doctor’s belly?”

Elias’s face became even whiter. He reached a hand toward me, as if by the strength of an answer he had to grasp my life…

His hand stopped in the air. I went to Sophie’s bed and covered her shoulders with the blanket.

“Maybe,” I said calmly. “But now you need to sleep.”

“Will he really be my brother?”

Elias could not make a sound.

“Sophie, Dad will explain everything to you when the time comes,” I said and looked at her father. “Only this time, tell her the truth.”

I went out into the corridor. A few seconds later, he followed me too.

“I need a test,” he told me.

“You should have taken the trust test six months ago.”

“I did not know you were pregnant.”

“You knew that I might be. You left anyway.”

His jaw tightened.

“My mother told me that you did not intend to have the baby.”

For the first time he looked at me as if he were afraid of his own words.

“Your mother told you many things. But you did not call me even once to believe her.”

At that moment a tall woman appeared at the end of the corridor. She wore a dark green coat and held a leather folder in her hand.

“Elias, the car is ready,” she said.

“Mother, why did you come?”

The woman shifted her gaze to me, then looked at my belly.

“So the rumor was true.”

“This is my business,” I told her.

“It will soon become everyone’s business if you hide anything else from my son.”

The folder’s clasp opened. The woman came toward me.

“Sign this and we will end this night peacefully,” she told me.

Inside the folder I saw the first sheet. My name was written on it, but the signature below was not mine…

I snatched the sheet from her hand and took it under the lamp. The signature really resembled mine, but the small line beneath the last letter was missing. I always drew it. It was a strange habit learned from my grandmother.

“What is this?” I asked.

Elias’s mother, Mariana, pressed her lips together.

“Consent that you will make no claim on the child.”

“Which child?”

“Elias’s heir.”

Elias looked down at the folder and his face changed.

“Mother, you did not tell me this.”

“Because I knew you would act emotionally again.”

“Adelaide, do not sign,” he said.

“Now you remember my warning?”

Mariana looked at me with a laugh.

“He cannot prove anything to you. The child may not be his at all.”

At that moment the nurse opened the door.

“Doctor Brooks, the laboratory called. The rapid genetic analysis you requested is ready.”

Elias lowered his eyes.

“When did you request it?”

“When Sophie asked the question. I was no longer going to live by assumptions.”

The laboratory employee handed me a white envelope. In the corner, written in my hand, was: “Only for the doctor and the child’s father.”

Elias reached out his hand, but I opened the envelope myself.

Only the intermittent sounds of the machines could be heard in the corridor.

“The result is clear,” I said. “The probability of paternity is ninety-nine point eighty-nine percent. The child is yours, Elias.”

His knees seemed to lose their strength. He leaned against the wall.

“She is my daughter…”

“Yes.”

A quiet cry came from Sophie’s room. Mariana immediately closed the door.

“This information cannot get outside,” she said. “Our family’s reputation will be destroyed.”

“My child needs more than a reputation,” I answered.

Elias took a step toward me.

“I swear, I will fix everything.”

“I have already heard promises.”

“Then what do you want?”

“The truth. Why did you leave that night?”

He fell silent. For the first time Mariana looked at him with frightened eyes.

“Elias, do not say anything.”

These words froze the air in the room.

“You know?” I asked her.

Elias looked at his mother, then at me.

“She told me that you did not want the baby. She told me that you had planned everything for my property.”

“And you believed her?”

“I wanted to believe her, because I was afraid.”

Mariana’s phone immediately rang. She looked at the screen and the color drained from her face.

“Who is it?” Elias asked.

Instead of answering, the woman ended the call.

The second call came to my phone. It was an unknown number.

“Adelaide Brooks?” said a man’s voice. “If you want to find out who forged your signature, come to the old clinic’s archives tomorrow morning. Alone. Otherwise, before the child is born, all of this will go to court…”