Page 35 of The Billionaire's Baby
“I want to see him. I want to see our son,” she whispered.
“Soon, baby, soon,” Favian said. “You just had surgery and right now you need to rest. I also need you to tell me exactly what happened with Hillary.”
Adira took a breath and calmed herself the best she could. “I don’t think she meant for me to fall. She just has this warped sense of thinking. I was going to press the panic button and she didn’t want me to because it would call you. We struggled and I lost my footing on the top step of the second floor landing.”
“Why would the two of you be struggling?” Favian asked harshly. “Why was she in the house?”
“She bribed someone at the locksmith company for a key. She wanted me to talk to you on her behalf and then she got in her usual snit.” Adira took another breath. “It was as if you were a disapproving father and she didn’t want you to know because she’d be in trouble. When I fell I asked her for help, Favian, but it’s like she disconnected. She kept repeating for me not to tell and she ran out of the house. I hope to God she hasn’t hurt herself.”
“If I get my hands on her she’ll have other things to worry about.” Favian practically growled in anger.
“But the fact is that she needs help,” Adira said. “God knows what she’s been put through before her mother met your father. She seems abused and deeply troubled and like help was always denied her. I don’t know and I certainly don’t care right now. Our son is in there fighting for his life and that’s what we should focus on, not vengeance on Hillary.”
“I know, my love, and until he is at home with us, this issue will be set on the back burner.” Favian stroked her fingers. “I’m so relieved you’re okay. I have never been so scared in my life.”
Get strong, Adira. He’ll need you to be strong. She kept repeating the words in her mind over and over. She already ached to hold her son, to kiss him and let him know that he was loved. Even though he came into the world in a rush, he would always be safe and protected in their arms.
Chapter Eight
Forty-eight hours later, Adira was adamant on seeing their son. This wasn’t the way Favian expected him to come into the world. It frayed his nerves each time he thought about the call from Remy and being alerted by his security team that there was trouble at the house. Their son was tiny, but each hour he was getting stronger. Thirty-two weeks and his lungs were already showing signs of improvement. The neo-natal doctor said that he wasn’t showing signs of the problems most premature babies faced. In fact, his cry was strong and demanding and that was a good sign. Still, it broke Favian’s heart to see him with so many tubes and monitors attached to his tiny body.
His fear mixed with anger because there was nothing he could do to change his son’s situation. It made him want to crush everything in his path. As soon as his family heard what had happened, they rushed to New York and were currently camped out in the NICU waiting room and the maternity floor of the hospital. Lynette, Aunt Carmen, and Cousin Santia were always with Adira and each took turns checking on the baby. His Aunt Carmen asked for her rosary to be hung over the incubator so her prayers were with the tiny life.
The baby had so much love on his side that Favian hoped God heard all their pleas and would watch over his son. His family was all very religious and somewhere along the line in his life he forgot that aspect of his family’s culture. But now he prayed, saying words from his childhood that he hadn’t said in years, even as he walked down the hall pushing Adira in a wheel chair.
The doors of the NICU whooshed open and, as procedure dictated, they both put on a sterile gown and washed their hands in the area for parents. The unit was divided up by how premature the child was. The sickest babies had towels covering the incubators and many more monitors. Baby Rivera was in the transition section where the walls were decorated with colorful giraffes, elephants, cheetahs and other animals. The transition section was for the children that were gaining weight and making progress. The babies almost ready to go home were closest to the doors. Their little boy was in one of the incubators closest to the wall.
“How is my little guy doing today?” Favian asked the nurse as he pushed Adira’s wheelchair up to his incubator.
The nurse smiled. “He’s a feisty one. The first thing I heard when I came in this morning was him crying.”
Adira gasped. “Why was he crying? Is he in pain?”
“No, he was hungry and had a wet diaper. He doesn’t have a feeding tube anymore,” the nurse said as she looked into his chart. “They gave him two ounces of your colostrum that you pumped by bottle today. He took to the nipple nicely.”
