Chapter 10 - The Waiting GameThe next hour was a blur of blinding lights, ultrasound gel, and the terrifying, rhythmic beeping of the fetal monitor. I lay in the trauma bay, my eyes fixed on the ceiling tiles, praying to a God I hadn’t spoken to in years. Please, let my baby survive. Take anything else, but spare him.
Robert stood at the foot of the bed, watching the monitor with the lead OB-GYN. The silence stretched until it felt like a physical weight.
“Heart rate is stabilizing,” the doctor whispered finally. “The trauma was significant, but the positioning of the blow hit the muscular wall. The amniotic sac is intact. There is no active abruption. We need to monitor for internal bleeding for the next twenty-four hours, but Khloe... your baby is going to make it.”
I broke down. Sobs tore through my chest as I exhaled a breath I felt like I’d been holding since Isabella’s heel struck me. My son was still fighting. But while I was being stabilized, Robert was waging a different kind of war outside the room. He knew Marcus Thorne was a master of making problems disappear, and Robert refused to let Khloe be a problem that got swept away.
