“Nothing is going to happen.”
I closed my eyes.
“You don’t know that.”
He lowered his voice.
“Can we please not fight? I’ll see you in two days.”
Two days.
That was his plan.
The babies had another one.
At 2:40 the next morning, I woke up with a sharp pain across my abdomen.
Twenty minutes later, it happened again.
Then again.
I called my doctor.
By 4:00 a.m., Mom was driving me to the hospital.
And Trevor was asleep nearly 1,200 miles away.
PART 4 — “THE BABIES ARE COMING”
The hospital confirmed what I already suspected.
I was in labor.
My doctor walked into the room just after sunrise.
“Well,” she said gently, “it looks like these two decided Tuesday works better than Thursday.”
My heart started pounding.
“Today?”
“Yes.”
I immediately reached for my phone.
I called Trevor.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Again.
Voicemail.
I texted:
Trevor. I’m in the hospital. The babies are coming TODAY. Call me immediately.
Mom called too.
Nothing.
A nurse came in to begin preparing me.
I kept staring at my phone.
Twenty minutes passed.
Thirty.
Forty-five.
Finally, Trevor called.
His voice was thick with sleep.
“Grace?”
“The babies are coming.”
Silence.
“What?”
“My C-section is happening this morning.”
“What do you mean this morning?”
I nearly screamed.
“I mean exactly what I just said.”
I heard him moving around.
“Oh my God. Okay. Okay. I’ll get a flight.”
“How quickly?”
“I don’t know. Let me check.”
The nurse was waiting beside me.
I started crying.
“Trevor, I told you this could happen.”
“I know.”
“No. You didn’t know. If you knew, you wouldn’t be there.”
“Grace, please.”
“Please what?”
“I’m trying.”
I laughed bitterly.
“You’re trying now.”
He found a flight.
It wouldn’t get him home until late that evening.
Hours after the surgery.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
I had no energy left to answer.
At 8:41 a.m., my son Caleb was born.
At 8:42, my daughter Lily followed.
Caleb cried immediately.
Lily was quiet for several terrifying seconds.
I held my breath.
Then I heard her tiny cry.
And I broke down.
My mother stood beside me wearing the surgical gown and cap Trevor should have been wearing.
She held my hand.
“They’re beautiful,” she whispered.
I looked at my babies.
My entire world had changed in sixty seconds.
I felt more love than I knew a person could feel.
And at the exact same time, I felt an emptiness beside me.
Trevor should have been there.
Not because it was a perfect moment.
Not because childbirth is some movie scene where everyone says the right thing.
He should have been there because he was their father.
Because he was my husband.
Because I had asked him to stay.
He had chosen not to.
And now there was no flight in the world fast enough to change that.
PART 5 — THE WORST THING HE SAID
Trevor video-called from the airport that afternoon.
Mom held my phone while I lay in the hospital bed.
When he saw Caleb and Lily, his eyes filled with tears.
For a few seconds, I saw the man I had married.
“Oh my God.”
He covered his mouth.
“They’re beautiful.”
“Yes.”
“Can you show me Caleb again?”
Mom moved the phone.
Trevor smiled through his tears.
Then she showed him Lily.
He completely broke down.
“I can’t believe I missed it.”
I said nothing.
“I’m so sorry, Grace.”
I wanted those words to help.
Then he ruined them.
“You know I would have been there if they’d stuck to the schedule.”
I stared at the phone.
“If they’d stuck to the schedule?”
Trevor immediately realized how it sounded.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“They’re newborn babies, Trevor. Not a dentist appointment.”
