THE BACKUP PLAN

Delilah Tomson Point of View

 

“Delilah ! My connection at the hospital just gave me the worst news you can hear today . ” Rosaline’s voice trembles with disbelief. “Emily… has delivered. Three healthy babies. Triplets. All of them survived.”

 

The words hit me like a slap across the face. I can feel my pulse pounding in my temples, rage bubbling inside me like a volcano ready to erupt. I grip the edge of my dressing table so hard my nails dig into the polished wood.

 

“What?”  I whisper, my voice barely audible over the storm building within me.

 

“I am so sorry, Delilah. ” Rosaline murmurs, her tone laced with sympathy. “Everything we feared , it is  happening.”

 

I stare into the mirror in front of me, barely recognizing the furious woman reflected back. My lipstick is smudged, my perfectly curled hair in disarray, and my eyes ,those once confident, dazzling green eyes are now wild with disbelief and fury.

 

All of this… for nothing?

 

I gave up everything for this plan. I pressed pause on my rising career, I poured thousands into that worthless surrogate, and I carried the lie of a fake pregnancy with grace and conviction. I played the part so well. And now… it is all unraveling.

 

I slam my palm against the mirror. The sound cracks through the air, but not the glass. Damn it.

 

“ How does Emily keep winning ? ” I snarl. “How does she always come out on top?”

 

She does not deserve this life: the successful husband, the wealth and the perfect family. That was supposed to be mine. That should have been mine from the very beginning.

 

“Rosaline,” I breathe, clutching the phone tightly. “It is time to implement the backup plan.”

 

There is a long pause on the other end. “Delilah, if we go through with this, there is no turning back. You know that, right?”

 

“I know,” I say, my voice as cold as steel. “We have come too far to lose everything now. If Emily thinks she has  won, then she has not met the new version of us.”

 

There is  a dark silence between us, and then Rosaline responds with finality. “Alright. Let’s end this.”

 

Nurse Nancy’s Point of View

 

Most days, my job as a nurse brings me peace. Every time I hand a mother her newborn, I feel a glimmer of hope that maybe my life still has purpose. But yesterday was different. Yesterday, when I handed those triplets to Emily Jacobs… something stirred in me.

 

It was as though a bond had been forged , one that I did not ask for  but could not  deny.

 

Especially with the girls. Their tiny hands, their curious eyes… it was love at first sight. Not the kind of love a nurse is supposed to feel. No. This was something else. Something maternal. Something primal.

 

I lingered longer than I should have  in Emily’s room, adjusting blankets, checking vitals that did not  need checking. I just wanted to be near them. If only for a few more minutes.

 

“Please, Nancy. Go home and get some rest,” my supervisor gently scolds as she finds me back in the nursery again. “Your shift ended two hours ago.”

 

I nod reluctantly, but inside I ache. Going home means facing silence. Emptiness. The reminder that I have lost everything: my husband, my chances of being a mother, and the dream of family. All I have now are hospital walls and the babies of strangers to hold me together.

 

I open my mouth to beg for just one more hour just a little more time to sit beside Emily’s girls when a shrill alarm blares through the hospital corridors.

 

“Emergency! All staff and patients must evacuate immediately! The fire has spread to the maternity wing! I repeat, evacuate the building through the designated emergency exits!”

 

Panic breaks out. Nurses and doctors flood the hallways, wheeling beds and carrying infants in every direction. But I do not move with them.

 

My heart drops.

 

Emily’s triplets.

 

I race down the corridor, past frantic mothers and screaming children, ignoring the smoke that is  already beginning to seep through the ceiling vents. The maternity wing is blanketed in chaos. I shield my nose and mouth with a towel and push forward, coughing as the smoke thickens.

 

I reach Emily’s private room, only to find the door locked. I kick it open with all my strength and stagger inside, praying the babies are okay.

 

The cries hit me instantly. But there are only two. The twin girls are there screaming, red-faced, wrapped in blankets in the bassinet. But there is no sign of the boy. And no sign of Emily.

 

What happened here?

 

Why would a mother leave behind her babies?

 

I scoop the girls into my arms, one on each side, and push through the smoke-choked hallway, trying to shield their faces as best I can. The building groans above me, and alarms continue to blare as sprinklers finally begin to spray overhead.

 

Emily left them.

 

She ran with the boy… and left these two angels to die?

 

Tears burn in my eyes, but not from the smoke. From rage. From heartbreak.

 

These little girls were left behind like discarded baggage. I can not stop thinking about it. What kind of mother does that ?

 

Outside, nurses rush to receive us, taking babies from my arms, but I hold on tight. I will not  let go. Not yet. Not after what I saw. Not after what I feel.

 

“Ma’am, will take them .” one of the hospital staff reaches for the twins.

 

“No,” I say, shielding them instinctively. “I will  watch them until their mother is found.”

 

But the words feel like a lie as soon as they leave my mouth.

 

Because I know now what I did not  know before.

 

Emily Jacobs doe not deserve these babies. She left them behind in a fire. I do not  care what her reasons were—fear, panic, whatever excuse she will make ,it does not  matter.

 

She abandoned them.

 

And I saved them.

 

These girls were meant to be mine.

 

I walk away from the crowd, clutching the two tiny bundles to my chest as they quiet in my arms. As if they know. As if they trust me. As if they belong here.

 

With me.

 

I will not let her take them back. I will not  hand them over to a woman who sees her children as disposable.

 

I will raise them.

 

I will be their mother .

 

And no one ,not even God himself can stop me now .