11: I'll Call You Grace.

Eve

And just like that, months have gone by and it's five days to my due date. Soon I can return to the island and quit using university as an excuse. Dad started getting suspicious when I chased my security men a few months back and refused to leave campus since then. 

He did occasionally visit and plant spies on me, but no one would have guessed I was pregnant anyway since I put on some weight and wore extreme oversized sweaters and baggy clothes. 

No one would have easily guessed, since the belly bump I had was not protruding that much. It looked like I just had belly rolls.

I'll not lie, in these past few months I have been miserable. It took a lot from me when I ghosted my friends and family. The only person who knew was Danielle. She was also my professor at this university.

She's the only trustworthy person I know right now. Although I used to fear she might tell mom, these past few months she kept her word and stayed quiet.

What gave me sleepless nights was the thought of what everyone especially dad, would think of me once they found out the child is Flavian's.

 Speaking of Flavian... he's nowhere to be found. I heard that dad gave him a mission that would take years maybe to finish. What does that mean?

I might never see him again? Wrong. He was the one who assigned the spies that followed me around. The same way they reported to dad, they reported back to him, the chief of security.

I guess he just likes to shy away from me. That's why he won't approach me live and direct, and I should be bothered. Definitely! I'm fucking with his heir!

"Eve!"

At the mention of my name, the fog clouding my vision cleared.

That aged voice belonged to Professor Richard, the economics lecturer.

I tilted my head, staring in a stupor.

"Are you sure you're alright? You've been zoning out lately."

He was right. I rose to my feet with unease settling in me. "Actually, Professor, I..."

I paused, weighing my options, contemplating which excuse to make so he'd let me off. Just when I came to a conclusion and parted my lips to release another statement, my body jolted abruptly at the jabbing pain beside my hips that worsened the back pain I had developed recently.

"Excuse me, sir!" I shouted while rushing out of the hall, holding nothing but my phone. I abandoned my iPad and laptop and backpack in there, but I couldn't be bothered because something wet and warm had soaked my pants.

Good thing one of my apartments was close to the lecture hall.

I wanted to run but it seemed like gravity was thicker today. I still managed to make it into my apartment anyway.

I frowned when I pushed down my panties. It wasn't urine? My bladder wasn't on fire, so where did this water.... I screamed at another kick in my stomach. 

It didn't stop there... That was how I realized I was having contractions.

The baby was coming. The baby was coming? Wasn't the due date in five days?

Unpredictable. Just like your father.

I held onto the basin with my left hand, clenching so hard while dialing Elle's number.

Five missed calls later, with a crazy woman on her knees echoing screams and loud cries, it was the ringing of my phone that snapped me back.

"Hello?"

"Get to the apartment on Sixth Street now!!!" I screamed agonizingly into the phone, then hung up when she responded with an "okay."

Rotating my neck, I checked if the faucet I'd turned on to fill the tub had done its job right. Seeing the tub filled to the brim, I braced myself up and turned off the faucet.

Today I would be giving birth in the water. Yes, going to the hospital would cause me a whole lot of trouble I wouldn't want to indulge in, troubles like Flavian, the Waldorf family, daddy... anything was possible so long as they lived.

Thirty minutes later and Danielle was nowhere in sight. Absolutely nowhere. No calls, no texts. I was on fire here... damnit.

Fuck these people who say labor is easy! My body was on fire, pain hitting me in every sensitive corner of my body, my spine, hips, ribs, heart, brain. Fucking hell, at least the warm water soaking my body was soothing, to some extent.

When my ears picked up on some steps heading toward me, my eyes lit up. It felt like an adrenaline rush when my eyes locked with Danielle's.

"Are you okay?"

"Do I look okay!!! Help me! Get this thing out of me... pleassssseeeee."

My cry echoed throughout the bathroom, but the sound of her chuckle shook me.

"Sorry... I had to come prepared." She pointed at the briefcase and bag she came with that were lying by the door.

From time to time she would check me to monitor progress. Initially she gave me sterile water injections in my lower back for the pain, those sharp little stings that quickly eased the worst of the back labor, before letting me back into the tub. 

The pain wasn't that intense anymore, but it was still painful, the struggle to push...the struggle to breath.

She kept me company in the tub, kneading my belly with massages. I won't lie it was soothing to be in the warm water and receive those warm massages, but it still felt like an eternity. When I asked about the time from Danielle, I realized I'd been in this labor situation for just an six hours.

My breath hitched when I suddenly felt the intense urge to poo.

"Hang on, I need to use the toilet," I said, trying to stand up, but Danielle shook her head, holding me in place.

"Go ahead. Don't do it while seated... You can just squat."

"In here?" My eyes pointed at the water we were in.

She nodded. "Right—"

She was still talking when I squatted, pushing out whatever was stuck. I gasped when I realized it wasn't shit.

Shit!

"The baby, it's—"

"I know..." Her voice trailed off. She buried her head under the water, inserting her hands beneath me. 

"Push."

She didn't need to tell me because I was already pushing, starving for air and crying my eyes out. I didn't know when I started cursing Flavian, who wasn't even present in the room, but I did. And I wished he was here. I wished it badly.

I was going to give up, give in to the wave of sleep that would probably lead me to death's door, but then... but then I found myself with my hands occupied by a little creature with blonde hair.

Then I found myself crying while huffing and puffing for the air I was choking on a few seconds ago.

"Congratulations... you're now a mother."

My eyes produced not beaded tears but a rain that poured down on the little noisy creature I was holding. He was wailing... just like me... just like his mother.

Mother? I couldn't be a mother.

 I can't take care of him. He's too innocent to exist in my world... Or Flavian's world.

I looked up at Danielle, who was already beaming and gazing. One look at her and I chuckled bitterly, enviously. I turned my gaze again to the noisy little creature in my hands.

"Grace. I'll call you Grace." I pressed my lips on his forehead. Almost immediately he hushed up, staring at me like I was an alien. He fucking looked like his father! Those damn green eyes!!

Do you have to come out looking like a fucking evidence of him? Like a carbon copy!

In the end I exhaled. I prayed that when he grew up some of my genes would be glaring as well.

I snapped out of my daze when Danielle left the tub to make some arrangements to properly do check ups on Grace and deliver the placenta safely.

"Will you take care of Grace?"