Goodbye baby

Arthur's POV

At the hospital

"It's okay doctor" I used my palms to clean my face.

"Sorry that I wasn't able to attend to you. I didn't want to waste time because your wife was in a critical position. Congratulations your wife and kids are fine now* the doctor stretched forth her hand for a handshake.

"Wait, you mean my wife and daughters are alive?" I asked again because I couldn't believe my ears. I felt like my ears were playing a cruel trick on me.

"Yes you can go and see them" the doctor smiled at me and walked away.

Wait ! So this means I am now a father of two beautiful girls.

My heart just couldn't contain my joy, I called my younger brother immediately.

"Louis, you have two nieces now. Two beautiful princesses" I said over the phone the moment he picked the call.

"What?" He sounded lost and confused 

"Yes, Louis , my wife ,was pregnant, come down to Shiline hospital as soon as possible. I will explain everything to you" I was so excited and ended the call before I ran into the ER to see my beautiful daughters.

"Arthur," Catherine whispered, trying to struggle to talk. She looked more than exhausted.

"Shh you have to rest now" I took both babies and held them in my arms. They were so tiny and had the cutest eyes.

"I'm sorry sir but I need to go and clean the babies up" a nurse came and took the children from me.

I felt like a huge part of me was being taken away. I wanted to follow the nurse but Catherine stopped me. She asked me to wait because it was improper. But still I wasn't at ease.

"Mr Arthur you need to come to my office now" the doctor rushed.

"Why?" I was worried at this point.

"Doctor if there is anything you want to say please say it here" Catherine urged the doctor,. I believe she had also seen the fear in the doctor's eyes.

"I'm sorry, we lost one of your daughters' ' the doctor finally spoke up after much persuasion.

"That is not possible. My daughters were here and then the nurse came. Where are my kids" Catherine, who was weak earlier, suddenly developed strength and attacked the doctor.

"I'm really sorry" the doctor kept on begging and pleading with Catherine to let her go.

I had to step in to separate Catherine as she refused to let go of the doctor's coat. She was indeed angry.

"Catherine please get a hold of yourself" I tried to put her under control. By that time the doctor had already made her way out of the room.

"What do you mean by that? You were here, you saw my healthy babies and now she is telling me that they lost one of my kids. Do you know the pain I went through? Do you know how long I have waited? I will set this hospital and everyone in it ablaze if they don't provide my children for me" Catherine was so enraged she began to destroy things.

"Catherine calm down, don't forget the fact that I'm the father of these kids as well so whatever pain and anger you are feeling. I experienced it ten times as well" I held her preventing her from breaking more things in the hospital.

Not too long after the incident my brother rushed into the hospital with his maids carrying a baby troller and some other baby stuff.

"Oh my gosh Arthur. I can't believe this, I am an uncle of not just one but two. Where are the angels? I want to see them" Louis was so excited but stopped talking when he noticed I was wearing a sad look.

"Hey why the long face?" He became worried as he lowered his eyebrows and looked at me.

"I lost one of my daughters" a tear escaped from my eyes. The words were so heavy for me to say.

"What? But you just called me an hour ago. I was even happy I was in the city at the right time, I left everything and rushed down here" Louis kept on demonstrating with his hands. He was more confused than frustrated.

"How did this happen? When?" Louis kept on pacing and the maids who came with him looked so confused, probably because Louis is someone who is always calm. It might have been the first time they saw Louis so tense and frustrated.

I embraced Louis in a hug as I let my tears flow.

"I don't know Louis. My daughter is dead" I kept on weeping not even caring about the people that were at the hospital.

"It's okay, you will have more kids. Where is Catherine?" Louis tried his best to sympathize with me.

"She is in the ER" I led him towards the ER and he got talking with Catherine.

We all engaged in a conversation and the nurse soon came with the only surviving baby. After much debating we decided to name her "Mia" the meaning varies though but to me she is my beloved beautiful queen.

"So Mia it is then. Mia must be the most beautiful girl in the world. She has bright blue eyes, something so rare" Louis pointed out.

"Yes she is" I immediately agreed.

"Arthur, when I recover we are going to sue this hospital, they will pay for the death of Mia's sister" Catherine was holding the child and declaring.

"Yes Ma'am whatever you say" Louis and I both teased Catherine who wasn't in the mood.

I know it's insane how we got over our daughter's death so quickly but the happiness was just a cover up for the pain and agony we were hiding inside.

Somehow the media got to find out about Catherine's birth. They started asking so many questions and we just couldn't bear it. It was very frustrating. Whenever I go to work I will see journalists outside my office and even when I'm about to close I will still see them waiting for me.

Catherine didn't trust anyone with her bundle of joy as she refused to get a nanny that would look after Mia. She stayed at home until Mia turned two years old. I really didn't have any problem with it though.

The pain I felt from losing one of our daughters was just something I didn't want to experience again.

Things started to change for the worse not too long after Mia was born. Catherine began to be more suspicious of everyone especially after the incident that happened on Mia's first birthday.

The whole place was crowded and everyone came to celebrate our beautiful daughter, everyone was distracted by the whole event. Catherine left 3 maids to dress Mia up and look after her while we were attending to the media persons that attended the event.

"Arthur, can you please wait here for me? There is something I want to check on" Catherine left me with a glass of wine and excused herself from the conversation we were having with other guests.

Not too long after that I heard someone scream from our room. Not just me but many workers in the house ran upstairs to check what was going on.

"Mia, Mia" Catherine was shivering as she looked at my almost lifeless baby. She wasn't breathing or smiling the way she used to. A dark substance was also gushing from her mouth. We immediately rushed Mia to the hospital. For some reason none of the maids that were with Mia earlier were in the house.

"Doctor is my daughter is going to be fine" Catherine kept on pacing around in the doctor's office.

The doctor kept on scanning our baby cautiously without taking her eyes off her for even one second. She gave Mia an injection and Mia began to breathe normally.

"Your daughter seems to be okay. I can't find anything wrong with her'' the doctor shook her head in utter disbelief. Catherine and I were relieved but our problems had only begun. After that day we searched and searched for the maids that were present but we couldn't find them.

We also sued the hospital Catherine gave birth in and they were indebted to us for at least 20 to 25 years but I found it strange that nurses and doctors began to resign.

We noticed many changes in our daughter. Mia was already 2 years old and she didn't walk nor crawl nor did she voice out anything. She became too attached to things and sometimes would refuse any of us touching her. She refused to eat for 3 days sometimes and she was just excluding herself from the crowd. We made sure she started school early so she was put in school but she didn't talk or play with her mates like normal kids do.

Out of concern we decided to take Mia to the hospital to find out if something was wrong with our child but the doctors couldn't find anything wrong with her. Over and over we kept on visiting different hospitals until it was finally confirmed that Mia had Autism. A disability which delays speech and doesn't allow one to associate properly with others. It was really traumatising for both Catherine and myself.

My child was already 4 and she couldn't voice out words although she had started walking, I never heard her call me daddy for once. She didn't run to approach me whenever I came back from work, rather she ran away from me most of the time. She would always be alone and whenever we came close to her she looked scared or frightened, we only had good memories with our daughter on very few occasions. 

Catherine and I just didn't know how much of all this we could bear and how long it would take us before we got fed up but Catherine wouldn't stop trying. She just refused to give up on our daughter. I had an emotional breakdown one day.