All Chapters of Pregnant By My Ex-Boyfriend's Father: Chapter 111 - Chapter 120

154 Chapters

CHAPTER 111: Complications

Week twenty-nine. Tuesday morning.I woke up wrong.Not sick. Not in pain.Just... wrong.Everything felt off.I sat up. Dizzy. Nauseous."You okay?" Marcus asked, already dressed for work."I don't know. I feel weird.""Weird how?""Just... off. Dizzy. Headache."He came to the bed. Put his hand on my forehead."You're warm.""I'm always warm. I'm pregnant.""Warmer than usual." He frowned. "Maybe you should stay home today.""I have the Vance deposition at ten. I can't miss it.""Luna—""I'm fine. Just tired. I'll be fine."He didn't look convinced. "Call me if it gets worse.""I will."He left. I got up slowly.Shower. Dress. Coffee.By 8 AM, I felt slightly better.Just pregnancy. Nothing to worry about.---At the office, Jenny took one look at me."You look terrible.""Good morning to you too."

CHAPTER 112: Holding On

Friday morning. Day three in the hospital.Blood pressure: 158/98.Not great. Not terrible. Holding."If we can keep you stable through the weekend," Dr. Park said, "we hit thirty weeks Monday."Thirty weeks. The magic number.Better lung development. Better survival rates. Shorter NICU stay.Just three more days."I can do three days," I said."You don't have a choice. Your body will do what it does.""Then my body better cooperate."She smiled slightly. "Let's hope."---Marcus had gone home to shower and change.First time he'd left in two days.I was alone with the monitors. The beeping. The constant checks.My phone buzzed. Text from Jenny."How are you?""Bored. Scared. Hanging in there.""Vance trial postponed to September. You're off the hook."I should have felt relieved. Instead I felt hollow.Six months of w

CHAPTER 113: NICU

The NICU was loud.Not what I expected.Beeping. Alarms. Ventilators whooshing. Babies crying.Chaos organized by medical precision.A nurse met us at the door."I'm Sarah. I'll be Evelyn's primary nurse today. She's in Pod C, isolette seven."Isolette. Not a crib. An incubator.We followed her through the maze of equipment.Past other tiny babies. Other terrified parents.Then we saw her.---Evie.Our daughter.So impossibly small.She lay in a clear plastic box. Naked except for a diaper the size of my palm.Wires everywhere. Taped to her chest. Her feet. Her head.A breathing tube down her throat. Ventilator breathing for her.IV lines in both hands.A feeding tube through her nose.She didn't look real.She looked like a doll. Fragile. Breakable."Oh my God," I whispered.Marcus said nothing. Just stared.Sarah started

CHAPTER 114: Waiting Game

Day four. Thursday.We arrived at the NICU at 6 AM.Evie was awake. Eyes open. Looking around."She's awake," I said."First time," Sarah said. "The sedation is wearing off. She's more alert."I reached through the porthole. Touched her hand.Her fingers curled around mine. Tiny. Instinctive.My heart broke and healed simultaneously."She's holding my hand.""She knows you're here."Marcus touched her foot. She kicked slightly."She kicked me.""Strong girl."We stood there. Holding pieces of our daughter through plastic holes.This was parenthood now.---Dr. Chen did morning rounds."Chest X-ray shows slight improvement. We're going to try reducing ventilator settings today. See how she tolerates it.""What if she doesn't?" I asked."Then we increase again. It's a process. Two steps forward, one step back.""When can she come off the vent comp

CHAPTER 115: Almost Home

Week four. Day twenty-three.Evie weighed three pounds, seven ounces.Still tiny. But growing. Thriving.Off CPAP completely now. Breathing room air.On her own. No support."She's doing everything a full-term baby does," Dr. Chen said. "Just smaller.""When can she come home?" I asked for the hundredth time."When she hits four pounds and maintains temperature in an open crib for forty-eight hours. Also needs to pass the car seat test.""Car seat test?""We put her in her car seat for ninety minutes. Monitor her breathing and heart rate. Make sure she doesn't desat or have apnea in the semi-reclined position.""When can we do that?""When she hits four pounds. Probably next week."One more week. Maybe.We'd been here twenty-three days. One more week felt impossible and also right there.---That afternoon, they started rooming-in training.Teaching us how to care for Evie

CHAPTER 116: New Normal

Week five. Home day three.I hadn't slept more than ninety minutes at a stretch.Evie ate every three hours. Exactly. Like clockwork.Midnight. 3 AM. 6 AM. 9 AM. Noon. On and on.I was a zombie. Functional. But barely.Marcus had gone back to work yesterday. Twelve-hour shifts. Maybe longer.I was alone. With Evie. All day.Terrifying.At 7 AM, she woke up crying.I stumbled to her room. Picked her up."Good morning, baby girl. Ready for breakfast?"She screamed louder.Right. Breakfast first. Questions later.---I'd gotten better at bottle prep.Still took five minutes. But better than ten.Evie screamed the entire time."I'm going as fast as I can!"She didn't care.Finally, bottle ready. I sat in the rocker. Fed her.She ate furiously. Finished 20 mL in eight minutes.Burped. Spit up on my shoulder."Of course you did."

CHAPTER 117: Decisions

Week eight. Two months old.Evie weighed six pounds, four ounces.Still tiny. Still in preemie clothes. But growing.She smiled constantly now. Cooed. Made eye contact.Slept in three-hour stretches at night. Sometimes four.We were functioning. Almost like actual humans.My maternity leave ended in four weeks.Twelve weeks total. Standard.But nothing about Evie was standard.---Walter called on Tuesday morning."Luna. How are you?""Good. Tired. Covered in baby drool. The usual.""How's Evie?""Six pounds now. Smiling. Thriving.""That's wonderful. Listen, I wanted to talk about your return."My stomach tightened. "Okay.""Your leave ends in four weeks. Are you planning to come back?""I... I don't know.""You don't know?""Evie was ten weeks premature. She's technically only supposed to be two weeks old. Coming back at twelve weeks feels..."

CHAPTER 118: Four Months

November. Evie was four months old actual age.Two months adjusted.She weighed ten pounds, two ounces.Still small. 5th percentile for actual age. 50th for adjusted.Dr. Patel said that was perfect.I was learning to trust adjusted age. Mostly.---Evie was changing daily now.She grabbed things. Held toys. Brought them to her mouth.She laughed. Real laughs. Deep belly laughs at stupid things.Marcus making faces. Me singing off-key. The dog next door barking.Everything was hilarious to her.She rolled from back to tummy. Got stuck. Screamed until I flipped her back.Then immediately rolled again.Babies were idiots. Adorable idiots.---My return to work was three weeks away.December 1st. Marked on the calendar. Looming.I'd secured a spot at Little Sprouts Daycare.The acceptable one. Four-to-one ratio. Experience with preemies.We'd done

CHAPTER 119: First Day Back

December 1st. Monday.5:30 AM. I was dressed. Ready. Terrified.Evie was still asleep. Marcus was making coffee."You look good," he said."I look like I haven't slept.""That too. But professional."I sat at the table. Drank coffee. Tried not to throw up."What if she screams all day?""Then she screams. The daycare can handle it.""What if she doesn't eat?""She'll eat. She loves bottles.""What if—""Luna. She'll be fine. You'll be fine. It's one day."One day. Then another. Then another. Forever.---At 6:30 AM, Evie woke up.I fed her. Changed her. Dressed her in the outfit I'd picked last night.Pink onesie. Little pants. Socks that wouldn't stay on.She smiled at me. Happy. Oblivious."You're going to daycare today," I told her. "And Mama's going to work. But I'll pick you up at 6 PM. I promise."She grabbed my finger. Squeezed.

CHAPTER 120: Settling In

December. Week three back at work.I woke up at 5:30 AM. Fed Evie. Got dressed. Made coffee.Automatic now. Routine.Drop-off at 7:15. Office by 7:45. Work until 5:30. Pick-up by 6:00. Home by 6:30.Every day. Same schedule.It was working. Mostly.---Evie was five months old now. Three months adjusted.Eleven pounds, six ounces. Growing steadily.She laughed constantly. Rolled both ways. Grabbed everything.Daycare said she was their happiest baby."She's so social," Sarah told me at pick-up. "Loves the other babies. Always smiling."I should have felt proud. Instead, I felt jealous.She was happy there. Without me.---At work, I was finding my rhythm again.The Morrison case was straightforward. Defense prep. Discovery review. Claim charts.Not exciting. But manageable.Walter had kept me off trial work. "Easing you back in," he'd said.But three w

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