Danielle Steel: The Apartment

“I suspect a lot of babies start out that way, and you fall in love with them later.”

“Maybe,” she said, but she hadn’t yet, and didn’t expect to. She would do her duty, but no one could force her to want it. He had tried, and it blew up in their faces. But she had made the decision on her own to keep it. She couldn’t blame him for that, and she knew it. “Thanks for coming by,” she said, and tried to walk past him down the steps, and he wouldn’t let her. He looked as stubborn as she did.

“I’m not leaving until you agree to at least try to make this work with me. Let’s give it a chance. If you hate me, I’ll go away.”

“I don’t hate you,” she said, tired and disappointed. “I don’t know what I feel anymore.”

“That’s a start,” he said, holding on to her. “Please, Morgan, please give me another chance.” She didn’t answer, she just stared at him, and then she felt a strange cramp in the depths of her belly, and she winced.

“What was that?” He had seen it.

“Nothing,” she lied to him, and then she had another cramp right after. She hadn’t had anything like it during the pregnancy so far. It felt like strong menstrual cramps.

“Is something wrong? Tell me the truth.” He held on to her, and she winced again and doubled over.

“I don’t know. I’m having bad cramps all of a sudden.”

“Like something you ate or the baby?”

“Maybe the baby.” She turned to go back upstairs, and he followed her, worried that he had upset her. They hiked up the stairs, and she went to the bathroom in the apartment and came out, looking ashen. “I’m bleeding,” she said in a scared voice.

“Let’s go to the hospital. I’m not leaving.” She didn’t want him to, and she didn’t argue with him. She thought she might be having a miscarriage, which would be a simple solution to their problems, but suddenly she didn’t want that to happen.

They walked down the stairs together to the street, and she stopped twice for cramps again and could feel dampness between her legs. He hailed a cab and helped her in, and he held her hand on the way to the hospital. Morgan called Sasha from the cab. She was on duty and told her where to go and said she’d meet her.

She was waiting for them when they got to the hospital, and took Morgan into an examining room, and asked her if she wanted someone else to examine her, and Morgan said she wanted her to do it. She trusted Sasha more than anyone else, and as Sasha gently examined her, Morgan started crying.

“This is happening because I didn’t want it,” Morgan said softly. “God is punishing me.”

“No, He’s not. These things happen.” Sasha could see that she was bleeding, but not heavily.

“Let’s get a sonogram and see what’s going on,” she said calmly as she peeled off the glove, and Morgan kept crying. She could feel the baby moving—it had started a few days before—and it felt weird, like real butterflies in her stomach.

Sasha put her in a wheelchair and rolled her down the hall, and Max followed them looking very worried.

“What’s happening?” he asked them.

“We don’t know yet,” Sasha told him.

They took her in for a sonogram right away, while Max waited outside. The technician ran the wand over Morgan’s firm belly. They could see the baby on the screen, and it was moving, and seemed peaceful, and then started to suck its thumb. And then the tech commented that it looked like there was a clot, but just a small one.

“That happens sometimes,” Sasha explained. “It can cause bleeding. It will probably resorb all by itself. The baby may have bumped it.”

“Is it something I did? I’ve been going to Pilates every day, to stay in shape,” Morgan asked, feeling guilty.

“You should cool that for a week or two and take it easy, and give the clot a chance to dissolve. This won’t hurt the baby.” Morgan closed her eyes then and started to sob.

“I thought I’d killed it because I didn’t want it.”

“And how do you feel now?” Sasha asked her gently.

“Scared. But I don’t want to lose it.” Sasha nodded with a smile.

“That sounds about right. Do you want Max to see it?” she asked cautiously. It had surprised her to see them together. Morgan nodded, and Sasha went to get him. They switched to the bigger, brighter screen in 3D so he could get a better look. The baby was still sucking its thumb when Max walked in. He took one glance at the screen and burst into tears, and leaned down to kiss Morgan.

“I love you so much. I’m sorry I’ve been such a jerk.”

“Me too,” she said, smiling at him through her own tears. “I don’t want to lose the baby.” She felt as though she needed to tell everyone now, so it wouldn’t happen. And it still might, but Sasha didn’t seem worried.

“Do you want to know the sex?” she asked them both, and they nodded in unison and laughed as they held hands. Max had never seen anything so beautiful in his life as the woman he loved and the baby inside her. And as they looked, Sasha pointed at a spot on the screen and smiled. “It’s a boy.” Max grinned broadly and kissed Morgan again, and she smiled tenderly at him. They seemed like blissful parents, not two people who had broken up and not spoken for two months. And Sasha was pleased too, for them.

Morgan got dressed after that, and Sasha said she could go home, and should take it easy for a week, maybe two. “No Pilates for two weeks. And no make-up sex for two weeks, please, you two.” She handed them two copies of the photo of their baby, and they walked out of the hospital in a daze after thanking Sasha.

In a couple of hours, everything had changed and turned around. Max was back, and she had made peace with the trauma and disruption they’d been through. They spent the rest of the day together in the apartment, taking it easy, and then he thought of something.

“Will you come back to work at the restaurant? My books have been a mess since you left.” He was grinning and had an arm around her when he asked her, and she laughed.

“Is that all you really wanted?” she teased him.

“Yes, the baby is just a side attraction. I need you to help me with payroll and petty cash.”

She laughed at him then, and they kissed. Things were looking up, and then she pulled away from him with a serious expression. “I won’t marry you, though. That would ruin everything. We can have the baby, but I don’t want to get married.”

“You’re a damn difficult woman,” he said good-humoredly. “Can we live together?”

“Yes. But not married. That would kill the romance in our relationship.” To her, marriage was a nightmare, like her parents’.

“You’re a nut, but I love you. After the tenth kid, can we get married? I love big Irish families.”

“Okay, but not till after the tenth one, then I’ll consider it.” And as they bantered, she realized that they would have to move. They couldn’t live in the loft with a baby. That would leave only Claire at the apartment. Morgan had planned to stay on at the loft alone with the baby, and Claire. They had room now without Abby, and Sasha gone in June. But Max and the baby seemed like too much and not fair to Claire. And as a couple with a child, they needed their own home.

Claire and her mother came in from an appointment at Bergdorf’s shortly after, looking pleased. And Claire was as surprised to see Max there as Sasha had been when she saw them together earlier.

“We’re having a baby,” Morgan blurted out with a grin. Suddenly it was real.

“A boy,” Max added.

“But we’re not getting married,” Morgan said, smiling.

“It would kill the romance in the relationship,” he mimicked Morgan’s words, and they all laughed.