Home for the Baby's Sake by CHRISTINE RIMMER

Author:CHRISTINE RIMMER
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2020-07-13T15:40:36+00:00

Chapter Six

When Roman entered the kitchen, he found Hailey and his mother huddled together by the dishwasher.

They both startled and whirled to face him. Hailey pasted on a smile. Sasha had red eyes and a nose to match. She’d been crying.

And Ma never cried.

He went right to her. “Ma, what’s the matter?” Hailey stepped back and he took his mother by the shoulders. She looked down at first, but then her gaze rose reluctantly to meet his. “You’ve been crying.” He didn’t mean it as an accusation, but somehow, it kind of sounded that way.

Ma looked wrecked. It tore something inside him to see her so gutted. She hadn’t had an easy life, and after he made it big, he’d sworn to himself that she was never going to suffer over a damn thing ever again.

“Oh, Roman...” A sob escaped her and the tears started falling again. She swayed toward him and he wrapped his arms around her. “I’m sorry. It was...such a great day. I think I’m feeling extra emotional, seeing our little boy so happy. I really wasn’t going to cry over this. I most definitely was not going to cry...” She most definitely was crying. He felt completely useless as sobs shook her slim shoulders.

Hailey, behind him, pushed a box of Kleenex into his line of sight. He pulled some out and gave them to Ma to replace the soggy ball she had clutched in her hand. “Here, Ma. Fresh ones...”

She took what he offered and dropped the used ones on the counter. Nobody said anything as she blew her nose and wiped at her eyes.

Finally she drew herself up straight. “We should sit down. I will tell you everything.”

Behind him, Hailey hesitantly suggested, “Maybe I should—”

She didn’t get to finish, because he and Ma commanded, “Stay,” in unison. Ma continued, “I want some coffee and then I’m going to explain the situation to both of you.”

A few minutes later, they sat at the table, the three of them, each with a hot mug of coffee to hold on to. By then, Ma had pulled herself together. She wrapped her hands around her mug and launched into her story.

“A week and a half ago, I went in for my routine yearly mammogram...”

Okay, he might be somewhat oblivious to the possible health hazards that befell women, but even he knew what was coming as soon as she said the word mammogram.

How bad is it? Are you going to be okay? What do you need? What can I do? A thousand questions bounced around inside his head, each one warring for the first chance to come out of his mouth.

But he said nothing. He waited for her to say all she had to say before demanding to know how he could make everything better.

“They called me back for an ultrasound. The lump appeared malignant, so I went in for a biopsy, a procedure where they extract some of the tissue from the lump to test.”

“Wait. How do they do that?”

His mother looked bewildered.

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