Chapter 29 - Grief.

Lorenzo walked into the hospital ward with a frown, it was not how he planned to spend his day. Besides, he hated the smell of  hospitals, the bleach that was used to clean the floors clung to his nostrils adamantly and the distraught and weary patients and families waiting in the various waiting rooms made it even harder for him to concentrate. He was happy he found Nina quickly. She was standing next to a doctor, still in her beach gown and sunshades. Her hair was a mess of unruly auburn curls and she was wearing flip flops. Even sand still clung to her wet body as she watched the doctor wearily.

She spotted him quickly and breathed a sign of relief.

"Thank God you're here. I was beginning to think you wouldn't pick my calls."

She said as she wiped her sweaty face with the back of her hands.

She looked tired and stressed out.

Lorenzo cringed as he saw the blood splattered on her clothes wondering where she got it from.

"Well, here I am..."

"This is Doctor Malcolm. Doctor he's the father..."

She said as she pointed to Lorenzo and he saw the doctor grimacing as he looked at him. The young man looked bored and uninterested as he glanced at Lorenzo.

"We just came out of ER with her. She's fine now but it took a lot to get her stable."

"Surgery?"

Lorenzo asked as he frowned. He really hadn't been given too much information by Nina. All she had told him was that Daphne's life was in danger and she was bleeding. He was hesitant to visit but she had persuaded him by reminding him that he was the father of the baby. That was the reason Lorenzo was at the hospital.

The doctor nodded.

"Yes, the pills she took... Was used to provoke a miscarriage, but it didn't complete the job. Leaving an incomplete abortion so we had to safely complete the abortion."

Lorenzo raised his eyebrows as he turned to Nina.

"An abortion pill? Really? She never told me she didn't want the baby."

Lorenzo asked and Nina looked away as she turned back to the doctor who continued.

"Her pregnancy was very high risk and her blood pressure was abnormally high, it was a good thing she was rushed in early."

"Doctor, did you find traces of an abortion pill?"

Lorenzo asked and the doctor nodded.

"We didn't necessarily need to, her body was rejecting the pregnancy after she used the pills. Proper examinations showed us the abortion was incomplete because there was another drug needed to complete the abortion and dispel the pregnancy, that one, she didn't use."

Lorenzo's eyes widened as he turned to Nina

"Did you know about this???"

"Can you stop asking me that please? Daphne is in a really critical condition right now."

"Yea! A condition she put herself in!"

Lorenzo retorted and Nina rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Did you really think she didn't want to get pregnant?? She would have done something about it earlier if she didn't want it."

"Yes, she only stopped wanting it when it wasn't beneficial to her anymore. She did this on purpose. I'm sure of it."

Lorenzo insisted and Nina walked away from him angrily.

He turned to the doctor.

"Is she at least okay?"

The doctor nodded.

"We managed to stabilize her. It was a really difficult process. She needs to rest."

He nodded his head.

"I understand. Can I see her now?"

He asked and the doctor sighed.

"She's being attended to right now. You'll be able to see her right after that. In the meantime, please can you come with me to sign some documents?"

"Yea sure."

Lorenzo replied as he followed the doctor.

After a few minutes later, he reappeared and found Nina preparing to leave.

"Where are you going? Aren't you staying with her?"

Nina shook her head as she got a hold of her duffel bag and stood up from the bench.

"No, I need to go change. I might come back tomorrow"

"You'll just leave her here???"

Lorenzo asked and Nina shot him a glare.

"What do you want me to do? Sleep in this fucking depressing place? I've done my best! Why don't you leave me the hell alone!!"

She snapped and started walking away. He reached out for her arm and pulled her back.

"Why did she get an abortion?"

Nina shrugged.

"She didn't! She never told me anything about it... The pills were never meant for her..."

Nina started and then she quickly stopped and started walking away.

"Wait! Wait! What are you talking about?"

Lorenzo called our after her but she didn't respond as she made a sharp turn out of the hallway.

"Mr Cumson, you can see her now."

A nurse said as she wheeled a cart away from Daphne's room and Lorenzo looked at the closed door ominously. His heart was racing as he wondered whether or not it was actually necessary to see her. He still had mixed feelings when it came to  coming to terms with the fact that he had juat lost his baby, but that didn't make it much better.

He walked into her room slowly as he closed the door gently behind himself.  He was startled when he saw her, she looked so pale. So pale and thin and gauntly all of a sudden. Like all the life had been leached away from her. And her eyes were worse, they looked depthtless and hollow. Like there was nothing in them.

She didn't make a move seeing him, she didn't even pretend like she cared. Her hospital gown looked oddly weird and misplaced on her. It didn't look like something she would wear.

"I am so sorry this had to happen Daphne..."

He said softly.... She was still unresponsive to him, she just kept staring on and on at the ceiling.

"I can't even imagine what you're going through..."

He continued with his voice slightly shaky. Why was he apologising? He asked himself as he frowned a little, for all he knew, she must have wanted the abortion. It wasn't unusual.

"But, I need to know.... Did you do this on purpose?"

That was the only question that made her blink. She blinked once and then twice. Lorenzo kept his distance and watched her slowly turn to look at him. Her gaze fully focused and directed at him was unsettling.

"The pills..."

She murmured in a voice that was barely audible. He moved a few inches closer to her bed to hear her more properly.

"They were meant for her..."

Lorenzo raised his eyebrows, he had no idea what Daphne was saying and he felt like she was being delusional.

"Who? The abortion pills?"

"You were supposed to give them to her. It was meant for her?"

Her? Lorenzo thought as his mind went back to when Daphne gave him sleeping pills for Amelia. They were sleeping pills, she told him they were sleeping pills. Were they not?

"But...but... Those were sleeping pills right?"

Lorenzo asked with a raised voice and alarm written all over his face. The sleeping pills were actually abortion pills?

"It was meant to be her. She's the one whose supposed to be here. Not me."

Daphne's voice cracked and broke under pressure while Lorenzo was busy fuming. The nerve of this woman? He thought as he massaged his temple.

"So, are you trying to say you tried to make me give Amelia Black abortion pills?"

He asked incredulously but she ignored him

"They were hers. It was supposed to be her!!"

"How could you be so cruel!!!"

"How could you even think of doing that?!! And trying to use me because she trusted me. How could you even think of doing that??"

"Doing what?"

Daphne snapped.

"That stupid useless bitch is the reason I'm here! She's the one whose supposed to be here! She's the one whose meant to be here."

Lorenzo shook his head wearily as he saw how demented Daphne looked, he didn't even know if it was the pain or stress that she was feeling that made her start talking gibberish.

"Just listen to yourself speak!!! Amelia this Amelia that! You are fucking obsessed if you ask me."

"You just had a miscarriage and all you can think of is how Amelia isn't the one in your shoes."

"Stop talking!!! That useless bitch killed my baby!!! I hate her so much!!!"

"No! You killed your baby with that stupid and messed up plan of yours!! How could you even think of doing such a despicable thing!"

"I don't see how this is your business Lorenzo. Get the fuck out of here!!"

Lorenzo sighed happily.

"Gladly! I'm done with you! You brought this upon yourself."

He said as he walked out of her hospital room and slammed the door. Daphne didn't even flinch as she watched him storm out of her room.

She didn't need him, she didn't know why he even came to see her. He meant nothing to her, not even her baby. He had always been useless and disposable to her.

She and Nina had been dancing away at the beach party as she contemplated if the shots she had taken earlier would have any effects on her pregnancy. Few minutes after she started having horrible cramps, she was scared, thinking it was the alcohol, but when the bleeding started that was when she slowly realised what was happening.
She had been rushed to the hospital, everything that happened later had happened in a blur, she knew she had lost the baby when she suddenly felt empty, when the nurses touches were far more gentle than before and the weary look on their faces.

The emptiness in her heart, the numbness pounding her brain, the salty tears that flowed unchecked from her eyes, tears she had waited till she was alone before she could cry.

The shear nothingness that now took hold of her soul threatened to engulf her entirely.

It was horrible.

She didn't know how to describe the pain that was gnawing at her chest. It was unexplainable but it was a pain so great it felt like she had broken something in her body.

She lost the one thing that was truly hers, she had loved her baby, in her own way. She felt relieved knowing the baby was hers, only hers. And she would keep it. It didn't matter if no one wanted her, the baby would. It didn't matter if no one needed her, her baby would need her. She had craved for someone who would depend on her for so long, for someone to need her for something, anything and that was gone too.

And it was all Amelia's fault. Amelia and Lorenzo's fault in her eyes. They had planned together and connived to kill her baby. She wasn't the one who was meant to be going through the pain. It was meant for Amelia.

Slowly, her sorrow was turning into anger, she could see Amelia laughing at her and pointing fingers at her while Xavier laughed along.

"Why? Why are you laughing?"

She stood up slowly, ignoring the pain as she watched Amelia laughing at her. She knew it was most likely an hallucination, but she was so angry about seeing her she felt rage burning inside of her.

"You stupid horrible useless bitch!!!! Stop laughing!!!!"

She screeched so loudly her stomach hurt, but she ignored the blinding pain and continued cursing at the figure.

"I said stop laughing!!!! Stop it!!!"

But the laughter only grew louder and louder in her head and she covered her ears while screaming to drown out the noise.

A minute later, alarmed nurses rushed into her room and they tried to restrain her, but she was hysterical, she was thrashing violently as more of them rushed in to hold her down.

She didn't stop until they gave her a sedative and she quickly slipped into a drugged sleep.