58

Nathan was exhausted from waiting in the cold, sterile hospital room. The fluorescent lights flickered, and the monotonous sound of the clock on the wall became more unbearable with each passing second.

The tension in the air was palpable, and his desperation grew with every minute that Suzanne and their baby remained in the operating room without any news.

He couldn't take it anymore.

He abruptly got up from the hard chair and approached a nurse who was passing by. The woman, a petite figure with a tired expression, barely had time to stop before Nathan confronted her.

"I need to know what's happening with my wife and baby," Nathan demanded, his voice trembling with a mix of fear and frustration.

"Sir, I ask you to be patient," the nurse responded, trying to remain calm. "The doctors are doing everything they can."

"Patience! How do you expect me to be patient?" Nathan exploded, his voice echoing in the waiting room. "I won't be calm until I know something. It seems like no one cares about my suffering."

The nurse, surprised by the outburst, tried to calm him, but before she could respond, a doctor appeared at the entrance of the room.

He was wearing a white coat stained with blood, and his expression was serious and grim.

"I'm Dr. Harris," he said in a grave voice. "I'm going to find out what's happening with Suzanne, but I can't promise you good news."

Nathan felt his heart freeze.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked, the fear evident in his voice.

"Your wife arrived with severe hemorrhaging, and we are doing everything we can to stop it," the doctor explained. "I think I don't need to explain to you what it means to have hemorrhaging in her condition.”

Nathan felt a chill take hold of his heart. Was he going to lose his child? Was all this a nightmare?

He wasn't a believer in God, but at that moment, he didn't care about anything else. He knelt right there in the room, his trembling hands clasped together in a desperate plea.

"Please, please, any powerful being who can hear me," he whispered, tears rolling down his cheeks. "Don't take my family from me. I'll do anything, but please, save Suzanne and our child."

Dr. Harris observed the scene with an expression of sorrow before returning to the operating room.

Time seemed to have stopped for Nathan. Minutes turned into hours in his mind, each second an eternity of anguish and fear.

Fifteen long minutes later, the same doctor came out of the operating room. His expression was even grimmer, and Nathan knew the news would not be good.

"Sir," the doctor began in a monotone voice. "I'm sorry to inform you that your wife and your child... didn't survive."

Nathan felt the world crumble around him. A cry of pain escaped his lips as he collapsed to the floor, unable to process the magnitude of his loss.

The waiting room, once full of hope and fear, became a place of immeasurable pain for Nathan, while the clock on the wall continued its inexorable march, indifferent to human suffering.

Nathan felt his world collapse with the doctor's words. A blind rage overtook him, and without thinking, he grabbed the doctor by the shirt, shaking him violently.

"This can't be happening! You're crazy if you think I'm going to accept this nonsense!" he shouted, his voice torn by pain.

Dr. Harris, with forced calm, tried to free his shirt from Nathan's grip.

"Sir, please, calm down. I understand your pain, but if you don't calm down, I'll have to call security to remove you from here."

Nathan's strength suddenly left him. His legs gave way, and he collapsed in the cold hospital room, beginning to sob like a small child.

His sobs echoed in the empty room, filling it with palpable pain.

At that moment, his grandfather arrived hurriedly, tears streaming down his face. He knelt beside Nathan, his voice broken by weeping.

"This is all your fault, Nathan. I told you to leave her alone when I asked you to. Now you've ruined that family's life and mine. My great-grandchild, for God's sake..."

Nathan had no strength to refute his grandfather's words. He felt empty, more pained than ever. Each word was a stab, and his heart felt shattered.

"I want to see them, please," he asked in a broken voice, tired of crying and hating the damned lump in his throat.
He didn't even notice the exchange of looks between his grandfather and the doctor.

The doctor nodded solemnly and indicated for him to follow. With unsteady steps, Nathan walked behind them, feeling like he was in a bad dream from which he couldn't wake up.

They led him to a very white room, where there was a gurney with a body covered by a sheet. Beside it, a cradle with a small blanket covering a body that was too tiny.

Nathan felt like he was going to faint. With trembling hands, he removed the sheets, and there they were, the bodies of Suzanne and their baby, lifeless, cold, and still.

Reality hit him with brutal force, knocking the breath out of him.

He fell to his knees beside the gurney, his body shaken by uncontrollable sobs. It felt as if a part of him had died too.

He caressed Suzanne's cold face, his lost love forever, and the tiny body of his child, the life that never came to be.

"I'm so, so sorry," he whispered through his tears. "Forgive me, please."

He felt like dying, each second harder to bear than the last. The pain was an endless ocean, and Nathan didn't know how to move on in a world where Suzanne and their baby no longer existed.