Chapter 2 - Seven Minutes
Inside the ambulance, every sound became distant.
The monitor screamed.
The paramedics shouted numbers I could not understand.
One pressed an oxygen mask over my face while another started an IV in each arm.
“Emma, stay awake.”
I tried.
But exhaustion pulled me downward.
“Baby A’s heart rate is dropping,” someone said.
The ambulance turned sharply, throwing the equipment against the walls.
“What about Baby B?” I asked.
No one answered.
That silence terrified me more than anything.
“Tell me!”
The paramedic closest to me lowered his face.
“We’re doing everything we can.”
At St. Matthew’s Hospital, the rear doors flew open.
Doctors and nurses were already waiting.
They rushed me through bright corridors while a woman in blue scrubs ran beside the stretcher.
“I’m Dr. Patel. Emma, you’re having a placental abruption, and one baby’s cord is compressed. We need an emergency cesarean delivery immediately.”
“My husband…”
“We can’t wait for him.”
“Save them.”
“We’re going to try to save all three of you.”
A mask descended over my face.
“Count backward from ten.”
“Ten…”
The operating room lights shimmered.
“Nine…”
I thought about the nursery I had painted pale yellow.
“Eight…”
I thought about two empty bassinets waiting beside our bed.
“Seven…”
Then everything vanished.
Outside the operating room, Daniel stood in his bloodstained shirt.
He had followed the ambulance in his truck because no one from my family had come.
A nurse approached him.
“Are you the husband?”
“No. I’m her neighbor.”
“Do you know where her husband is?”
“At the mall.”
The nurse stared at him, believing she had misheard.
“He left her alone during active labor?”
“With twins.”
Before she could respond, alarms sounded behind the operating-room doors.
Daniel lowered his head.
He had been a firefighter for fourteen years before a building collapse injured his spine and ended his career. He knew what those alarms meant.
Someone was dying.
Inside the operating room, Baby A was delivered first.
A girl.
She was pale and silent.
The neonatal team carried her to a warming table and immediately began resuscitation.
Thirty-eight seconds later, Baby B was delivered.
A boy.
His first sound was a weak, broken cry.
Then my blood pressure disappeared from the monitor.
“Massive hemorrhage!”
“Start the transfusion!”
“Emma, stay with us!”
But I was already unconscious.
For seven minutes, the doctors fought to stabilize me.
For seven minutes, my daughter did not breathe on her own.
For seven minutes, my son’s heart rate continued to fall.
And while doctors struggled to keep us alive, Travis stood inside a luxury handbag store holding two purses for his mother.
His phone vibrated in his pocket.
He glanced at the screen.
Daniel Hayes.
He declined the call.
“Who keeps calling?” his sister, Megan, asked.
“The neighbor.”
Deborah held a burgundy leather bag against her shoulder and studied herself in the mirror.
“It’s probably Emma trying to frighten you into going home.”
Travis laughed nervously.
“She knows better than that.”
His father, Richard, sat in a chair near the entrance, drinking an expensive coffee.
“Women have been giving birth for thousands of years,” he said. “She can wait.”
Travis finally checked his messages.
There were six missed calls.
A voicemail from Daniel.
A text from St. Matthew’s Hospital.
And a photograph sent by an unknown number.
The photograph showed the front of our house.
An ambulance was parked in the driveway.
Its rear doors were closing.
Travis’s smile disappeared.
“What is it?” Megan asked.
He opened Daniel’s voicemail.
Your wife is hemorrhaging. The twins are in distress. We are going to St. Matthew’s. If you care whether they survive, answer your phone.
The color drained from Travis’s face.
Deborah snatched the phone from his hand.
“This is emotional manipulation.”
“Mom, there was an ambulance.”
“She called one because she wanted attention.”
Travis stared at the hospital message.
EMERGENCY CONTACT REQUIRED. PATIENT IN SURGERY.
He took one step toward the store entrance.
Deborah grabbed his arm.
“The sale ends in twenty minutes.”
Travis hesitated.
May you like
That hesitation would later destroy everything.
He stayed.
