The Rejected Wife: Chapter 48

‘Serene!’ I race past her mother, then overtake my wife and reach the pool. A part of me notes the red that stains the water and panics. My breath seizes. Then my training as a Marine takes over. I push back my thoughts and dive in. She’s already underwater so I grab her and swim to the surface. By the time I reach the edge of the water, Cilla’s there. I hand Serene over to her, then haul myself over the edge.

‘Serene!’ Cilla is on her knees next to my daughter.

‘Serene!’ I crawl next to her. ‘Serene, can you hear me?’

There’s no response. Her eyes are closed. Why is she not breathing? Surely, she wasn’t in the water long enough to swallow too much?

My heart gallops so hard, it feels like it’s going to sprout hooves and break through my rib cage. My throat closes. My arms and legs feel numb. Calm down. What would you do if you were on a mission and one of your team was hurt? You need to find that core of calmness inside. You need to draw on all your reserves of strength. Serene needs you. Your daughter needs you. I cannot… I will not fail her.

But before I can reach for her, Cilla takes over.

She turns Serene on her side and pounds her back. Water oozes out from my daughter’s mouth.

She leans in, ear close to Serene’s lips. Her fingers press gently under the jaw, searching. She waits—too long. Her lips firm. That’s when I realize. My daughter isn’t breathing on her own.

I’ve faced enemy bullets without flinching but seeing my little girl pale and motionless on the ground…has me frozen.

My blood pressure spikes. A high-pitched ringing starts in my ears. My hands shake. My legs feel like they’re sinking through the floor. I can only watch as Cilla moves with terrifying calm. She lays Serene flat again, tilts her head back slightly, and lifts her chin to open the airway.

I force my hands to obey. I press two fingers to the side of her neck, to her wrist. Nothing. I can’t feel a heartbeat.

A sound tears from my throat. I start compressions. Lock my hands, heel to sternum. Rhythm sharp. Precise. Desperate. Yet gentle. I hold back, reminding myself how easy it would be to crack a rib on a toddler. Thirty compressions. Then sixty. Ninety.

Cilla breathes for her.

We fall into sync—mechanical, relentless. I don’t stop. I can’t.

Again, compressions. Again.

I let her chest rise fully. Another thirty compressions.

Still no breath.

Cilla and I exchange a look and switch repositions. I slide beside Serene’s face, pinch her nose closed, and make a tight seal over her mouth. Two breaths. Watch for the rise of her chest.

Another two breaths.

Nothing.

Two more.

Please.Come on, Serene. Two more. Come back to me.

My wife’s voice cracks. A whisper at first, then a sob. ‘Serene, please.’

Another two breaths. Then Serene coughs, sputtering out more water. My heart leaps in my chest. Relief has my limbs going weak. My stomach folds in on itself, and I taste the bile on my tongue. I gather her in my arms and fight back tears.

I realize how close I was to losing her. And all because I wasn’t fast enough to protect my daughter from that woman. She might be Serene’s biological mother, but that doesn’t give her the right to upset my daughter like this. How dare she scare my daughter so badly that she ends up hurt? How dare she put Serene’s life in peril?

The thoughts race through me as I hold my daughter in my arms.

“The EMTs are here. I called them as soon as I saw Serene fall into the pool,” Sinclair announces. He, Summer and Matty joined us at some point.

I lower my daughter to the ground but am unable to let go.

‘You need to step back so we can examine her,’ one of the men tells me.

There’s a touch on my shoulder, then Sinclair coaxes me to my feet. Summer helps my wife up. I reluctantly take a step back.

I watch as they check her vitals, hooking an oxygen mask to her. I want to cry and scream at them to leave her alone, but I fold my fingers into fists, forcing myself to bite the inside of my cheek.

‘She’s going to be fine.’ My voice sounds so harsh, I barely recognize it, and I feel Priscilla shrink next to me. I wrap my arm around her and pull her close.

Serene’s mother, meanwhile, watches the EMTs with an anguished look as they take Serene away. She turns to me and mouths, ‘I am so sorry.’

‘Tyler, can I talk to you please?’ My daughter’s mother stands in front of me, wringing her fingers. We’re in the waiting room in the hospital. Cilla insisted that, as her legal guardian, I ride with my daughter in the ambulance. I didn’t protest. She followed with Sinclair.

Summer stayed behind with Matty.

They ran tests on her. The doctor told us she was suffering from a concussion and lost a lot of blood. Serene has a rare blood type, so they took blood samples from me and my daughter’s mother to test for a blood match. I suppose, it’s good thing she’s here, so if the blood matches, she can provide a blood transfusion. On the other hand, if she weren’t here, Serene wouldn’t be in this condition.

I run my fingers through my hair, glancing down at the scrubs someone loaned me. They’re tight around the shoulders and chest and short in length, but they’ll have to do for now. The doctor returns. She’s wearing a puzzled expression.

I rise to my feet, Priscilla with me. ‘Is everything okay?’ she asks.

The doctor looks between the three of us. ‘Neither Mr. Davenport nor Ms. Bolton’s blood is compatible with the patient’s blood type.’

‘Is that a problem?’ I frown.

‘Serene’s blood type is AB. One of the parents should be compatible with hers, but neither are.’

My heart begins a slow thud. ‘I had a DNA test done; I’m definitely Serene’s father,’ I point out.

‘I gave birth to her. I have the hospital paperwork to prove it.’ Lauren’s mouth pinches into a thin line.

‘Uh, I… My blood type is AB,’ Priscilla offers. ‘I’m sure, it’s only a coincidence, but this should help, right?’

‘Yes.’ The doctor’s face shows her relief. ‘If you’ll come with me, Mrs. Davenport, we’ll test your blood and make sure you’re compatible.’

Priscilla squeezes my arm, then follows the doctor down the corridor.

I stare after them, trying to piece together this new information. ‘Neither your blood nor mine is compatible with Serene’s, but the genetic testing confirms that I’m Serene’s father.’ I turn to her. ‘Which means… You’re not her mother.’

Lauren swallows. Something in her expression has the hair on the nape of my neck rising. She sits down heavily one chair down from me. ‘I gave birth to her; I didn’t lie about that.’

‘But?’

She shakes her head. ‘But nothing.’

I rise to my feet, knowing I’ll loom over her. Knowing I’ll come across as threatening when I stand opposite her. ‘Don’t lie. You’ve done enough to disrupt Serene’s life. The least you can do is come clean now.’

Sinclair, who’s been on the phone at the other end of the corridor, walks over to join us. ‘Everything okay?’ he asks in a low voice.

‘Lauren was about to explain why she’s not Serene’s biological mother.’

‘I… I did give birth to her,’ she says, hunching her shoulders. ‘But it was through IVF.’

‘What do you mean?’ I jerk back.

‘You have to understand, I have wanted to be a mother since I was sixteen. I always thought I’d end up with a brood of them. That I’d have a family of my own. But when I turned thirty and broke up with my long-term boyfriend, all of my hopes of becoming a mother seemed so far away. I decided to go ahead on my own. That’s when I discovered I couldn’t conceive naturally. My eggs weren’t any good. I was desperate. I had to find a way. I had a successful career, I was making good money, but my life was so empty. I knew if I didn’t find a way to have a child I would never be happy.’ She wrings her hands.

“Is there a point to this story?” I ask through gritted teeth.

‘I arranged for donor eggs and donor sperm. I bought them about five years ago, but I kept putting it off.’ She looks away. ‘Eventually, I went through with it. They created the embryo and transferred it into me. First try, I was pregnant.’

‘You used my donor sperm?’ I force the words out, my throat burning like it’s full of glass.

She used my sperm. Goddamn.

I knew it. I knew I’d remember every woman I ever slept with. I’d been driving myself crazy, trying to figure out if I’d met Lauren before — and coming up blank. A weight I didn’t even know I was carrying slides off my shoulders.

‘You donated sperm?’ Sinclair asks.

I nod shortly. ‘Yeah. When I was twenty-one. Two of my buddies and I saw an ad while we were on a break from bootcamp.’

‘And you did it?’

I rub the back of my neck. ‘They did it for the money. I did it to keep them company. Figured maybe it would help someone.’ I drop my hand. My voice hardens. ‘How did you even find me?’ I glare at her. ‘It was supposed to be anonymous.’

She pops a shoulder. ‘Amazing the kind of information money can get you.’

No one knows that better than me. But being on the receiving end of this kind of action—the kind I’d normally initiate—makes me so very angry.

How dare this woman violate my privacy? She was entitled to use the sperm. I donated it, hoping it would help someone in need. But that she broke the confidence guaranteed when I made the donation is unforgivable. On the other hand, it’s because she did so that Serene came into my life. Something I don’t regret at all. If she thinks she can take Serene away from me now, she’s mistaken. I curl my fingers into fists.

‘You are not her biological mother,” I snap.

She lowers her chin to her chest. ‘I carried her inside me for forty weeks. I almost died giving birth to her. I am her biological mother.’

I want to have empathy for this woman. I do. My sources confirmed she gave birth to Serene.

‘You may have carried her, but you share no genetic material, no bloodlines, with my daughter. You allowed me to believe I slept with her mother and was unable to recollect who that was. You made me feel guilty and ashamed all this time’

‘You did donate to the sperm bank and sign the waiver papers,’ she points out.

‘It was meant to be confidential. You broke that agreement.’

She looks like she’s about to protest, then some of the fight seems to go out of her. ‘I was desperate. I thought I would be able to bring up my child on my own. But I lost my nerve.” She hunches her shoulders. “I had been so sure all I wanted was to have a child. But then I held Serene in my arms and knew I knew I couldn’t do it alone. I was overwhelmed. All my courage deserted me. Can you imagine how difficult it was to realize that I was mistaken?” She swallows. “That the one thing I wanted my entire life… I couldn’t go through with it. I knew I had to find a home for Serene. I had to find someone else to take care of her. I looked you up, I discovered how well off you were. I knew you’d make a good father. That she’d be better off with you.’

‘Yet, you decided to come back into her life?’

‘Because’—she looks away—’I missed her. I found I couldn’t just simply walk away. Not when I’d spent so much of my life wanting a child.’ She swallows hard. ‘I did not intend for things to become this messy. I did not intend to turn my daughter’s life upside down.’

Tears begin to roll down her cheeks. She looks miserable, yet I can’t find it in myself to sympathize with her. ‘You’re the reason Serene is in the hospital.’

‘I’m aware’—she sniffs—’and I’m sorry. I truly am.’

A thought which has been eating away at my subconscious since I first saw her breaks through. ‘How did you find out we were here?’

She blinks rapidly. ‘Would you believe me if I said it was a coincidence?’

I snort. ‘Not likely.’

She looks down, and I have to strain to hear her. ‘I paid a private investigator to find out where you’d moved. Then paid him again to track where you were headed.’

That anger that gripped me intensifies. I don’t broadcast where I live, but I also don’t take pains to hide it or what my travel plans are. There was no need to do so. That changes now.

This woman has maintained an unhealthy interest in the whereabouts of me and daughter. This goes beyond an invasion of privacy. Her actions are downright illegal.

It resulted in my daughter getting hurt. I tamp down on the rage that churns my guts. I need to keep control of my emotions. Serene needs me. My wife needs me. I need to understand Lauren’s motivations better, so I can find a way to keep her away from my family.

‘You seem to have a lot of money to spend tracking my movements. You could have used that to take care of Serene, instead.’

Her shoulders dip. ‘I’m not a billionaire. But yes, I make enough to afford IVF and to get details on your whereabouts. I will not let you guilt trip me for that. Nor for my actions. Only I know what I went through. Only I know how difficult it was to decide to get pregnant on my own, and then realize I needed to give up my daughter so she could have a better future.’

‘She’s not a toy that you can give away at will, then decide you want back when you miss her,” I snap.

‘I merely wanted her to know who her mother is. Surely, I have a right to that?’

‘You lost all rights when you left her with me. And because of that, my daughter will always suffer the consequences of knowing that the woman who gave birth to her abandoned her.”

This woman’s choices are the reason for the trauma my daughter has experienced in her short life.

‘And finding out you’re not even her biological mother? That’s just another betrayal she’ll have to live with.’

She hunches her shoulders. Her expression deflates. A shadow runs through her eyes. She opens her mouth to speak when Priscilla walks over to join us. Noticing the charged silence, she looks between us.

‘Everything okay?’ She slips her fingers through mine. ‘Are you okay?’

Something twisted inside me unfurls. The chaos inside me settles, just a little. Seeing her, having her by my side, feeling her softness against me, grounds me. Reassures me I can find my way out of this mess. I need to keep the faith. I have her with me. Serene is going to be okay. Serene has to be okay.

I wrap my arm about my wife’s shoulders and pull her close.

Lauren seems to shrink further into herself. She looks miserable, but she’s not getting any sympathy from me. She’s responsible for the upheavals in my daughter’s life. I can’t forgive her for that.

My wife urges me to the side, out of earshot from the other woman. ‘I don’t understand or agree with any of her actions.’ She reaches up and cups my cheek. ‘But it doesn’t change the fact that she gave birth to Serene. Our daughter will want to know that. She’ll likely want Lauren in her life when she’s older.’

I want to deny it. I am tempted to use all the power I have to ensure this woman has nothing to do with my daughter. But I know my wife is right. She has more perspective on this situation. She understands how important it is for Serene to have contact with all three of us. Overcome by emotions I can’t quite put a name to—and don’t want to, at this stage—I settle for lowering my chin and kissing my wife, hard. I take comfort from her nearness. Her scent. How she opens herself and allows me take from her. How she feels like a rock in this shifting landscape that my life has become.

The sound of someone clearing their throat cuts through the turmoil in my mind. I lift my head and turn around to find the doctor waiting. This time her expression is one of relief.

‘Mrs. Davenport’s blood type is compatible with Serene’s.’