The CEO's Rejected Wife And Secret Heir novel Chapter 187

Chapter 187: Chapter 187: The Birth

Aria’s POV

months later

The first thing I noticed when I woke up that morning was the quietness.

I lay still for a moment with my hand resting on my stomach, feeling the weight pressing down on my lower back, and thought: today.

I didn’t know how I knew, I just did.

Damien was already awake beside me, which wasn’t unusual — he’d been sleeping lightly for weeks, attuned to my every shift and exhale with the focused vigilance of a man bracing for impact. He was lying on his side watching me with those icy blue eyes that had long since lost their ability to be unreadable where I was concerned.

"You’re doing that thing," he said.

"What thing?"

"The thing where you know something and you’re deciding whether to tell me."

I turned my head toward him on the pillow. "I think today might be the day."

The effect was immediate and almost comical. Damien Blackwood — who had faced hostile corporate takeovers and armed kidnappers and his own brother with a gun without visible disruption to his composure — went completely rigid and then sat upright in one motion like a man who had been electrocuted.

"Now?" he said.

"Not now now," I said. "But today."

He was already reaching for his phone. "I’m calling Dr. Reeves."

"Damien, I’m not even having contractions yet"

"I’m calling Dr. Reeves."

I let him call Dr. Reeves.

The contractions started properly around ten in the morning, while Damien was in the middle of a board call he’d refused to cancel because I’d told him three times that nothing was happening yet and I needed him to stop hovering. I was sitting at the kitchen island eating toast and reading when the first real one came .

I set down my toast, i checked the time then picked my toast back up.

By the third contraction I texted Damien: Okay. Maybe now.

The board call ended with a speed that I suspected violated several meeting protocols, and Damien appeared in the kitchen doorway seconds later, jacket half-on, hair slightly disordered, phone already to his ear.

"I’m calling"

"Dr. Reeves, yes," I said. "She’s already expecting us. Contractions are eight minutes apart. We have time to get Noah ready and get to the hospital calmly and without anyone driving through any red lights."

Damien looked at me for a long moment. "I’m not going to run red lights."

"I’m saying it preventatively."

Damien’s POV

I stepped out when the midwife came in to do her checks, partly because they asked me to and partly because I needed seconds of air that didn’t smell like hospital antiseptic.

Noah was exactly where I’d left him — sitting on the corridor chair with his drawing pad open on his lap, Mrs. Dora beside him with her hands folded, both of them waiting with the particular patience of people who understood that waiting was the job right now.

Noah looked up the moment he heard the door.

"Is Mama okay?" he asked.

I crossed the corridor and crouched down to his level. "Mama is doing really well," I said. "She’s working very hard right now. That’s what the noises are."

He processed this with the focused expression he used on all new information. "Like when I had to do my swimming assessment and I worked hard?"

"Exactly like that."

"And you were brave at your swimming assessment," I said. "You were so brave."

"I cried a little," Noah said.

"So did I," I said, which was not entirely untrue.

He nodded slowly, apparently satisfied with this answer. "Can I see Mama?"

"In a little while," I said. "When she’s done working hard."

He sat with that for a moment. Then he unzipped his backpack and pulled out a drawing pad and a pack of markers and opened to a fresh page.

"What are you drawing?" I asked. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Baby," he said, without looking up. "So the baby can see what it looks like when it comes out."

I looked at Mrs. Dora, Mrs. Dora pressed her lips together very carefully.

"That’s very thoughtful," I said.

"I know." He selected a marker with seriousness. "Will the baby have my eyes or your eyes?"

"We don’t know yet."

He considered this. "I hope it has Mama’s," he said. "Yours are a bit scary sometimes."

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