Beautiful Perfection (Beautifully Unbroken Book 2) (32 page)

I hugged Casey again, “I am so happy for you Casey, so so happy!”

“I wish you could be here to share the next however many months with me,” She said sadly.

“We will skype,” I said firmly. “And I promise you we will be back, of course we will be back, this is our home too.” We continued to hold each other as everyone else continued to congratulate them, finally Alex and Casey’s dream of becoming parents was about to happen, everything was so beautiful and so perfect and nothing was ever going to spoil it.

Blake

The party had been perfect. I couldn’t have imagined spending the evening any other way than with those who we loved and who loved us back.

Casey announcing her pregnancy had been the icing on the cake, if she and Alex were ever going to be even a fraction as happy as Jo and I were then they would be the luckiest people alive, Jo’s pregnancy had been the making of us, it had brought us even closer together if that was even possible.

I had helped Diana and Jasmine clear away from the party after sending Jo to bed, she had been quiet for most of the evening and even though I knew that she was sad to be leaving, I think the day had been too much for her, the babies’ due date was imminent and she had done a lot over the past few days to prepare for this evening, she was worn out and needed as much rest now as possible before we had two babies here with us.

The party continued downstairs at Alex and Casey’s apartment to celebrate their news but instead of joining everyone else, I climbed into bed quietly so as not to disturb Jo and kissed her forehead.

I noticed that she was frowning which made me unhappy; since I had opened up to Jo she had gone back to always smiling, even in her sleep unless something was bothering her but I had no idea what it was.

I thought back to the past few weeks and how I had crumbled in front of her, she had taken me in her arms and cared for me as much as I had cared for her at the beginning of our relationship when she was afraid and vulnerable, since then she had become the most amazing and strongest person that I had even met.

My nightmares had slowed down since that night, I still had them on occasion, they usually happened when I had found time to sit and think things through too much, but they never woke me anymore, I had somehow learned through sleep how to take control of them and realize that they were nothing more than a harmless bad dream.

I gently stroked the frown lines on Jo’s forehead in a desperate attempt to make them disappear when her eyes opened suddenly and focused directly at me. She let out a deep groan as she brought her knees up towards her chest and screamed out in pain.

“Jo, what is it? Jo talk to me, tell me what’s wrong.”

“The pain,” she gasped as if breathing was becoming difficult. “So much pain, help me Blake please help me.” She continued to cry out as I rushed from the bed and grabbed the phone calling 911 immediately.

“I need an ambulance and I need it right now, I think my wife is in labor, she is in a lot of pain, I think the babies are coming, we are having twins, and she is screaming out over and over, there’s no space in between her cries.” Jo continued to scream out as I gave the emergency services our address and demanded that they get here as soon as possible.

“Okay Jo, listen to me, we need to get you out of the bed okay? The ambulance is on its way, everything is going to be fine, I promise you, remember? Everything is going to be just fine. I am just going to get dressed and then I am going to help you get out of bed.”

“Blake, something is wrong,” Jo cried. “Something feels so wrong Blake, please, don’t let me lose our babies, not now, not after all this time please.”

“I won’t let anything happen to you or the babies, I swear.” The desperation in her voice as she begged me to save our babies was torturous, but I had to remain strong; for Jo’s sake, I needed to be strong.

“The bed, the bed feels so wet,” She cried.

“That will just be your waters breaking, don’t panic,” I said trying not to panic myself. “I need you to stay calm okay?” I shrugged into a t-shirt and sweatpants as quickly as possible and rushed to Jo’s side quickly tearing the blankets from the bed.

“Shit, no!” I said in shock.

“Blake, what is it?” Jo panted.

“It’s nothing beautiful,” I forced a smile as I leaned forward and stroked Jo’s face in an attempt to keep her calm, the wetness that Jo had felt in the bed wasn’t from her waters breaking, she was bleeding, she was bleeding so heavily that the entire bed was covered in thick dark blood. As Jo lifted herself from the bed her eyes rolled back and she fell straight back landing onto the pillow. Panic took over immediately as the fear of losing her quickly returned, my entire body shook as I watched Jo lie in a pool of her own blood, lifeless in front of me, I needed to help her, I needed to get her out of the apartment and to the hospital as quickly as possible, I had promised her that she was going to be okay and I needed to stick to that promise. I took her in my arms and ran as fast as I could through the apartment and into the elevator; my bloody fingers pressed shakily on the buttons leaving behind a trail of Jo’s suffering. “Jo,” I called to her desperately. “Jo, open your eyes beautiful, I need you to open your eyes, don’t you dare leave me Jo don’t you dare die on me, we have forever together remember? You promised me forever, you promised me and I won’t allow you to break that promise, don’t you dare go back on that promise do you hear me!” Tears began to fall thick and fast from my eyes at the thought of losing Jo and being left alone; as the elevator reached the ground floor the doors opened and I stepped out into the foyer quickly, “I need help, someone please help my wife, can anyone please help her!” I yelled.

As I made my way quickly towards the entrance, the paramedics came rushing into the building, everyone around me began to shout and scream as I lay Jo down gently onto the floor where the paramedics proceeded in their attempt to save her, they asked me questions; a lot of questions and after answering as best as I could I continued to beg them over and over to help her, to keep her alive, to please save my wife and children. They got Jo onto a stretcher quickly and rushed her out of the building and into the ambulance within minutes. She was critical, they told me that she was critical but I couldn’t process how that could even be possible when only hours ago she was perfectly fine. She had told me about some sort of practice contractions but she had assured me that they were normal, that they were nothing. I should have taken her to be checked out straight away but I didn’t. I did nothing. Somehow, something had gone horribly wrong so suddenly and now my wife was holding on to her life by a thread.

“Please don’t die, please Jo don’t leave me please I am begging you, do not die.” I repeated this sentence all the way to the hospital as the paramedic wired Jo up to various machines.

As soon as we arrived at the hospital there was no time wasted as Jo was rushed off the ambulance immediately and inside promptly. As I rushed in with them my hand clung to Jo with desperation, a doctor stood at the doorway preventing me from going any further as they rushed her into theatre.

“We need Dr Greene, Dr Samantha Greene,” I said firmly. “She will know what to do, she will know how to save my wife, she promised me that she will make sure that Jo and the babies get through this okay.”

“Mr. Mackenzie there is no time for that, your wife is in a critical condition, she is losing too much blood and we need to stop the bleeding and get the babies out immediately, we know what we are doing, we have the best team in there who are going to do everything they can to ensure that both your wife and your babies are okay but there is no time to lose here, we need to do this right now.”

“This can’t be happening,” I shook my head refusing to believe that this was true. “This has to be a nightmare, please tell me that I am just having another stupid fucking nightmare! She was fine!” I yelled. “She was absolutely fine!”

“Mr. Mackenzie, we will do everything that we can, I promise you; now please if you could follow me, there is a room for you to wait in until we have any news and I promise you that the minute we have any news I will be straight back to you.” The doctor began to walk in the direction that they had taken Jo, I followed the doctor who led me to a room where he left me immediately and headed down the corridor towards the theatre. I lifted my hands in front of me and took in the sight of what I had got left of Jo. Her blood covered me; my hands my chest, my sweatpants; everything was covered in Jo’s blood.

Before I had time to register how much blood Jo had lost, the door opened suddenly before my parents and Diana came rushing in.

“We just heard son,” dad was crying as he took me in his arms and held me like he use to when I was a child. “She is going to be okay;” he sniffed “She will be okay.”

“Blake,” Diana cried as she too placed her arms around me and began to cry.

“Have the doctors said anything?” Mom asked as she wiped her eyes but still the tears kept on coming.

“I don’t know what happened,” I cried. “She was fine, I mean you all saw her, she has been fine! I can’t lose her, I can’t lose my wife, please God; don’t take my wife away from me!”

We held each other as we all cried and prayed that Jo survived this, I wasn’t sure how long we had been waiting when the door opened and the doctor came walking in. We all stood in anticipation as he removed his gloves and looked directly at me.

“Your wife lost a lot of blood Mr. Mackenzie. While trying to stem the bleeding, the babies also began to suffer, their heart rates both dropped dramatically and it was important to get them both out. We delivered a healthy boy and a healthy girl Mr. Mackenzie, you are now a father.” He smiled but the smile didn’t reach his eyes.

“Jo,” I said simply. “I need to know about Jo.”

“Mr. Mackenzie, the amount of blood that your wife lost was… she lost far too much. We tried so hard to bring her back to us,” he paused for a brief moment. “But unfortunately your wife suffered a cardiac arrest while we were trying to save her.”

“No,” I replied, firmly shaking my head as I didn’t want to hear what he was about to tell me.

“Mr. Mackenzie, I am sorry but we couldn’t save your wife, I’m afraid that she died shortly after the babies were born.”

“No,” I replied again. “NOOOOOOOOOOOO!” The room filled with screams and cries as together we all took in the news that Jo hadn’t made it.

My wife had died.

My wife, who I had always promised to fix and to look after, my wife, who I was going to grow old with and have a long and happy life with, had died.

“I don’t believe you,” I said through gritted teeth as Diana clung to me as she cried hard for her daughter.

“I don’t believe that you couldn’t save her! I need to see her; I need to see my wife!”

“That’s not possible at the moment Mr. Mackenzie, I’m sorry. If you could just wait a while then I can take you through but right now I am afraid that I can’t do that.” I shrugged away from my parents and Diana and launched myself at the doctor taking his coat in my fist and pushing him against the wall.

“If my wife is dead then I need to see her, I need you to show me that she has gone! I don’t believe that you just allowed her to die, I don’t believe you!” The tears were streaming down my face as I released the doctor and punched the wall repeatedly. As blood began to spray from my fist, the pain that I felt was nothing compared to the pain of losing the woman who I loved more than life itself. Unable to hold myself together any longer I screamed out to Jo before falling to my knees.

“I need to see my wife,” I sobbed. “Please let me see my wife.”

The doctor nodded sympathetically, “Of course, I understand.”

“Do you?” I asked as I lifted my gaze to the doctor. “Do you understand what it is like to lose your wife? Your wife who you only married a couple of months ago and were about to experience the happiest days of your life with! You know how that feels do you!”

“No,” the doctor sighed sadly. “I don’t know how you are feeling but I am so sorry that we couldn’t save your wife, believe me when I tell you that we did everything that we could, she had lost too much blood, it was impossible to bring her back.”

“Take me to my wife,” I demanded as I stood from the ground.

“Of course,” he said quietly. I followed the doctor from the room and took the long walk down the dark corridor, the door opened and I followed the doctor into the room where Jo lay lifeless and pale in the middle of the room on the bed.

“Why?” I said simply as I approached her. “Why did you promise me forever and then leave me without putting up a fight, why? I need to know Jo, because after everything that we have been through I am struggling to understand why you have left me!” I placed my aching right hand shakily to her face; she was still warm as my fingers stroked her cheek gently.

“I love you so much Jo, you came into my life like a whirlwind and turned it upside down for all of the right reasons, I fell in love with you the second my eyes saw you. We had everything, and I wanted to continue to give you everything for the rest of your life, but you have left me, why did you have to go and leave me!” I placed my face to her cheek and kissed her repeatedly. “I need you to wake up now Jo, I need you to open your eyes and look at me. You can’t die, I can’t allow you to die, you have a son and a daughter now, you can’t just die Jo, you can’t! If you die then I can’t go on without you, I can’t bring up our children without you! So please open your eyes Jo, open them now please!”

“Blake, we need to go.”

“No!” I yelled. “I am not going anywhere without my wife!”

“Blake, we need to go, right now.”

“I can’t leave her, I can’t leave her here all alone, she is alone and this room is so cold, I can’t do that to her, look at her, she is so beautiful, she is my beautiful wife, she was my beautiful wife, I can’t leave her here, I won’t leave her here!”

“Blake please, Blake….. Blake…..Blake…….”

My eyes shot open and focused directly onto Jo who stood next to the bed looking down at me, her hand squeezing mine with force. She was fully dressed and holding her hospital bag in her other hand with a smile on her face.