Defining Moments (A Moments In Time Love Story 2) Read Online Free Page A

laced Melisa’s voice. “Is he all right? Tell me he’s okay.”
    “Don’t worry. He’s fine. He made it through with only minor scratches.”
    Melisa nodded. Relief poured into her, causing her body to sag deeper into the bed. Maybe there was hope for the baby, too. Maybe her fingers were lying, or she was dreaming. “Tell me my baby is fine too…please.” She forced the words out of her raw throat, felt them scrape her tongue.
    “I’m very sorry, Mrs. Dane,” the doctor said, while the nurse averted her gaze. “You and your husband made it through the accident, but the baby didn’t survive. We had to perform immediate surgery.”
    “You removed her? You killed my baby?” Melisa covered her mouth with her hand. This couldn’t be happening. She had to be dreaming. As a last attempt, she pinched her arm hard and it hurt.
    This was no dream.
    “The baby didn’t survive. I’m very sorry. The procedure we performed could only save either you or the baby. We had to make an urgent choice or we would have lost both of you.”
    Melisa narrowed her eyes to mere slits. “Who gave you the right to choose me?”
    “Your husband gave us the permission. He chose you. If he had chosen the baby, she might not have made it. Your chances of survival were higher.”
    Melisa’s whole body clenched and a gut-wrenching scream deafened her. It took her a moment to realize it was coming from her own mouth, and only because she saw a panicked expression on the nurse’s face.
    She stopped screaming and closed her eyes as her reality handcuffed her to the bars of sorrow. She could almost feel her hopes and dreams for the future turning to dust. For the baby, she’d eaten right and exercised just the right amount and tried not to work more than she had to. And it was all for nothing. The baby she had wanted so much and tried so hard to conceive, the little girl she already loved with every breath, was gone, because someone decided she wasn’t important enough to live.
    The doctor injected her with something. A few moments later she had calmed down and fallen asleep. When she woke up again, her hand was in someone else’s.
    Heat’s head lay nuzzled next to her stomach. Her empty stomach. When she moved, he looked up. His eyes were bloodshot and clouded. He looked like he’d been crying for hours.
    “Hey, baby. I’m so glad you’re okay. It’s all my fault. I’m so sorry.” He ran a calloused thumb along the top of her hand. “I should have called nine-one-one instead of driving. I was so worried about the baby that I wasn’t paying enough attention. It was a hit and run. But I should have seen it coming.”
    Melisa removed her hand from his and pulled it under the bed sheet, forming a fist at her side. “How dare you,” she glared at him. “You had no right to tell them to kill our baby. You had no right.” She closed her sore eyes and turned her face away from him. She couldn’t bear the sight of him, not now. She didn’t hold him responsible for the accident. An accident was an accident. Another driver hit them, and Heat had no control over that. But their baby had made it out alive. She could have been saved if he’d only said the word. But he chose to let her die. His explanations and apologies wouldn’t diffuse the anger and hurt that coursed like poison through her veins. Maybe after some days, weeks, or months, she might forgive him. But at this moment, she couldn’t see beyond the fact that he had made the decision to kill what might have been her only hope of being a mother again.

Chapter Seven
    A week passed, and apart from Melisa’s accusatory words the night of the accident, she had hardly said anything else to Heat. She couldn’t and didn’t want to understand why he’d made the choice he did. A choice that had instantly changed their lives forever. She would have given anything to allow her daughter to live. Even her own life. But he’d made that choice for her. If she condoned what he did,