SPECIE OF LOVE

SMALL BEGINNINGS BIG GOD

Chapter 12: SMALL BEGINNINGS, BIG GOD

**AVA’S POV*

She wasn’t conscious till the next day.

So I went home. Made breakfast I couldn’t eat. Changed into clothes that didn’t feel like mine. Then I drove back to the hospital with a heart that felt heavier than the Lagos traffic.

Inside the car, the silence broke me.

I started sobbing. Quiet at first. Then the kind that shakes your shoulders and makes your ribs ache. The driver noticed. He didn’t say a word. He just drove slower, like he was giving my pain room to breathe.

Then a word dropped in my heart. Clear. Loud. Like it wasn’t mine.

_“Do not despise the fear of small beginnings. You will win.”_

I cried louder.

“Ma’am, are you alright? Do you need space?” the driver asked. His voice was gentle. Like he could feel every crack in me.

“You know what? I’ll step out,” he said. “Pour out your heart, ma’am. I’ll give you twenty minutes. I’m right outside if you need me.”

The door clicked shut. And I broke.

“GOD!” I screamed.

“This isn’t what I wanted! I want my life back. I want my invisible, innocent life back. I don’t want this chaos anymore!”

My chest was heaving. My hands clawed at my blouse like my heart would actually tear out of my body.

“God, please… right now I don’t even know if I can bear this weight of small beginnings. I’m tired, Lord. I’m drowning. Please save my friend. Save me. Save my Damien!”

_Ring. Ring._

My phone shattered the moment. Anonymous caller.

My blood ran cold. Mrs. Cole. Again.

I picked up, tears still falling. “Ma…” I choked out. “Is it until you kill me? Why not just kill me? You don’t want an heir from worthless Ava, yes. So why the hell do you want to kill my baby without letting me know?”

My voice rose. Rage mixing with grief.

“Not only do you want to kill my baby, you wanted my womb damaged too! Mrs. Cole, I thundered, may God in Heaven forgive you, because you don’t deserve to live!”

I wiped my tears angrily. My hands were shaking. “Now plans changed. My friend mistakenly used the drug. I mean, she didn’t want to use it. I told her to, because how the hell would I know Misoprostol was packaged in a typhoid medication bottle?”

I laughed. Bitter. Broken.

“For once I thought you were nice. I thought you were nice to pay for my bills, to even buy drugs for me. Mrs. Cole, I already stayed away from your son. Please stay away from me. I will travel. I swear. I will leave you. So please, leave me and my family alone. Stop threatening me!”

I burst out crying again. This time I wanted her to hear it. I wanted her to hear every ounce of pain she planted in me. Maybe then she’d have mercy.

I wound down the car window and waved the driver back in. He entered quietly. I kept sobbing, but silently now. The kind of cry that has no more sound left. Only salt and sorrow.

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*DAMIEN’S POV*

I broke down crying.

Hearing everything she had to go through because of me shattered me.

I cried because I couldn’t save her from the hands of my mother. From Isabella.

I cried because I failed her as a friend.

I cried because her words broke something deep inside me. Something I didn’t know could break.

I stood up. Dialed my mom with trembling fingers.

_Ring. Ring._

She picked.

“Mom, please,” I said, my voice already cracking. “If this is about your harlot, then we need not be having this conversation,” she snapped. Her tone was ice.

She hung up.

Silence.

Then a voice. Not hers. Not mine.

_“Damien, it’s time to prove your love for Ava. She’s carrying your son. Our junior.”_

The sound of that word—_junior_—lit something up in me. A fire. A relief. A purpose.

I grabbed my car keys and dashed out. I didn’t know where I was going. I just knew I was rescuing Ava.

My Ava.

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*AVA’S POV*

I entered the hospital and went straight to the ward. Marie was awake.

I flew toward her. She squeaked and winced.

I pulled back. “I’m sorry, my love. I’m sorry I made you use the drug. I’m so sorry,” I said, tears streaming down my face.

She wiped them off with weak fingers. “You worry too much. I’m not dead,” she said faintly.

I cut her off. “God forbid you die!” I snapped my fingers backward, a reflex from my grandmother’s superstitions.

She hugged me. Her arms felt frail.

“How are you, Ava?” she asked, looking straight into my eyes like she was searching for the truth I was hiding.

“I’m not okay, Marie. I’ve talked to God, but I don’t know if He heard me. I’ve talked to Damien, but he’s just a mama’s boy. He definitely listens to his mother. I’m tired.” I buried my face in her shoulder and cried.

“Hey, hey,” she whispered, stroking my hair. “God listens. He heard your beautiful voice crying up to Him to wake me. And I’m awake. He definitely heard your cry.”

She pulled back and held my face.

“Do not fear the work of little beginnings. Do not also despise the fear of little beginnings. Because you didn’t hear Him physically doesn’t mean He hasn’t answered. He heard you, and He has done it.”

I stared at her, stunned.

God indeed works in magnificent ways. How come she spoke the same words God dropped in my heart in the car?

She hugged me again. “It’s going to be alright, baby,” she said reassuringly.

Then her tone shifted. Mischief danced in her tired eyes. “Speaking of alright… I think we need to go on a vacation as soon as I’m outta here. We need to go shake our boobs on a yacht and definitely have someone do something little down there.”

I giggled through my tears. “You’re not serious.”

Suddenly, noise erupted outside. Shouting. Running. The chaos of an accident case.

A man was rushed in.

“Let me go check. I think it’s another emergency accident case. I’ll be back soon,” I said and flew out.

Boom.

It’s him.

Blood was gushing from his head. No, wait. It isn’t the victim. I think he’s the one driving. He’s got wounds on his arm and on his head. He was standing there, shaking. No one was attending to him.

He didn’t see me.

I ran back to Marie’s ward, panting really hard. I couldn’t say a word.

“What is it again?” Marie said, tired.

I didn’t say a word. I just went to her and held her tight.

She didn’t ask any further questions. Not until the ward door flung open.

He walked in.

Marie gasped. Loud. Sharp. Her breathing hitched.

I looked at her. She was struggling to breathe now, her chest rising in short, desperate jerks. I didn’t know why. Maybe because she was shocked to see him too, even with the wounds on his body.

It was getting out of hand, so I shouted, “DOCTOR! DOCTOR!”

The doctor rushed in and *immediately placed an oxygen mask over Marie’s nose and mouth, adjusted the flow to 6L per minute, checked her pulse ox, then administered a fast-acting bronchodilator via nebulizer while calling for the nurse to prep a mild sedative to calm her respiratory distress*. After about five minutes, her breathing evened out and she fell asleep.

“You both can’t be here,” the doctor said, turning to us. “Please sit outside until she’s conscious. And sir, the victim is now stable.”

He looked at Damien but Damien didn’t say a word. He was staring at Marie, then at me, his eyes haunted.

“I’ll send a nurse to tend to your wounds,” the doctor continued. “There aren’t any deep wounds, so there’ll be no need for you to be admitted.”

He ushered us out.

We both sat on the cold hospital chairs without saying a word. The silence between us was heavy.

After about ten minutes, a nurse came and started tending to his wounds. He flinched. It was painful, but he was hiding it. I could feel it in the way his jaw clenched.

I collected the first aid box from her. “Thank you, ma’am,” she said and left.

I bent down and gently attended to his wounds. My hands were shaking. I was tearing up inside.

“Where were you headed?” I asked, my voice thick with unshed tears.

He lifted me to my feet and faced me.

“Ava,” he said, tears in his eyes too. “I’m sorry you have to go through all this because I’m not man enough to face or contend with the empress. But I’m not sorry I got into an accident when coming to see you. At least it made me feel at ease knowing fully well that for some days I would go through at least, if not all, but little of the pain you are going through.”

The tears started rolling down his cheeks. He shifted his gaze away from me so I wouldn’t see them, but I’d already seen it.

I wiped his tears away with my palm. He held my palm tight and faced me, tears still rolling down his cheeks. I felt broken.

“Ava, God knows I don’t want to hurt you and I don’t like the suspense in our story, but I’m also sorry you are going through this alone. I’m really sorry,” he said, crying.

I wiped his tears off. “You can’t cry in public places like this. Remember you’re Damien Cole. People can’t recognize you easily because of your poor social lifestyle,” I said and chuckled, then continued, “but your car is parked outside and your name is written on your plate number. Be careful.”

I wiped his tears again.

“You still manage to crack jokes in the middle of all this. You are one strong woman, Ava,” he said.

“Ok, so before we depart, just tell me one thing you want now and I’ll do it for you. I swear on you.”

I placed my hands on his head. _This is the least I can do, Damien, before running away with your heir,_ I thought to myself.

“First of,” he started, wiping his tears off. “I’m sorry about your friend. And even though I’m supposed to ask for you to be my wife, or even stay with me through this mess, I want something messier,” he said, his voice dropping to a seductive whisper.

I looked into his eyes. They were charming. Dangerous. Alive.

“What?” I said, flirting, playing with his hair.

“I want the whole of you. And this time, genuinely. Nothing less, nothing more,” he whispered into my ear.

I laughed really hard. The sound felt foreign after all the crying. “You are a veryyy baddd boy and you lack manners. And I’m definitely going to teach you some tomorrow evening,” I said, laughing.

“7:30 pm at Bridgestone Hotel,” I whispered to his ear and kissed his neck.

I stood up and he did too. We hugged for the longest time.

We are in love. We are in our own world. We definitely do not care about any problem when we are with each other.

I bade him goodbye and he threw kisses from afar.

“Don’t tell anybody our little secret, Damien!” I shouted.

He laughed and nodded in approval.

I giggled and walked happily into the ward as if my problems were over.

I stood near Marie. “Don’t scare me like that again, Marie,” I said to her. She’s conscious now.

She sat up. “Where is he?” she asked curiously.

“I am going to teach him manners and how to not scare my sister to death again at Bridgestone Hotel, 7:30 pm tomorrow,” I said and winked.

“Ooooo baaad girlll,” she said and hit me playfully.

“Issokay, just be careful,” she said, her voice suddenly serious.

“I’m hungry, girl. Please buy me food,” she said like a hungry baby.

“Ok, I’ll just get food for you in the café down the road.” I kissed her forehead. “Be right back, baby.”

I stepped out happily.

I kept on jumping down the hallway.

_I just wish this happiness lasts a while, at least._

_Do not despise the work of little beginnings, indeed._

I smiled and stepped out of the hospital.

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*Author’s Note:*

Please comment after reading. I really need to know how you feel for Ava and Damien’s love life. Thank you my unique readers, followers and fans. Keep reading.

Also remember to send a gift and always believe in God.

He hears you.

And as always, loviesss 😘

*RIDE, DINE AND READ* ❤️

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