Chapter 12:The Examination Room
365 Words
Zhou Ye kept his promise.
Three days after we met at the supermarket, he drove me to see his friend—an OB-GYN in the next town over. The clinic was small but clean. It smelled like antiseptic and something sweet, maybe lavender.
I sat in the waiting room with my hands folded over my belly, trying not to shake.
"You don't have to be nervous," Zhou Ye said. He was sitting next to me, even though he had no reason to be there. "Dr. Lin is good. She delivered my nephew."
"I'm not nervous," I lied.
He didn't call me out on it. He just nodded and handed me a cup of water from the cooler.
The ultrasound was the hardest part.
The technician spread cold gel on my stomach. The wand pressed into my skin. And then—
A sound filled the room.
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.
Fast. Steady. Strong.
A heartbeat.
My baby's heartbeat.
I hadn't cried in months. Not since the night I tore up the pregnancy test and threw it in the trash. But sitting there, listening to that sound—that small, fierce, impossible sound—the tears came.
They came and they wouldn't stop.
"Is something wrong?" Dr. Lin asked, looking up from the screen.
"No," I said, my voice breaking. "Nothing's wrong."
Everything was wrong. I was alone. I had no money. No family. No future.
But that heartbeat kept going. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Like a tiny fist pounding on the door of a world that didn't want it.
I'll fight for you, I thought. I don't know how, but I'll fight.
After the appointment, Zhou Ye walked me to his car.
"You're crying again," he said.
"I know."
He opened the passenger door for me. Waited until I was inside. Then he got into the driver's seat and sat there for a long moment, both hands on the steering wheel, not starting the engine.
"Shen Zhi," he said.
It was the first time he'd said my name.
I looked at him.
"I don't know your story," he said. "And you don't have to tell me. But whatever it is—you're not as alone as you think."
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