Velma opened her eyes in bed.
After her sudden abdominal pain last time, the servants had taken her to the hospital for an examination, where doctors confirmed signs of premature labor.
Afterward, Aaron had brought her home, weighed down by worry. Nothing else had gone wrong in the days since, but she still struggled to sleep at night.
She had lost count of how many times she had woken in the middle of the night lately. Instinctively, she glanced beside her. Aaron was lying there.
She let out a breath. Remembering how exhausted her husband had looked lately, she closed her eyes again and forced herself to sleep.
That was probably a mistake. Her baseless anxiety only grew stronger, and instead of drifting off, she felt a dull ache begin in her lower abdomen.
She frowned. As her abdomen contracted painfully, she suddenly felt warm wetness beneath her. Startled, Velma reached down and felt liquid gushing out.
Having given birth to two children, Velma knew what this meant. She shook Aaron awake and cried out:
"Aaron, wake up!
"I think the baby's coming!"
It had happened so suddenly that neither of them had expected it. Still groggy, Aaron looked stunned; once he understood, he grew far more panicked than a man of his experience should have been.
Velma didn't understand, but the pain left her little room to think about it. This child seemed harder to deliver. The pain was worse than with her previous births, and by her experience, the worst of it shouldn't have come yet.
Fortunately, Aaron was dependable. Panicked though he was, he made the right choice, and she was soon carried to a nearby hospital.
What followed was surprisingly uneventful. Despite the extraordinary pain, the delivery went remarkably smoothly. When the time came, she barely