Then, Mercedes walked into the room. She greeted her brood as she would any other day. As usual, she came close to Carmen’s bed and gave her a motherly hug. And then she asked her daughter how she was as she would any other day.

But Carmen knew. While her mother stroked her cheeks gently, she could see the love and the understanding that lay deep within her eyes. Her tears welled up and she grabbed her mother into a tight embrace. She held on for as long as she could before anyone else suspected something was wrong. As she planted an appreciative kiss on her mother’s cheek, she made a mental note to talk to her and ask for her forgiveness soon.

Her family came and went, and by nightfall, Carmen was settled in her bed, feeling a lot better then before. She waited eagerly for the arrival of her baby. She hadn’t seen Shane since the time Roddy said Shane and her mother were talking and she was anxious to know what came out of that.

‘What if Shane was ordered to leave and never come back.’ Carmen shuddered at the thought. ‘No way. Shane wouldn’t leave me…’ She thought defiantly, ‘But… what if she did?’ It broke her heart to think Shane would give up so easily, or that her mother would be so cruel. But as the evening dragged on, she became more and more afraid that it would come true.

Every sound of the hallway and the door clicking open, as the nurses floated in and out, made Carmen jump a little and she craned her neck for signs of Shane.

She looked over at her cell phone lying on the dresser top, wondering if she should at least give Shane a call before panicking. ‘But I’m not like that.’ She didn’t want to be like those possessive and stifling girlfriends that checked in on their partners every other minute. ‘Shane needs time alone.’ Carmen reasoned. Her baby had been shuffling her time between her and work, so much so that she didn’t have any time to herself. Carmen understood that Shane needed some time alone: thought processing, or even just talking to her friends. Carmen knew she shouldn’t be so selfish, she couldn’t help herself.