Susana blinked her eyes several times before opening them. She felt relaxed but tired, and she didn't even know why. The night was a blank white canvas in her mind, suggesting she must have rested more than usual.
"Good morning... my child..." Teresa gripped her daughter's hand, studying Susana's face with a pain pounding in her chest. "How do you feel?"
"Good morning, Mom." Susana stretched languidly, adjusting her body to partially sit up in the hospital bed, smiling broadly as she faced her mother. "Actually, I feel really good." Noticing the tears dancing in her mother’s eyes, she immediately became tense. "What's wrong?" Rubbing her stomach, her eyes suddenly dropped to her belly, no longer as swollen, and she quickly looked around in search of a crib. "He's born? But... how?"
"Yes... he was born..." Teresa squeezed her hands affectionately, trying to hold back more tears, but it was impossible; she knew how much Susana was about to suffer. "But now... you have to be strong..."
"Strong???" Susana pulled away, avoiding what those words implied, and got out of bed, scanning the room. "They took him, didn't they?" With a trembling smile, she asked again. "Because he's tiny, right? Born prematurely as we feared..." Nervously, she questioned. "Where is he?"
"Susana..." Teresa rushed over, embracing her daughter in silent sobs. Her tears streamed down her face as what she feared had happened. The child must not have been entirely human, and her daughter’s body couldn't sustain the pregnancy, ultimately rejecting it. "He's gone..."
"No, Mom!" Susana stared at her mother with wide eyes. "I feel fine, see..." She pulled away from her mother's embrace, spinning on her feet. "Dr. Anibal said just yesterday..." She looked at her almost flat stomach, avoiding the reality of its reduced size. "That everything was fine with me... and with him..."
"I know..." Teresa moved closer to her daughter in shock, leading her back to the bed. "But the nurses said you had complications during the night." Sadly, she finally watched tears well up in Susana's eyes. "My child..." She paused, swallowing hard as she saw how apathetic Susana was, staring as though she was beginning to grasp the reality of her words. "Perhaps it wasn’t meant to be..." She wanted to tell the truth about her suspicions concerning the supposed father of the baby, but she couldn't thrust her into that supernatural world, not wanting to lose her as she had lost her father.
"I... I want to see him..." Susana sobbed, gazing at her mother. "Where is my son?"
"No, child..." Teresa was taken aback by Susana's words. Shaking her head, she added firmly. "It will only cause you greater pain."
"I'm not asking for permission, Mother." Susana declared harshly, moving away from her progenitor and running out of the room. "Nurse! Nurse!" Susana yelled, scanning the corridor for any nurse in a hospital robe. "I want to see my son!"
"Miss Susana, I’m so sorry for your loss!" One of the nurses promptly approached, trying to soothe her. "But that won’t be possible."
"What do you mean?" Susana faced the woman with disbelief, pain swelling in her chest and soul as she realized she might never meet the baby she had carried with such love. "He is MY SON!" Searching for any trace of her child, she began violently opening the doors on the ward.
"Miss Susana, you need to calm down." The nurse intervened, trying to pacify the distraught patient, pulling her away from the other patients' rooms. "Dr. Anibal will explain everything when he arrives."
"I didn’t ask for an explanation..." Susana stated firmly, wrenching her arm free and dashing to rooms she hadn’t yet checked on the maternity floor. "I want to see my son!"
"Miss Susana... Miss Susana..." The nurse called, chasing after her. "Your son isn't here."
"Then where is he?" Susana stopped abruptly with a glimmer of hope to finally see her son, even if he weren't alive.
"The truth is..." The nurse faced Susana awkwardly. "I don't know..."
"What do you mean you don't know?" Susana let out a hysterical laugh, glaring at the nurse in front of her with fury. "Is this some joke to you?" She screamed at the other nurse approaching to help her colleague. "Just because I’m suffering, you think you can manipulate me?"
"Susana!" Teresa finally managed to hold back her tears after watching her daughter’s meltdown in the clinic. Accompanied by Dr. Anibal, she said, "Calm down, let's talk to the doctor, he will explain everything."
"I don’t want to talk, Mom." Susana yelled in exasperation, confronting her mother and the doctor. "I want to know where they took my baby..." She looked pleadingly at her personal physician, then felt a jab in her arm. Turning, she saw one of the nurses, putting away a syringe.
"Let's go!" The nurse smiled kindly at Susana, leading her back to her room before the sedative took effect. "You need to rest now."
"Dr. Anibal..." Susana started, but quickly felt drowsiness envelop her body and mind as she was laid down onto the hospital bed.
"Susana..." Dr. Anibal stared at his young patient. "Unfortunately, during the night the contractions came again." Sighing, he tried to explain, his memory foggy with only certain details coming through as if they were from a script he was compelled to follow, even unwillingly. "We had to perform a cesarean because the baby was in danger..." He struggled to remember more as frustration grew. "But we weren’t in time..." Facing Susana's anguished expression, he added tenderly, "I'm truly sorry."
"And why can’t I see him?" Susana questioned, defeated, lacking the strength to argue or scream, letting her pain manifest as her tears flowed while her mother stroked her hair.
"To prevent greater pain..." Dr. Anibal wasn’t sure why he couldn't let Susana say goodbye to her son, but something told him it was impossible, and he couldn't fight that feeling. Everything that night had been odd, for him and the on-duty staff, marked by lapses in memory as if they'd been mere observers of their own actions. Shrugging, he tried to forget the strange sensation and gave his attention to the utterly distraught young woman before him. "It will be a difficult time..." He took her hand and smiled empathetically. "But we'll help you get through it, I promise."
Susana closed her eyes, wishing only to sleep and, upon waking, find out that it had all been a nightmare. She had imagined so much about her son, which traits he might inherit from his unknown father, and now she would not even see his face, to have that memory forever etched, for the pain of his loss was now forever etched... in her heart.
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