“You’re welcome. Now, you must have the nursery ready by now. Would you mind if I saw it please?” Vivian asked and Natasha nodded.
“It’s upstairs. You can come in the lift with me or walk up the stairs if you prefer. Eric won’t let me use the stairs and with good reason. I fell down some of them a few months ago and could have lost these two.” She explained, rubbing her hard belly.
“Oh really? That’s terrible. Well, you take the lift and I’ll get the stairs.” Vivian turned away from the lift but as she turned Natasha saw something glint in her eyes that sent a shiver of uneasiness up her spine.
When she stepped off the lift upstairs, Vivian was standing looking around in the large space between the master bedroom and the other bedrooms across the landing. She turned to smile at Natasha the look in her eyes that Natasha had thought she’d seen downstairs, gone again.
“This way.” She said walking over to the nursery and stepping back to let Vivian go in ahead of her. Natasha laid out the beautiful blanket given to her by the other woman across one of the cradles and stood watching as Vivian walked slowly around the room making all sorts of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ to everything in the room.
“It’s beautiful. You’re all prepared for your babies I see.” She smiled at Natasha, her smile a little strained though.
“I suppose I should get going, I fly out of the country again tonight.” Vivian said. “Thank you for letting me into your home and listening to me.”
“Oh? Where are you going?” Natasha asked.
“New York, I have a shoot there in a few days.”
They both walked out of the nursery and headed for the stairs. “I’ve got to take the lift Vivian, I’ll meet you downstairs,” but Vivian just waved her hand dismissively.
“No need for you to come downstairs Natasha, I can see myself out.” She said.
Vivian bent forward and pulled Natasha into her arms, “Good luck with the birth of your babies.” She said, holding Natasha tightly.
Natasha tensed when Vivian’s arms closed firmly around her, the heavy fragrance of her perfume flooding her nostrils. As she held Natasha in her arms she started talking. “I guess at the end of the day, the better woman won.” She said twisting around almost causing Natasha to stumble.
Vivian kept on talking, her voice getting harder. “Funny thing is, you probably think that’s you, but I can tell you now, I never lose.” And with that she suddenly shoved Natasha hard.
She staggered as Vivian released her and Natasha’s eyes met the other woman’s ice blue ones just as she lost her footing. Vivian’s face was hard, filled with hatred and rage and just as Natasha recognised she’d been conned she felt herself starting to fall. Desperately she clawed, trying to grab a hold of Vivian, but the other woman just stepped back, laughing.
When Natasha realised she was going to fall and she couldn’t stop herself, she screamed, an ear piercing terrified scream. She hit the stairs, pain exploding up her back. As she started to tumble down them, she reached out frantically grabbing at the balusters, just managing to hook one and with a yank to her arm which felt like it was tearing it from the socket, she slowed her fall a little.
As she cried out from the pain in her shoulder, Natasha let go and her body spun around smashing one leg into the balustrade. She heard the bone give with a loud crack and another tortured scream was torn from her lips.
Finally she came to rest, just a few steps from the bottom, her body buckled and twisted. Through the haze of pain surrounding her, Natasha heard the hysterical laughter coming from Vivian and she cringed when the other woman’s high heeled shoes appeared alongside of her head.
Vivian bent down, screaming at Natasha, her eyes wild. “You are a stupid bitch aren’t you? Did you seriously think I’d come here to see you to beg for your forgiveness? I don’t give a fuck about you, I don’t give a fuck about your babies but you and Eric need to learn a lesson. He seriously thought he could dump me and get away with it? I’m a model, what the fuck are you? A nobody. You were his PA and you dare to take him from me? Well I might not be able to have him, but lets see if he still wants you when you and you two brats are all broken. Let him see what it’s like to lose something he wants. Thanks for telling me you had a fall on the steps once already and could have lost the babies. You gave me the perfect idea.” She snickered as she looked at Natasha’s injured body lying on the stairs. “It worked better than I could have expected too.”
Natasha lay on the stairs, hearing Vivian’s words through a haze as she fought to stay conscious. Her body was consumed with pain that radiated out from her head, shoulder, back and leg. She tried to lift an arm to place her hand on her stomach, fear for her babies clawing at her insides and a pain shot through her shoulder making her cry out.
“I can’t believe what a sucker you are you stupid bitch.” Vivian laughed. “Fuck all I have to do is send the disc back, write a please forgive me letter and then come here and give that Oscar winning performance, and you fell for it. I mean for fuck sakes, are you really that trusting of people? Not to mention Eric. Is he getting soft or something? I would have thought he’d have kept me under investigation longer. Oh yeah, I knew about that.” She said when Natasha’s eyes widened.
“P..please Vivian, please help me. Don’t do this.” She gasped trying to take more shallow breaths because of the pain.
Vivian laughed again. “Why would I help you? You don’t deserve any help. You took my man and I can never forgive you for that. I’m going to leave you now and you won’t be needing this.” She bent down pulling Natasha’s mobile phone from around her neck where she kept it for emergencies. Vivian then threw it down the stairs where it bounced off the wall and the back flew off, spilling the battery onto the floor.
“Eric is going to come home later to find you like this and maybe those brats of yours won’t make it. Let him experience the devastation of losing someone that is important to him. No one treats me the way you two did and gets away with it.” And with that, Vivian moved quickly down the remaining stairs about to head out the door.
Just at that moment Alice walked into the lobby and firstly saw Vivian and then her horrified eyes fell on Natasha lying battered and broken on the stairs. “Oh my god, pet, what happened?” Her eyes shifted to Vivian. “My god, did you do this to her? What are you? Some sort of monster?” She brushed past Vivian and went to head up the stairs to where Natasha lay, but a look of pure rage came over Vivian’s face and she picked up a heavy marble vase sitting on a small table to the side of the staircase and ran back up the few stairs to Alice.
Natasha watched Vivian and her eyes widened, fear in her gaze as she looked at Alice. “No.” She cried, but it was too late, Vivian brought the vase down on Alice’s head. The older woman dropped immediately, blood beginning to trickle from the back of her skull.
“How could you?” Natasha whispered, tears pouring down her face, soaking into her hair. “Alice is an innocent woman. Your grudge isn’t with her. What is wrong with you?”
Vivian simply smirked at Natasha. “Put it down to a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. She would have called the police, called Eric and I’ve got a plane to catch in less than two hours. By the time your beloved husband gets home, I’ll be gone and you probably won’t be doing too well by then. Maybe she won’t either.” Vivian said, nudging Alice with her foot.
She bent down and dragged the older woman away from Natasha before releasing her to watch her limp body fall down the remaining stairs and with a final smile and eyes that showed just how unstable Vivian had become, she opened the front door and was gone.
Once she’d gone, Natasha began to sob, loud hiccupping sobs. It hurt but she didn’t care. How could this have happened? Why the hell did she let Vivian into the house? She knew the woman was a little unstable. Obviously she was more than a little unstable, she was completely nuts, dangerous. Everything that she’d been fearful of had come to pass and she’d been so bloody stupid ignoring
the little voice inside her that warned her about Vivian and she’d let the woman into their home. “You’re a bloody fool.” She whispered to herself as her tears continued to soak into her hair.
Natasha lifted her good arm to place over her stomach, desperate to feel some sort of movement to indicate her babies were ok. She tried rubbing her belly firmly, even tapping it lightly to try and stir the twins up enough for them to respond. There was nothing.
She turned her head enough to get a glimpse of Alice. There was a steady trickle of blood seeping from her head, soaking her hair and pooling around her on the tiled floor. Somehow Natasha knew she was going to have to get down to her. God, she didn’t even know if Alice was still alive. Vivian had hit her with a marble vase which was heavy and hard. Natasha whimpered over the realisation that the woman who was like a Mother figure to Eric and a friend to her, might die or be dead because she’d been stupid enough to let Vivian into the house.
Slowly Natasha began to drag herself down the remaining stairs. She screamed when her broken leg fell down the first step, the pain causing everything to disappear in a haze of grey. She fought to keep herself conscious, terrified that she’d pass out and not make it to Alice.
It was a long painful process of gradually inching her body down each step, her teeth biting so hard into her bottom lip as the pain exploded through her, that she drew blood. She’d made it about halfway down when a sharp cramping pain, shot through her stomach, painful enough to make her cry out. It seemed to grow in strength before slowly tapering off, until finally it was gone.
As soon as the cramp eased off, Natasha went back to her slow, painful process of dragging herself down the stairs. Every movement was agonising and again, just before she made it to the bottom step, pain lanced through her stomach, radiating out like the worst period cramp she’d ever experienced. It built up in intensity until she was groaning and half sobbing through it, before slowly it receded again.
When she finally pulled herself over the last step and made it to the floor, she grabbed the banister for support and some how managed to sit up. Her right arm hung at an unusual angle and she could tell it was dislocated. She was breathing hard, her body soaked with sweat and she felt so alone, so helpless.
Gently she rolled herself partially to one side and using her good arm and leg, she inched her way over to Alice touching her fingers to the older woman’s wrist. Natasha sagged with relief when she felt a pulse, weak, but still it meant Alice was alive. Her skin was cold to the touch though and her face was beyond white, she had a grey appearance to her complexion. “Please Alice, please be ok. Hang in there. Don’t you dare die.” She whispered.
Suddenly another pain ripped through Natasha and she groaned, panting as it increased in intensity and she ground her teeth together as she rode out the searing pain. When it finally eased, she knew then that she was in trouble, these were no Braxton Hicks, she was in labour.
“Help me please, somebody help me.” She cried, but no one was going to hear her cries. Eric wasn’t due home from work for hours, she was alone, in labour, in pain, with a woman who could be dying and no help due for a long time.
Natasha’s eyes roamed around the entry foyer and fell on the remains of her mobile phone. Maybe, just maybe it wasn’t smashed beyond use. If she could get it back together again, there was a chance she’d be able to ring for help on it.
She began to drag herself towards it, grabbing the phone and then making her way towards the battery and the back of the phone. Progress was slow and painful for her and she cursed the fact that the phone had come apart and that each part had ended up scattered so far from one another.
Again another contraction tore through her, this one much worse than the others and Natasha cried out, clutching at her stomach with her one good arm. It was hard and she could feel it tightening under her hand. The pain seemed to extend to her back and radiate down to her groin. She gasped and moaned as she struggled to deal with the pain, breaking out in sweat again, her breathing panting as she tried to do the breathing she’d been told to do. Funny how it seemed so much easier to do until she really had to do it during a contraction.
Once the pain died down, she tried to reassemble her phone but it was awkward trying to do it one handed. She managed to hold it in her right hand, grimacing against the pain when the tiny movement jarred through her shoulder. She was shaking so much, she finally started swearing angry with herself that a simple task was proving so difficult for her. Alice’s life depends on this, hers, her babies’ lives depended on her getting the phone back together. “Get a grip Natasha.” She told herself angrily.
She got the battery back in just before another contraction hit and she started sobbing as the pain became almost intolerable. Suddenly something felt like it was pulling inside her and then there was a feeling of release and warm liquid began to flow out of her. “Oh god.” She gasped. Her waters had broken.
Finally the phone was back together and three contractions later for Natasha and what felt like hours, she turned the phone on, praying that it would work. She almost cried with relief when the screen lit up and she tried to concentrate to punch the numbers.
The screen was getting blurred though and Natasha tried to focus on it but she was seeing two of everything and her head was feeling light and fluffy. Some how she managed to ring Eric’s number, fighting the dizziness that was threatening to pull her under.
“Please answer.” Her voice sounded thick and unfamiliar to her as Natasha waited for Eric to speak. Finally she heard the most amazing thing to her, the deep tones of his voice.
“Natasha, my baby, what a wonderful surprise,” But then Eric’s voice changed. “What’s wrong sweetheart. You don’t ring me at work unless there’s a problem. Talk to me.” He said urgently.
“Eric.” She gasped. “I…I… Alice…Vivian.” She tried to talk but her tongue felt swollen.
“Natasha, Natasha, what, what’s wrong baby, ANSWER ME.” His voice yelled suddenly down the line. “What about Alice? Vivian? What’s happened?”
“Eric…please…come.” She moaned and unable to fight the darkness closing in on her, Natasha passed out, the phone falling from her hand.
……………………………………………..
It was crippling pain tearing through her body that dragged Natasha out of the darkness again. As soon as her eyes opened, everything that had happened flooded her mind again, the pain of her leg and her shoulder bringing her fully awake, not to mention the crippling labour pain. “Oh god, help me.” She groaned as her contraction escalated until she was writhing in pain which only made her cry out as her sudden movement jarred her broken leg.
It was broken, she knew. Apart from the sound it had made on the stairs, the odd angle of the leg told her it was definitely broken, plus a section of bone had punched through the skin. She stared at it in some sort of morbid fascination, amazed that the pain wasn’t more severe but maybe her fight for survival made her more able to deal with it.
She’d read about adrenalin giving people the ability to lift heavy objects, cars even and for severe injuries to be almost ignored as the adrenalin masked the pain. It had to be happening to her because although she was in pain, she’d have thought it would be worse. The contractions were bad though, really bad and she was scared.
Another contraction began to consume her, so severe she screamed from the pain. She started panting again, trying to ride out the cramping. There was a feeling of pressure low in her body and she panicked. The babies were coming and it looked like she was going to give birth to them alone, on the floor of hers and Eric’s home, so far removed from what she’d envisioned, she just wanted to cry again.
When the pain died down again, Natasha moved back over to Alice, checking the woman and breathing a sigh of relief that she was still breathing although her colour was so bad Natasha wasn’t sure how long she could hold on for, plus she’d bled so much. The pool of blood around her was frightening to see and Alice�
�s hair was matted with congealing blood.
Natasha felt another contraction coming on but this time there was a feeling of fullness between her legs, like pressure was building up and with it, the sudden desire to push was so strong she couldn’t help herself and with a scream, she gave in to the feelings and pushed as hard as she could, gasping when the pressure became an uncomfortable burn.
“Oh god, help me.” She gasped and stuck her good arm down between her legs, her fingers pushing past her panties to touch herself. She could feel something hard and moaned, one of her babies was starting to crown.
Natasha ripped her panties free and lowered herself to the floor, her head on the first step and she lifted her good leg, panting with the exertion.
Suddenly the front door was flung open and Eric seemed to launch himself through it, almost skidding over when he stepped in the pool of blood around Alice. His eyes shot from Alice to Natasha and she watched the horror followed by fear flood his face.
Natasha couldn’t do anything else but sob with relief when she saw him and after a brief check of Alice, he pulled out his phone and dialled triple zero, snapping out the order for an ambulance to come and gave the address before hanging up.
Another contraction hit her and she cried out. Eric dropped to her side. “The babies are coming.” She gasped, which turned into another long tortured grunt as she pushed, unable to control the urge, bearing down as hard as she could, feeling the pressure building up and the sensation of something moving towards her entrance.
“Fuck baby, what the hell happened? God, Alice, your leg, fuck, what’s happening? Shit, you’re having the babies. You can’t have them here. I’m calling your doctor.” Eric’s voice was filled with panic and if Natasha hadn’t have been so focused on her need to push, she might have laughed at her normally quite controlled husband rapidly falling apart.
“Eric, have a look. I think there’s a baby about to be born.” She gasped.
“What?” He looked dazed.
“Eric, snap out of it. Have a look, I need you to look and tell me if you can see a baby coming.” Natasha grabbed his hand. “Please Eric.”
Natasha's Awakening Page 58
