“Youre quick to spread your legs, but taking responsibility? Thats another matter. Better to give the child up.”
Lydia and her husband had longed for this babytheir first. For nine months, he’d protected her, driven her to and from university, especially when ice slicked the pavements. But just before the birth, he was sent away on business. He couldve refusedhed planned to quit anyway once the baby arrived. No man should be away on shifts while his wife and child are alone at home.
The contractions began the moment Eugene left. The pain was unbearable, and worsehe wasnt there. This wasnt how shed imagined welcoming their firstborn.
The baby was healthy, but Lydia couldnt bring herself to tell him. Let him hear it from strangers.
She glanced around the ward. Opposite her lay a woman in her forties. Nearby, a younger girl chattered into her phone. By the door, another woman wept silently, her face turned to the wall.
Exhausted, Lydia sank into the thin NHS pillow and fell into a deep sleep, as if the world had vanished.
“Will you be feeding the baby?” a voice cut through her drowsiness. Lydia turned eagerly.
The nurse stood by the weeping woman. “Say something. At least hold her. Look how beautiful she is.” The woman didnt move.
“You know how to open your legs, but responsibility? Thats too much, isnt it?” The nurse lingered, then left.
The older woman, Natalie, spoke first, her voice sharp. “You think I wanted this? Im forty-three. My sons marriedIll be a grandmother soon. And now this? But whats done is done. The babys innocent. If you didnt want her, you shouldve ended it sooner. Now shell rot in care. Have you even thought about her life?”
Annie sobbed harder, her tears unrestrained.
“Stop crying. That wont help,” Natalie snapped. “Take your baby, feed her, and stop being a fool.”
“Maybe she was raped,” Albina suggested, finally putting her phone down. “Or the fathers someone closeher own family, a stepfather?”
Lydia listened, guilt twisting inside her as if Annies pain were her fault. Here she was, loved, protected, with parents who adored heryet she still found reasons to sulk.
And here was Anniealone, unwanted. And the baby, barely born, already unloved.
The girl would grow up hating the world. Because her mother drank. Or because the man whod promised to marry her had vanished the moment he learned of the pregnancy.
No balloons to celebrate the babys arrival. No flowers for her mother. Nowhere for either of them to go.
Shame and pity swelled in Lydia. “If you had somewhere to go would you keep her?”
Annie stared at her as if she were mad. “Of course. But thatll never happen.” She turned back to the wall, silent.
Hours later, Lydia said firmly, “Youll stay in the halls. My mums the warden. You can clean floors, and theyll give you a room.”
“Oh!” Albina looked up from her phone. “Ive got a spare discharge gown. Ill call my husbandweve got two. No need for both.”
“Ill bring clothes,” Natalie said. “My daughters old thingswashed and pressed. Theyre good quality. No use to me nowIve got grandsons. Theyll get new things anyway.”
The next day, women from other wards came, offering prams, cots, blankets.
“Ive got nothing,” said a young mother from down the hall. “But Ill buy formulajust in case.”
Annie wept againnot from despair, but from the sudden kindness crushing her chest. “Ill pay you back,” she mumbled.
The older women patted her shoulder. “Pass it on to someone else who needs it.”
That night, drifting off, Lydia smiled. Annie would be alright. Shed find a good man.
And her daughter? Shed have her mother. What more did she need?
Ever had a miracle like this cross your path? Leave a comment.
