Chapter 224 - "Don't Cry, Red. I'm Right Here!"

"I don't want to leave you in this condition," Santiago said, looking at her stomach. They were left with a little time until the baby comes.n

"I have everyone caring for me here. But if you don't go today, you will regret not going for the rest of your life," Persephone replied in a shaky voice. "I don't want you to have any regrets. You will have to live with one more regret for the rest of your life, Santiago. Don't stop today." 

Santiago nodded and pecked her nose. She was right. He had a pile of regrets already. It was time he ended them and he would do this starting from today. He picked up the bag already packed for him. 

"Let me see you off, " Persephone urged. 

Santiago agreed to her simple request and helped her to stand up on the floor. Clutching his hand in hers, she walked with him to the entrance. 

"Take care," Santiago said, kissing her temple. 

Persephone nodded, teary-eyed. 

He kneeled on the floor and kissed her stomach. "I will be back soon, Rockstar. Don't trouble your mama until daddy comes." 

She bit her lips as another contraction squeezed the life out of her but she appeared smiling on the outside. She saw Santiago standing up and entering the car, and waved at him with a wide smile. She didn't drop the smile until his car disappeared from her vision. 

"Ahhh!!" Persephone shouted suddenly, unable to stand on her feet and fell on the ice-cold floor. She squirmed on the cold ground. 

"Mrs Vitello!!" The servants who heard her shriek came running and were startled to see her crying on the floor. There was only two of them at home. "What happened?!"

"Pain," Persephone managed to utter the words. "I can't control it." She broke into sobs. "I'm dying." 

Two ladies tried to pick her up but they failed as another shriek was soon heard. 

"Call the ambulance," One of the two servants said.

"It's not time, " Persephone yelled as another contraction began and she gasped for breath. There was only one explanation to Persephone whose doctor had said that the baby would not be coming for a week or two -- they were dying. 

What scared her the most wasn't death but the fact that she wouldn't be seeing Santiago again? 

She had so much to tell him. 

Tears poured out her eyes uncontrollably. 

Why was this happening to her? 

She had the best four months of her life here. She wanted more of it. She wanted to say so much to Santiago. If she died now, would she be able to tell him what he meant to her? She wanted to tell him that she had forgiven him. That she had no hard feelings for her. That she loved him a lot. 

Sobs escaped her throat as she imagined a life where Santiago didn't know about her feelings and she wasn't there to tell him that she loved him the most in the world. 

She didn't remember anything about him. Yet, she loved him. She didn't need to remember her past to love him all over again. 

Suddenly, she felt herself raised in the air in someone's strong arms. 

A soft and shaky voice was asking her to not cry. 

It sounded so much like Santiago. 

It sounded exactly like his voice. 

She hiccuped as more tears poured out of her eyes. 

"Don't cry, Red," He said again. His ever so smug and confident voice was shaky and scared. "I'm right here. Don't cry." 

When Persephone raised her gaze, she saw Santiago's face urging her to not cry. She raised her hand to touch his face and she discovered that it wasn't an illusion that would have shattered at her touch. He was really here. He came for her. 

Tell him that you love him. A voice inside was urging her. 

He wouldn't let anything happen to you. Another one said. 

And instead of making a decision, she broke into sobs. 

"Why are you here?" She managed to utter the words. These were not the words she wanted to tell him. 

"I returned because I forgot my phone back at home," Santiago replied. He didn't tell her that as the car moved away from home, from her, his heart squeezed inside his chest, his hands began to shake and his vision blurred for no reason. 

Then, suddenly he was reminded that he had left his phone at home. He asked the driver to turn the car back home. But when he alighted the car, he saw her crying on the cold floor in pain. Only he knew what he felt at that time. 

How could he see her squirming in pain? 

How he wished to experience pain on her behalf. 

"You will miss the flight," Persephone told him even when she could hardly bear the pain she was feeling. 

"You are telling me to leave you in this condition," Santiago glared at her. What was wrong with this woman? How could he go to New York leaving her in this ghastly condition? 

He would die before leaving her like this! 

Dammit, why did he even leave her?

"Go, Santiago," Persephone whispered. Her eyes were bloodshot and her face pale. 

Santiago tightened his arms around her and held her head against his heart. "I can't," he replied as he moved faster to reach the car waiting for him at the gate. Too bad the car would be going straight to the hospital rather than the airport. 

"You will regret it for the rest of your life if you do not go to New York, Santiago," Persephone cried. 

She didn't know what she wanted? 

She wanted him to be with her and in New York at the same time?

"If something happened to you and the baby, I would die, Red," Santiago said, begging her to let him be with her at this time. 

"You can't give up the almost two decades of your life for me," Persephone sobbed.