A Xmas Gift: The Sperm Donor by Aphrodite Hunt

be all right?”
    “We pumped her stomach out and nullified everything we can. She hadn’t taken enough sleeping pills to do herself permanent damage. We consider this case a parasuicide. It means the patient has no intention of killing herself. You can consider it more a cry for help.”
    Justin feels the dread settle into the marrow of his bones.
    This is my fault. I did this to her.
    An overwhelming sense of helplessness suddenly washes through him. He’s in over his head and he knows it.
    I never should have gotten involved with her.
    No, don’t ever say that, you coward. This is your mess and you clean it up.
    I should have read the signs when she became too possessive. I should have known something like this would have happened.
    You couldn’t have known. Shut up. This is not about you. Abby’s life is hanging by a thread and you should focus only on that.
    Dr. Killeney hesitates, and then continues.
    “She is in a very fragile state right now, Mr. Morgan. We will be waiting outside. If you think you’ll run into any trouble or if she starts getting emotional and you think you can’t deal with it, I want you to call us.”
    A lump bolts up Justin’s throat. He makes no attempt to chase it away.
    “All right,” he says. “Have you called anyone else? Her father?”
    “No. You were listed as her emergency contact. No one else.” Dr. Killeney pauses. “I’ll leave it to you to inform her family.”
    They lead him up to the medical ward. Along the way, they pass nurses and doctors and interns and medical attendants, all going about their business. Some of them glance at the handsome but untidy-looking man as they stream by.
    They know , he thinks dully. They know I’m responsible for this.
    He pauses outside a single room, his pulse all aflutter. He’s scared. No, he’s more than scared. He’s terrified.
    “Go on,” the nurse urges him. “And remember, we’re outside.”
    Justin raps once on the door and nervously wrenches the handle.
    Abby lies on the hospital bed. She is pale and wan and barely awake. Her eyes flutter open weakly at his entrance.
    “Abby?” He slowly takes a chair and seats himself by her bedside. His heart is hammering in his chest.
    The back of her hand is marred by an intravenous drip, whose branula is taped down by white surgical plaster. She raises it and moves her fingers in a semblance of a grip. Justin takes her hand gently and squeezes her fingers.
    “I thought you would never come back,” she whispers.
    “I’m here.”
    Abby’s eyes are bloodshot and the areas beneath them wear dark circles.
    “Say you’ll never leave me again.” Her voice is tinny and strangled. “Please, Justin. I would die without you.”
    He sits there desperately, letting her hold on to the lifeline of his hand.
     
    *
     
    Justin makes sure Abby is stable before he leaves the hospital. He has spent the whole day with her, and with her permission, called her parents. He knows her father will blame him.
    And he was right.
    Thaddeus Morton glares at him as he whisks past Justin to go into Abby’s room with her mother. Justin watches through the small window carved into the door. Abby’s mother is crying, and her father is not far from tears himself. Justin forces himself to move away. He’s painfully hungry. It’s already eleven and he hasn’t eaten anything since last night.
    As he walks towards the cafeteria, he rings Elise.
    She picks up immediately. “Justin, is everything all right?”
    Grimly, he tells her what happened. She listens without interrupting.
    “I see,” she says in the end.
    “Elise, what happened between us was special and real . . . but I can’t leave her like this right now.”
    “I understand.” She pauses. “So what about the . . . contract? The baby?”
    His conscience is weighted down by anchors.
    He says, “I hope that whatever we did last night was enough to get you . . . ”
    “Pregnant,” she finishes for him. “Yes, your Christmas gift to me.