1 A rainy day

The rain was pouring heavily outside and the trees were shaking like it's the end of the world. Meanwhile, inside the hospital room, the mother's screams were echoing in all directions. Suddenly, the room fell silent as there was no response from the mother. The ECG system beeps and shows a decreasing heart rate of the patient.

"Doctor, We are losing her," One of the nurses shouted.

She kept on checking the reducing heartbeat rate on the monitor and the mother's pale face nervously.

"No, I can't lose my child. Come on, push a little more. Try harder..." The Doctor slapped the mother's face without mercy to wake her up.

Within a few minutes, a child's cry was heard. Even though the mother gave birth to two infants, only one child cried. She lost consciousness after giving birth to her twin babies.

"Doctor, one of the twins…" The nurse started to speak but was stopped in the middle.

"I know... let that be with the mother. Anyway, I only wanted a healthy child…" The Doctor replied with a smile.

She took one of the newborns along with her and marched out of that room with a wide grin on her face.

Mason looked at his wife's happy face and he felt accomplished. But when he noticed her coming out of the operating room with only one child in her hands, he couldn't resist asking,

"Grace, where is the other child?"

Grace didn't respond to his question, instead said, "Look at our baby, isn't she cute?"

Grace stopped for a second from walking ahead and looked at her daughter. Then she turned towards Mason and said,

"Let us hurry! We are getting late for our flight. We need to rush right now or else we will have to reschedule the flight once again,"

Grace hurriedly left the hospital without even waiting for him. Mason looked at the closed door of the operating room one last time. He sighed and started to follow his wife with heavy footsteps. He knows that even if he asked her one more time, she would not give him the answer he wanted.

So, he hardened his heart and rushed behind her. After they left, the mother woke up and looked around the room. When her eyes landed on the newborn who was left behind, there was no happiness on her face. She saw that she was being stared at by the baby with her big round eyes.

The nurse who saw that ran towards the baby and said, "She is breathing! The baby is alive!"

She looked at the mother but she closed her eyes immediately and turned to the other side. The nurse looked at the baby and then at her mother once. She lifted the baby in her hands and asked,

"Why did you not cry before? Aren't you a naughty child?"

She checked her pulse and heartbeat. Everything appeared to be normal. She couldn't figure out why the baby was not crying at all. The minute the baby was taken away from the mother, the newborn started to cry. She never stopped wailing for a long time.

The nurse brought the baby near the mother one more time. But the mother never woke up again. Left with no other choice, the nurse took her to the NICU so that the baby's needs would be taken care of.

"Ava, take care of that baby. Can you believe it? She came back to life. It's a miracle! I will go to the nursing station and inform the head nurse about this good news…" Kara said excitedly to her fellow nurse, Ava.

When she was about to leave, she noticed that the newborn held her dress tightly and did not let her go. Kara touched the newborn's cheeks and said with a smile,

"If you had cried earlier then the Doctor would have taken you too. Now, look at you being left behind. You naughty girl!! I am going to inform the head nurse. She will contact the doctor and they will come back to get you. Don't worry."

She removed her dress from the child's tight grip and walked out of the room hurriedly. She ran into the nursing station while shouting,

"Mariah! The baby is alive. She cried when I lifted her! Come and take a look at her…"

"..." Mariah didn't respond to her and carried on with her work.

Kara couldn't understand the meaning of Mariah's silence! The head nurse, Mariah had always got excited about any baby born in that hospital. But today, she didn't even look up once and neither said anything.

She went back to doing her paperwork with just a mere glance at the excited Kara. Kara noticed a lack of enthusiasm and wondered what was wrong? She was sure that Mariah never reacted in such a way before.

"Don't we need to inform the doctor about the baby being alive?" Nurse Kara asked Mariah after a long pause.

"Kara, did you not hear what Grace said before leaving? They wanted only one healthy child and this child is just unlucky to be almost born dead at that moment. They are shifting abroad today and even if you call them, no one would pick your phone call. Is the mother really not interested in taking this child with her?" Head nurse, Mariah inquired without looking at her.

"... Maybe not! Why don't we try to call Doctor Grace once? They might be..." Kara started to speak but stopped when Mariah shook her head.

"Don't be naive, Kara," Mariah stated.

Realizing that she spoke harshly to Kara, Mariah took a deep breath and said,

"OK! Fine...If you really want to give it a try, you can give her a call and see. This is the number…"

Mariah threw a card on the table and turned her chair towards the desk. She continued her work as if it didn't matter to her anymore. Kara took the card from the table and looked at it.

She then walked towards the phone that was kept near her desk. The phone rang on the other end for a very long time before someone decided to pick it up.

"Hello, This is Grace's residence!" A maid responded to her.

"Hi, This is Kara. I am calling from the hospital. The baby…" Before she could even finish saying what she wanted to say, the call was cut.

She thought it might be due to the bad weather outside, that the call got disconnected. So, she dialed one more time but no one picked the phone this time. She tried to phone them multiple times but still, she could reach them. Looking at her sad face, Mariah stated sarcastically,

"They won't pick your calls. So, stop trying to make a fool out of yourself. All rich people are like that. Once they get what they want, they won't care about anything else. Let us just consider that this child is just unfortunate and let us leave her at an orphanage or put her in foster care."

"But…" After holding the baby in her hand, Kara felt something tingle within her heart. She wanted to make sure that the baby would not end up alone, without anyone around her.

She thought for a moment and said,

"Why don't I try to talk to her mother once? She may take the baby with her if she knows that the child was left behind by the doctor..."