Chapter 44: The Pages of the Miracle

Chapter 44: The Pages of the Miracle

We spent two whole months like this. Two perfect months where the days were diluted between the ink of the publishing house, the caresses in the warmth of the fireplace in the house with the green roofs and a love that grew with the strength of the roots that we had already buried deep in the earth of Akureyri. We worked in such absolute complicity that the rest of the world seemed not to exist. And finally, the day arrived. I put an end to my manuscript. I called it "The Echo of Scars."

I organized the sheets, prepared a printed draft, and designed a provisional cover that made me cry with pride: it was a photograph of our silhouettes silhouetted against the night, with our backs to the terrace of the cottage in Norway, with the warm light of the lamp and our wine glasses floating in the middle, like the first bridge we built in the dark. With the wad of leaves under my arm and my heart beating a thousand per hour, I walked enthusiastically down the corridor of the publishing house ready to give the surprise of his life to my editor, my man.

When I opened the door to his office, my world fell apart in a completely unexpected way. A dense, strange, pungent smell hit my nose all at once. I didn't know what it was, but my body reacted before my mind: I gagged violently and I ran off in the direction of the bathroom. Ethan looked at me wide-eyed, frightened by my sudden pallor, and let go of the papers in his hand to run after me, not leaving me alone for a single second while I clung to the sink.

When I managed to recover and fix my hair in front of the mirror, I came out leaning on her shoulder.

"I can't get into your office, Ethan," I said, covering my nose with a tissue. There's a weird smell in there that makes my stomach turn.

He didn't hesitate twice. He stared at me, with a spark of suspicion and concern in his blue eyes, walked quickly to his office, grabbed his belongings, carefully grabbed my printed manuscript, and guided me straight to the car to take us to the city hospital.

There, under the white lights of the emergency room and after a series of quick tests, the Icelandic doctor entered the room with a huge smile that we could not decipher. He gave us the news that would rewrite our destiny forever: we would no longer be two in that traditional house. Nor would we be three, or four. There would be five of us. She was pregnant with triplets.

Can you believe it? Three babies at the first opportunity. The impact was so monumental that the room spun around and I fainted from sheer shock in Ethan's arms.