‘Ness. Are you OK?’ He must have heard the fear in her voice and the concern in his was almost her undoing.

She stayed silent. Eventually he sighed. ‘I’ll go get her.’

‘Is it time?’ Her mom asked breathlessly as she came to the phone.

‘Yeah. I’m scared, Mom.’

‘I’ll be right there.’ Vanessa hung up the phone and hobbled to get her hospital bag, putting it by the front door, fighting another contraction as she did. She pulled Wren from his highchair and cleaned him up, another contraction rocking her body. She couldn’t help but cry out. Wren, in her arms, turned at the sound. He stared at her, then laid one little chubby hand against her cheek. She was touched by the kindness of her son’s innocent gesture.

‘Thanks, my beautiful boy,’ she whispered, kissing his forehead before putting him down. She rang the bar and Mark answered.

‘Mark, it’s me.’

‘Vanessa?’

Who else would ‘me’ be?

‘Yeah, it’s Vanessa. I’ve just gone into labor so I’ll meet you at the hospital. I’m leaving in about five minutes when Mom gets here.’ She felt another contraction building and gripped the phone, trying to breathe through it.

‘Can’t leave, gotta close up,’ he said casually, as if he wasn’t about to become a dad again.

She couldn’t think. ‘I’m having a bloody baby, Mark. You need to be there.’

‘And not one of these guys paying my wages gives a shit that you’re having a fucking baby,’ he hissed into the phone. ‘They only care where their next drink is coming from and that’s me.’ He hung up on her. He fucking hung up on her!

‘Mommy?’ She turned, bending down to her little boy

‘Wren, honey, Mommy is going to hospital now. Remember how I told you that you’re going to be a big brother?’ He nodded, not understanding at all. She smiled anyway and was scooping him up in her arms for a hug when her mom knocked on the door. ‘I’ll be bringing your baby brother or sister home in a few days.’

But she was worried. She hadn’t felt the baby kick in the past few days. Wren hadn’t let up the closer they’d got to his birth, but this time, there was nothing. She had been so scared that she couldn’t even bring herself to go to the doctor to get herself checked out.

She let her mom in, who gave both her and Wren a big hug before taking her grandson from her daughter’s arms. Her mom rang an ambulance and as they waited Vanessa said, ‘I don’t want to do this by myself.’ She was scared.

‘He’ll come,’ her mom said optimistically, ‘and if he doesn’t, well, then fuck him.’