“Okay,” I mumbled, leaning back. The lights were dim in my room, and soon I fell asleep again and dreamed about me and Sam. We were holding hands and running through a busy intersection, trying to get to a concert, and we were late, and all the lights were red, and our legs were stuck to the concrete, like it was wet and hardening with us in it, and we had to get out of there, pulling and pulling.

When I woke up next, it was with a big inhale. A relief. My head was clearer, and my stomach hurt. I opened my eyes and Sam was there, asleep in the guest chair. I pressed the nurse button, but no one came for a long time. When a nurse did come, she was with the doctor.

Sam woke up when he heard the voices and footsteps. “I’ll give you some privacy,” he said, winking as he walked out the door.

“How’s the pain?” asked Dr. Sheldon, poking my belly and sides.

“Worse when you poke me,” I said.

Dr. Sheldon smiled patiently, then sat down to explain what was going on. She’d performed a procedure to seal the blood vessels and stop the bleeding. In a calm yet serious voice, she slowed down to explain this next part: a second placenta had been “present in the uterus” and had “failed to completely detach.” This was the cause of the bleeding.

“A second placenta?” I wasn’t sure I’d heard her correctly.

The doctor nodded, explaining the rare condition, called “superfetation.” Apparently, I’d already been pregnant for about two weeks when my body released another egg. The pregnancy test must have been a false negative, she said, almost like she was apologizing. So when they inseminated me with Hal’s sperm, two babies started to grow, each with its own placenta. “Very early into the pregnancies, one of the fetuses died,” she said gently, “and was expelled with minor bleeding, unnoticeable.” But remnants of the placenta stayed attached, which caused the hemorrhaging.

I must have looked confused. The doctor paused to let it all sink in. “We are trying to avoid a hysterectomy,” she added.

“So . . . can I go home?”

“Afraid not,” said Dr. Sheldon, standing up. “You’re stuck with us for another day, at least. You can go for a walk down the hall. Walking will help you recover faster.”

I thought about walking all the way out the front door.

The nurse helped me pee and got me back into bed before Sam returned, which was good timing. He offered to take me for a walk later, when I was up to it.