"Three centimeters," the doctor declared, stoic and calm. It was like a verdict.

Udoka could hear the nurses whisperings from her bed. Their voices, a careless drop of venom. "They must've heard it as well," she thought.

“ Nine hours of labour and her contractions are three centimeters? What has her husband been doing?”

" Are you certain she has one?" Another replied.

It rang in her ears to a deafening silence. The ring, a hard pillow over the truth. 

It was nine hours since she called her husband. Three times. He didn't pick. On the fourth ring, the call was rejected. She sent a text, and hours later, the world was still and lifeless as it has been for three years. 

Alone, at the edge of time, like a faded dirge. 

Few hours later, she was transferred into the delivery room. 

“ Ma'am, please I need your husband. We have to book a C-section for you immediately. The baby is coming leg first.”

The message sank in. A tear trickled  wearily down her cheeks.

Her BP went over the roof. Her muscles contracted. Her eyes welled.

She laid her hands on her belly, " I have stood by you for nine months now," she spoke  to the baby in her womb.

“I will do so as long as I live. All I ask, honey...do not hurt mummy.”

The doctor watched her, her pain coursing through his own veins. He softened,“ Would you like me to give him a call?”

She shook her head. “ If he wanted, he could have been here long before now.”

“ Okay... here's what I'm gonna do. I will try something I've only done with pregnant mammals other than humans. I will try to turn the baby in your womb but I can't guarantee it won't hurt.”

Her eyes gleamed with gratitude, but when the doctor stooped, he found a head pushing through.

"Your baby turned on her own," he gasped, and put out his hands. “ Give me everything you've got!”

Thirty minutes later, Udoka was smiling down at her newest present. 

" Thank you," she said to the doctor, rocking her baby.

" Thank God," he blew, attentive to mother and child, but the walls soon collapsed upon her.

Her eyes drifted to the window at the sight of two pair of dove eyes, and bushy kinks. 

"Kainene...Nnedinma. Come inside. Who brought you here?" She leaped in hope.

" Him, " the oldest of the two girls said pointing at a young man in a tailored black suit. Udoka recognized the family lawyer. Her heart dropped with the temperature in the room.

“ What are you doing here?”

“ By your husband's request, I'm here to serve you the divorce papers.”

Her hands weakened. Her eyes misted.

" Why?" The doctor bristled.

" He hates they're all girls. He must have heard," she feigned a smile and with flickering will, she signed the dotted lines. 

" What next now?" The doctor sighed, saddened.

" I will take my girls. I will raise them. I don't care if I row alone," she burned with determination.

Ten years later, on the green hills of Georgia, Udoka saw the first light after a long night as she watched Kainene graduate as valedictorian.