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stopped an hour after he was born, but he was revived by the team attending to him, and they told Gregorio that his chances for survival were not good. As he listened to what they said, tears rolled down Gregorio’s cheeks. He hadn’t expected to be so moved by the sight of his first child being born, and in such dire distress. The baby looked like a creature from another world, with wide staring eyes that were begging them to help. Gregorio couldn’t stop crying as he looked at him, and Anya was incoherent from the pain.
    The little girl came twenty minutes later, slightly bigger than her brother, and with a stronger heart. Each weighed less than two pounds. But her lungs were as inadequate as his. They put her on a respirator, and a second team whisked her away. Anya began hemorrhaging after the second birth, which took them time to control and required two transfusions, and Gregorio saw that she looked gray. And then they mercifully gave her something to make her sleep, after the trauma she’d been through, and they warned both of them again that the babies might not survive. Both were in critical condition, and it would be a long time before they were safe, if they lived. The days ahead would be crucial. The doctors spoke to Gregorio again after Anya was sedated and unconscious. He went to see the babies in their incubators then and just stood there and cried, he was so moved by the tiny beings, his children. It had been a hard night for him too, and the worst lay ahead. He had no idea what he would say to Benedetta now. This was all so much more intense than anything he had imagined. He had believed it would all work out somehow, and now clearly it wouldn’t, or not for a long time. There was no escaping reality and the consequences of his actions.
    A nurse told him that Anya would sleep for a few hours from the shot she’d been given, and he realized that this was his chance to go back to the hotel. It was eight in the morning by then and he hadn’t called Benedetta all night. There had been no chance to do so, and once Anya woke up, he might not be able to get away again. She had no family in western Europe, just a mother in Russia she hadn’t seen in years, and no one else to help her. He was it. And there were the babies to think of now. He had felt instantly attached to them, which had come as a shock to him.
    He took a cab back to the hotel and walked into the George V feeling as though he had returned from another planet. Here everything seemed normal and the way it had been the night before, when they left for the White Dinner. It seemed odd to see such ordinary life around him. People leaving for meetings, going to breakfast, walking through the lobby, checking in. He went up to his room and found Benedetta sitting at the desk with her head in her hands, staring at the phone. She was in despair and had been awake nearly all night, waiting to hear from him. He was still wearing his clothes from the night before, and noticed that there was blood on his white shoes, which made him feel sick when he remembered how it had gotten there. There had been blood everywhere when Anya gave birth. They had given her two transfusions. The delivery had been a terrible scene.
    “I’m sorry I didn’t call you last night,” he said in a dead voice as he walked in. She turned to him with anger mixed with fear, and saw tragedy in his eyes. “I couldn’t.”
    “What happened?” She looked frantic.
    “They were born two hours ago. They may not survive. It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life. It may just be too early for them to be saved. They’re doing all they can. They don’t even look complete or ready to be born. And they both weigh under two pounds.” He acted as though he expected her to grieve with him, and Benedetta just stared at him in misery.
    “What are you going to do now?” she asked him with a look of anguish. He had two children now, by someone else. And she could see that they were