Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 59413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
She does what she needs to do, and Kael comes back in. Once she’s done, I can’t help it, my eyes close and exhaustion takes over. I am so wrecked. Kael sits beside me, his fingers tracing circles over my arms as I doze off. I’m woken a while later to the nurse coming back in.
“Sable?”
I open my eyes, staring at her groggily. “The X-ray will be a while, so we will keep you overnight just to keep an eye on you. We got your bloodwork back, I’d like to have a chat with you, if that’s okay? If you could stand outside...”
She is directing that at Kael.
“It’s okay,” I say softly.
He nods, his eyes flashing to the nurse with a firm expression before he walks out.
Once he’s gone, she sits on a chair beside the bed. “Your bloodwork came back. Did you know you are pregnant?”
I laugh. It just comes out hoarse. Sure, I made that threat, but that’s all it was. A threat. “No, I’m not.”
She looks to me. “Your bloodwork says otherwise. We can do a scan to be sure, but I am quite certain you are pregnant.”
I can’t decide if I heard her right as my world spins and my head fills with white noise.
This can’t be happening.
When I threw that threat at Gage, it wasn’t because I actually believed it.
I lean back in the bed, hand to my chest, struggling for air.
“It’s okay,” Candice says, patting my hand. “Take a few deep breaths, we will get the machine and find out for sure?”
I nod, and my body goes numb as she walks out.
Kael returns a second later, one look at me and he is beside the bed, hands on my cheeks. “Baby, what’s goin’ on?”
“She said...she said I’m pregnant.”
My words are hoarse, like I have slept for an entire night with my mouth wide open and there isn’t a single ounce of saliva left. My heart is racing and my hands are trembling.
Kael goes still.
And a question lingers in the air, one we are both thinking but nobody will say.
Whose baby is it?
18
Kael stays beside me for a long time. He doesn’t talk. He doesn’t touch me, he just sits with one hand gripping the plastic arm of the chair so tight I think the screws will give. I keep expecting him to say something, to ask the question he wore in his eyes moments ago, but he just sits, and I just sit, and my heart pounds angrily in my chest as I try to wrap my mind around what just happened.
I have never felt more aware of my own body. Every nerve along my arms is hyperactive. I can pinpoint every ache and every pain. I’m pregnant. Fucking pregnant. A baby. A life. I don’t want to move, scared if I do this will become something I can’t escape from. The nurse finally comes back and she isn’t alone—she's pushing a pale blue machine on squeaky wheels, monitor mounted.
Kael stands, but I motion for him to stay. He does.
"Let's get a look at how far along you are," the nurse says, her tone careful and kind.
I nod, and she tells me how to lay so she can better access my abdomen. She taps at the keyboard, preps the gel, tells me it’ll be cold. It is. The wand presses against my stomach. For a long moment, there's nothing—just gray static. She advises she will need to do an internal exam, and asks if I am okay for Kael to stay. I nod. His eyes never meet mine. I’m scared of how this will go for us.
She prepares the internal, then gets me comfortable and is as gentle as possible as she inserts the long probe. I shift uncomfortably but keep my eyes on the screen as she searches. Nothing again, but then a dark peanut shape, a flicker. A pulsing dot. The nurse fiddles with the angle. The dot blinks in and out. It is so small I can barely focus on it.
“That’s the heartbeat,” she says, voice gentle. “Looks like I was right, around six weeks. Strong for this early.”
I stare. All the confusion, pain, anger and anything in between leaks out of me. My brain blanks. I can't even muster the words to say this must be a mistake. I just watch the dot pulse, on-off, on-off, steady, strong. My throat makes a sound I don’t recognize. I think it’s a laugh, but it curdles and rolls back as a cry.
I cover my face with both hands and let it happen, every part of me seizing. Kael doesn’t touch me. But he sits so close I can feel the warmth coming off his skin. When I lower my hands, he is standing beside me, staring at me finally, his eyes warmer now. I guess that little pulsing dot got him, too.