Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
LUNA
I’m brought out of my sleep when Dr. Limons comes into the room with a technician coming in behind her. When I see the equipment rolling in with her, I tilt my head in confusion. It’s a sonogram machine, but I thought she said earlier that we were going to wait until my next appointment to do one.
“Dr. Limons, what’s going on?”
“I wanted to do this at the office; however our machinery is at the warehouse being worked on. It was glitching and we had it sent out for an update. I was going to do this next month when you came in, but now that you’ve been admitted, we can move forward.”
“Do what?” I ask her, not understanding what she’s getting at.
“I want to look at your implant placement. We need to see if it moved from where it was planted or if it’s malfunctioning,” she explains.
“My best friend, Demi, looked it up when we considered the fact that I could be pregnant and found that the one I have is on a recall list. According to what she found, it’s faulty and more women were getting pregnant than not.”
“And that’s what we need to determine,” she remarks, giving me a sympathetic smile. “There’s a class action lawsuit, and as doctors, when we come across a patient who it’s failed for, we’re obligated to report it to help the charts with that percentage ratio. We have to prove it was the implant itself and not the doctor who placed it in you. Your name may be added to the list of complainants if we find they’re at fault.”
“Are you going to remove it? Is it bad for the baby to remain where it is?” I ask, suddenly worried for the welfare of mine and Marcum’s little peanut.
“I will remove it once I have examined where it is and charted everything required before I take it out,” Dr. Limons explains. “As far as whether or not it’ll hurt the baby, it won’t cause any birth defects or fetal harm.”
Relief courses through me hearing her say that because while I wasn’t expecting for my implant to fail, I’ve already fallen in love with the tiny being that Marcum and I created. Maybe that would be silly to some people, but regardless of what happens with us in the future, it’s a part of the two of us.
She adds gel to the tip of the wand on the machine and places it over my arm where the clinic I went to injected it. I watch as she takes measurements and photos for my patient portfolio. She hums a few times before wiping the gel off the instrument and me before placing it back into its slot.
She nods her head in satisfaction and tells me, “It's still in place and there’s no signs of it being twisted or damaged in any way. The only reason I’m going to remove it is because if it’s ineffective, there’s no need for you to have it there. After you have this little one, we’ll talk about other alternatives for your birth control.”
“Yeah, I don’t like the thought of having anything foreign inside of me that’s ineffective. I do a lot of research for my career and have read some things about malfunctioning implants that make some women act irrational, and with my hormones already out of whack, there’s no need to add to that.”
“That percentage isn’t high, Luna,” she says, attempting to soothe my overactive imagination. Google can either be your best friend or your foe, depending on what you’re trying to learn.
“Still, why take chances?” I question. “Sometimes, I use the worst case scenarios for my characters,” I admit. “Because even though it’s fiction, life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, so why should books be? Unless they’re in the fantasy genre, I suppose.”
Great, now I’m rambling. Maybe it’s the meds that’ve been pumping into my veins to control the nausea and vomiting, who knows? I’ve always been a bit of a lightweight when it comes to most prescriptions, and I feel a bit loopy and out of it. That could also be the dehydration, although I’ve had several bags of fluids at this point.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes with the numbing injection and a scalpel. Let’s get this thing out of you so I can bag it and send it to the lab contracted by the attorney in charge of the lawsuit. That’ll let us know for sure if it’s faulty or if you’re just one of those mysterious cases where the woman gets pregnant no matter what contraceptive is used,” Dr. Limons says, a teasing look aimed my way.
“Fuck. I hope not,” I humorlessly laugh. “Knock on some wood, Doc, we don’t want that thought out in the universe.”
Before she has a chance to respond, the door swings open and Marcum comes marching inside. He has a murderous look clouding his face.
“What’s wrong?” I ask him, leaning around Dr. Limons so I can see him better.
“Hopefully nothing that Dr. Limons can’t take care of,” he claims as he strolls around to the other side of the bed than she’s at and leans over, planting a chaste kiss on my lips. “Ever heard of an herb called Lobelia, Doc?”
She narrows her eyes at him and answers, “I have. It’s very controversial when it comes to its usefulness. The pros and cons don’t balance themselves out. Why do you ask?”
As Marcum tells her about the conversation he listened in on with the club girls, my vision grows fuzzy as my heart rate kicks into high gear.
What the holy hell?
Why would a woman do this to another, especially when there’s an innocent life at stake?
I’m so wound up and mad that I’m physically shaking. I now understand what Marcum meant when we were talking one night and he told me that there are some people born evil, and most of them aren’t redeemable and it doesn’t upset him in the least to be the one to put a bullet in their brain.
“Why?” I whisper when he stops talking. “Why would she do something like that?”
“You can’t fix stupid, hon,” Dr. Limons says, patting the top of my hand. But my eyes never leave my old man, I want his take on this, not hers. She doesn’t understand the lifestyle he lives so she’s not aware of how women like them operate.
“Later,” he mouths to me. I’m not happy with that as an answer, but I know how strong willed he is and know that he won’t answer me out loud until there aren’t any spectators in the room. I bet it falls under ‘club business’, two words I’m starting to hate hearing.
“Jackie, go get me the numbing vial and a scalpel. I want to get this taken care of quickly so these two can talk,” Dr. Limons orders the nurse that came into the room a few seconds ago to take my vitals.
“I’ll go grab them now,” Jackie says as she leads the technician from the room now that the equipment has been wiped down and ready for the next patient.
“Good luck with everything,” the sweet older lady says over her shoulder as she wheels her machine out of the room, chatting with Jackie.
“I’m sorry, my moon,” Marcum apologizes as he uses his fingers to wipe the stray hair away from my eyes. “I promise you I’ll take care of her when we get home. You’ll never see her again.”
“Where is she?” I ask, balling up my fists.
“She’s been put on ice until we are released,” he murmurs.
“We?” I snort. “I didn’t realize you were a patient.”
“I see the sass is strong in you today,” he says with a sly grin on his face. “You and me, we’re a we. What happens to you, happens to me. I thought I’d already explained all of this to you before.”
“You have but I thought you meant figuratively, not literally,” I rebut. “Because if that’s the case, maybe you’d like to be the one to be catheterized?”
Since I was so weak from the dehydration, Dr. Limons decided a catheter was the best option for the time being. She debated on using a new system they have, but opted to go old school so they could better monitor my output. I swear, the things I’m learning right now are definitely going to go in a book at some point!
“Nothing about us is figurative, Luna.”
I notice he avoids volunteering to get a catheter, but I don’t really blame him. They’re unpleasant enough for a woman, so I can’t imagine how having a tube shoved in his dick would feel. That thought makes me snicker a little which has him raising his brow at me. Instead of saying anything, I merely shrug.
“Are you ready to do this?” Dr. Limons asks. I turn around and see the nurse standing with her as she measures out the medication in the syringe. How I missed her coming back into the room with the tools she was sent out to get confounds me. I need to work on my observation skills when I’m in the midst of an imminent discussion. “It won’t take long for you to be numb and even less time than that for me to remove the implant. I’ll probably put a stitch or two in after I see how big the implant actually is and you’ll be right as rain in no time.”
The moment I see the backsides of Dr. Limons and Jackie as they walk through the doorway and shut the door behind them, I shift my attention to Marcum, and demand, “Explain.”
It’s a good thing my arm was numb because they did have to pull a suture kit out of the drawer and use it on me. It wasn’t because the implant was on the larger side but because the damn thing moved when she went to fish it out. I’m starting to feel as if I didn’t have bad luck, I wouldn’t have any with the way things are going.
“The guys are putting her in a shack we have on the backside of the property for the time being. As I said before, I’ll take care of her once we’re back and I have you tucked in.”
“I have a few things I’d like to say to her before you release her,” I huff, picking at the cuticles of my thumb. This is why I’m notorious for getting hang nails, I’m always picking at the loose skin when I get nervous or upset.
“Luna. Look at me,” Marcum orders, leaning in closer to me. When I lift my head, our eyes meet. “You know what kind of man I am, yeah?”
“Yeah,” I answer, my tone dull and flat. “I know what kind of man you are, Marcum. What are you trying to tell me here?”
“Peaches won’t be leaving the property, Luna love. At least not on her own two feet. You get me?”
Shit. I get him, but I had hoped that if a scenario like this ever popped up, I’d be blissfully unaware. I don’t want to be an accomplice to keeping this secret. I hold my hand up in the air to stop him from saying anything else. “Don’t say anything else, Marcum. At least don’t say anything that can be used against you in a court of law.” The last part is said so quietly that nobody walking outside of the room could hear me.
“That’s my girl,” he croons as he nips at my neck. “Looking out for your man. I knew you were the right old lady for me. You don’t want to be forced to testify against me if it ever comes down to it.”
“Never. They’d have to lock me up next to you, Marcum, because I’d never, not in a million years, narc on you.”
“Then all I’ll say in the matter is that you’ll never have to deal with her again, Luna mine.”
“I’ll accept that, Marcum. I trust you more than I have anyone else in my life other than Demi.” As if the sun rises over the horizon, lighting me up from the inside out, I realize that I mean every word of what I just said. “Just do me a favor.”
“What’s that, Moon?”
“Make her hurt. She didn’t only make me sick due to her bullshit, but she could’ve killed our baby.”
“I promise you here and now, that the pain she’s going to feel will be worse than anything she did to you and our baby. Nobody hurts what’s mine. And Luna, make no mistake, you and this little one,” he says, cupping my belly, “are mine.”