Chapter 24
Violet
I was having the worst week.
My head hurt and I was pretty sure that underneath the giant bandage on my head was a spot with missing hair.
It’s just hair.
It will grow back.
The nurses who kept telling me that stuff could suck it. I knew they meant well, but their words didn’t make me feel better about my situation. My whole body ached. My head felt weird. I’d just had surgery. And I was all alone through it all.
Yup, pity party for one. Well, almost two.
I patted my belly. About the only thing that had gone right so far was that I hadn’t gone into labor yet.
And wouldn’t you know it, the minute I thought that, there was absolutely no wood to knock on for good luck.
I wasn’t usually superstitious, but too many bad things kept happening to me and I was willing to try anything - including knocking on wood - to level the playing field.
Off by the door a knocking sound occurred, and I wondered for an instant if it counted if someone else knocked on wood for me. “Come in,” I called out.
“Hey, sis!”
“Drake,” I whispered and smiled at the same time. “I am so happy to see you.” My father wheeled him in and all the way over to my bed. He couldn’t take my hand from the side he was on, so he patted my knee instead.
“I would have been here sooner, but someone couldn’t stand all the attention I got when I had surgery, so she just had to have her own.” My brother rolled his eyes playfully and used a mocking tone the entire time.
“I’m so glad to see you,” I said.
Drake looked up at our father nervously. “She’s repeating herself. I thought Doc said there wasn’t any brain damage?” He was completely serious that time, the jerk.
“I’m not brain damaged, you idiot, and I take it back. I’m not pleased to see you anymore. Go back to your room.” I mockingly pouted as he patted my knee again. “Seriously, Drake, this is the first time I’ve seen you. I was worried you would hate me because it was my fault.”
“No, it fucking wasn’t!” my brother denied rather angrily. “It was that Fiona bitch. The psycho stalker from hell.”
“Okay, let’s not upset your sister, Drake.” My father’s reprimand was given while looking directly at me.
I chose to change the subject. “Where is Mom?” I glanced around my father and brother but didn’t see her anywhere.
“We sent her home,” Dad mentioned, but the tips of his ears turned red, and I knew something serious was behind that decision.
“Okay, why?”
“We can’t tell you right now because it might upset you.” Drake’s sage advice had the opposite effect, and my heart rate monitor jumped its beeps up as I grew anxious and unsettled.
“I think it’s best if you do tell me now.”
“She said and did some things that are unforgivable in my opinion. Can we leave it at that and discuss the rest when you’ve had time to rest so you don’t pop this kid out too early?”
That did it. I took a deep breath and let it go. Rinse. Repeat. Until my heartbeat settled back down to normal. I gave my brother a quick nod in agreement. He was right. I didn’t need to chance getting upset and potentially causing the baby distress after everything we had been through.
“We do need to talk about one more thing before you completely relax,” Drake mentioned.
“What’s that?”
“Ridge is here.”
I glanced all around the room looking for my former husband like a dumbass.
“Not here, obviously. He’s not invisible. He went to the office to change because he flew straight here from Australia and the dude was pretty ripe.”
“Drake,” our father warned in a tone that said he was simply exhausted.
“Fine. Whatever. I was just trying to break the ice and shit. Here’s the thing, Vi, you need to give him a chance to be a father to that baby even if you don’t want the man in your life anymore. He deserves to be a father.”
“You know why I couldn’t let that happen,” I huffed at him. “I wanted to tell him. In fact, I was on my way to do just that when I saw those pictures of him hugging his mistress at the airport. His pregnant mistress, as it turned out.”
“She was never pregnant. She lied.”
A dark chuckle escaped me. “Imagine that; Fiona lied.” I rolled my eyes and wanted to be done with the conversation. It was the woman herself who caused me to be in the hospital and my brother to be in a wheelchair while he visited me. Fuck her.
“Well, Ridge didn’t know she was lying, and he took the bitch with him to keep watch in case she was telling the truth.
He wasn’t interested in her as a mistress, sis.
For fuck’s sake, the woman raped him. Imagine how hard that must have been for your husband to have to deal with her on the off chance that she as carrying his child as a result of that rape. ”
My brother’s words were like a slap to the face and one I probably needed.
That was an angle I hadn’t thought of since I saw those pictures.
It was like him being nice to her in public negated everything he might have been feeling about seeing her again.
I had to admit that it had skewed the way I thought about everything.
“He still welcomed her into his sphere, and how was I supposed to know what was happening? He stopped talking to me after the whole birthday thing, remember?”
“We’ll come back to that in a minute,” Drake growled. I could feel anger wafting off him as he said it. “The important part is, if you had told him that you were pregnant, where do you think he would have been? By her side or yours?”
“That’s just it; I don’t know, Drake and I don’t know where I’d want him to be in that scenario either. Obviously, if she had been pregnant with his child, he would need to protect it from her, just like I needed to protect my baby from the fact that she was around him.”
“Right. Well, he would have come for you. He would have protected both of you if he had known.”
“You can’t know that.”
“I can because I spoke to him before he went to de-funk himself.” Drake looked immensely pleased with himself when I didn’t have anything to say in return.
He then told me about how Ridge kept referring to me as his wife with Dr. Carson.
And that was all before he and Dad filled me in on all the evidence that had come forward about Fiona.
“When they find her, she’s going away for a long time.”
“I hope so. That woman is crazy,” I informed them as if they hadn’t already seen proof of it for themselves.
“If he had known, he would have been there for you all along, Vi. Not her. Not her fake baby. You and yours. He loves you. He’s only ever loved you, and I believe that with all my heart.
” Drake’s voice had become a plea as he spoke.
I was about to tell him it was okay, that I believed it, as well, but then my father spoke.
“Vi?” Dad wasn’t looking at me when he said my name. My eyes tracked over to the monitors that were keeping track of my baby’s stats, and I realized what he saw there.
“Oh no!” Just as I said that, I felt it for the first time since we started talking. My stomach turned rock hard, and a slight ache rippled through me. “I think they have me on pain meds. I didn’t feel it.”
“I’ll go get the doctor,” my dad said as he turned and left the room.
“Shit,” Drake called out as his worried eyes dropped down to my stomach. “Did I upset you? Is that why this is happening?”
“No, bud. They told me this might happen. I was already,” I stopped speaking when my brother turned pale.
“This is not your fault. The chances were high that I would go into labor spontaneously no matter what. My body has been through a lot, and it was already preparing for an earlier than expected delivery before our accident.”
Dad came back with a team of nurses and Dr. Carson. One of the nurses immediately wheeled my brother back out into the hall. “Tell Ridge he can come back if he gets here in time.”
“I just tried calling, sweetheart. It went to voicemail, but I’ll keep trying until I get through.” Dad winced, and I knew it was because he had faith in Ridge before, but it wasn’t looking so good that the man wasn’t answering his phone.
Ten minutes later, I was on a different type of hospital bed with what looked like a whole hospital staff on hand ready to…
I couldn’t think about what they were ready for.
Me dying.
My baby…
Nope. Not going there.
“Hello, Violet. I’m Dr. Macon. I am the one that drilled that beautiful hole into your head earlier, and I need to pull these bandages off so we can monitor things up here while Dr. Carson helps you deliver this baby.
Your little one is already set to go in the birth canal from what I’ve been told, so you’re ready to push.
I am going to make sure that all the work you do doesn’t cause issues up here.
” He tapped the top of my head as he continued to unwind the bandage that had been wrapped around my head.
“Not gonna lie, that sounds awful, Doc.”
“Nah. Just checking out my handy work because my ego needs a boost. You do your thing and pretend I’m not even here. I have faith that you’ll do just fine.”
A contraction hit, and I felt it that time. If I wasn’t laying back in the bed, it would have doubled me over. “Oh my God!” I yelled.
“Okay, we’re good to go, Violet. Next time you have a contraction, I want you to push with all your might. Focus that energy and power down here.” Dr. Carson glanced down, and I didn’t even want to think about what his view looked like. My poor body.
“Okay, here we go, Nurse Whitcomb, help her pull that leg back. That’s it.”
“I’ve got this side,” Dr. Macon said as he wrapped his arm through my left leg and helped the nurse pull my thighs back into my body as I sat forward and pushed.
“Good effort, and your head is doing just fine.” I glanced over at him in time to see him wink.
The man had a great bedside manner; I’d give him that.
“All right. Let’s go again,” Dr. Carson ordered. “Push, Violet.”