Chapter 40 Ava #3
Stepping into the room, the tension was high. Especially once Kevin and Troy recognized him as the guy that was with Justin the night he and Kevin got into a brawl.
Clearing his throat, Tate spoke first, “I get that it’s a bit awkward.
I’m not here to start any trouble. I just wanted you to know that we provided the highest level of care to your sister while she was en route to the hospital.
I felt I owed you the respect to come and personally tell you that although her situation is very serious, she has a great chance of pulling through.
It was a blessing that we got to her when we did, and that is all because of you.
You saved your sister’s life today, Ava.
Thank God you were on the phone with her when the attack took place. ”
Standing there looking at Tate, I couldn’t do anything but respect him for giving me an update. That was something he didn’t have to do.
“Thanks, Tate. I appreciate that,” I responded.
“For your sake, you better hope nothing happens to my girl, boy!” Troy snapped, looking at Tate like he was the scum of the earth.
“Calm down, T, this isn’t the place for all of that. We gotta be chill,” Kevin interjected, “Unless you wanna get put out this motherfucker, you know you can’t act the fool up in here. If you get put out of here, how you gon’ be here for Dawn?” Kevin reasoned as Troy mean=mugged Tate.
“I’ll be sure to remind the nurse to send the doctor to this family room once they are out of surgery. Take care, Ava,” Tate said then turned to leave.
“The nerve of that motherfucker!” Troy spat. “That’s ol’ boy that’s with your ex dude! He better pray to God that nothing happens to Dawn. Talkin’ about they provided her with the highest quality of care. Why the fuck wouldn’t he have? He gave his word, so she better be straight!” Troy snapped.
Grabbing his phone from his back pocket, he answered then went off again. “What the fuck did you do? What the hell where you thinking, Monica?” he continued to snap.
I could hear Monica yelling into the phone, but it was hard to make out what she was saying clearly.
“Serves your ass right!” Troy snapped. Then it sounded like he was talking to one of the arresting officers by the way he had started responding.
Then he ended the call. “‘Dem boys got her ass!” he said, referring to the police. “Boy, she lucky as fuck ‘cause I was gon’ kill her ass. The detective I just talked to said he’s going to bring TJ here to me.”
An hour passed, and we hadn’t gotten an update on Dawn yet.
As far as we knew, she was still in surgery.
Troy stepped out of the room to call the police officer that was supposed to bring TJ up to the hospital back.
I heard him ask if they could take TJ over to his mom’s house.
The officer was understanding, considering the circumstances of not knowing what Dawn’s outcome would be.
We all felt it was best that TJ was not at the hospital just in case we were given bad news.
Almost two hours later, there was a knock on the door. We all jumped up as two male doctors walked into the room.
“This is the family of Dawn Smith, right?” one of the doctors asked.
“Yes,” I responded, standing up from the chair I was sitting in, almost knocking the chair over. “I’m her sister, this is my boyfriend, Kevin, and this is her boyfriend, Troy.” I pointed from Kevin to Troy. “Is she okay?”
“And the baby… is the baby okay?” Troy asked.
“You might want to take a seat,” one of the doctors began. “I have good news and not so good news.”
“Give it to us straight, doc,” Kevin said.
“Ms. Smith will be okay. She is one very blessed young lady. She suffered two stab wounds; both could have been fatal by just millimeters to her and the baby. The wound to her chest barely nicked her rib cage and wasn’t deep enough to do any major damage.
However, she did lose a lot of blood. The wound through her stomach punctured the placenta and cut through the umbilical cord.
By the time they made it to the hospital, the baby was in full fetal distress from the amount of amniotic fluid that was gone and lack of oxygen.
We did everything that we could to save them both, but we could only save Ms. Smith. ”
“What? What are you saying exactly?” Troy asked.
“Unfortunately, the baby didn’t make it,” the doctor concluded.
“Will we be able to see them?” Troy asked. “Was it a boy or girl? I didn’t even know the sex of my child,” Troy said, as the words he spoke broke my heart.
“It was a baby girl,” the doctor responded.
Troy had stood up out his chair when the doctor first came into the room.
The whole time he stood as we listened to Dawn’s prognosis.
When the doctor told us that the baby, who we just found out was a little girl, didn’t make it, Troy fell back into his chair.
He put his head in both of his hands and broke down crying.
Kevin and I tried consoling him as best as we could, but we were both just as emotionally distressed by the news.
The two doctors stood in the room while we cried it out for a few minutes, then one of them spoke.
“When you all are ready, I can have one of the nurses take you all to the room so that you can see them both.”
I needed to keep my emotions in check, so that I could be there for Dawn in her time of need.
I couldn’t imagine how this loss felt to her.
To have carried a baby for almost eight months then to be right at the end of her pregnancy just to have the baby taken from her was all too much to bear.
Just hours earlier, we were so over the moon excited to meet the baby.
All for that Monica bitch to take it upon herself to do what she did. This was absolutely heartbreaking.
We followed the doctors to the nurse’s triage station. He had one of the nurses’ page someone, then a few minutes later another nurse came out to escort us to Dawn’s room. I was so thankful that Dawn was going to be okay, but my heart broke for her and Troy over the loss of their baby.
Making it to Dawn’s room, as soon as the nurse opened her door, we heard Dawn crying. We all followed the nurse into the room to find Dawn sitting in bed holding the baby that was wrapped up tightly in hospital blankets.
“She’s gone… I can’t believe she’s gone!” Dawn cried as Troy ran to her side.
He slid partially into the bed with her then wrapped his arms around her.
He laid his other hand on the baby as both he and Dawn broke down crying together.
It was one of the saddest things I had ever witnessed in my life.
With Kevin by my side, I slowly walked over to my sister, after giving her and Troy a few moments to weep together.
Then I went and stood by her bedside. Giving her a hug as best as I could since she was still in Troy’s embrace, I peeked over to look at the baby.
I couldn’t stop the tears no matter how hard I tried.
She was such a beautiful baby girl. My heart shattered at the thought that she would never grow up.
The hospital staff was gracious enough to let us have as much time as we needed with the baby before they had to take her out of the room.
Our lives were forever changed at that moment yet the bond that the four of us shared had strengthened.
I didn’t know how we were going to be able to move on after the loss of the baby, but I was grateful that I still had my sister.
I didn’t know what I would do without Dawn in my life.
As long as we had each other, we could get through anything, so I knew we were going to be alright.