6. Jin’jer #2
I turned on my heels and headed to the valet station where our car had just pulled up.
Hades opened the back door to let me slide in before he did.
We didn’t say anything to each other on the entire way to the hotel.
When we got into the hotel room, he sat on the bed.
“Is there something that we need to talk about, Jin’jer? ”
After a deep breath, I faced him. “That’s why I hate my parents. I hate them for the way they treated me when they found out that I was pregnant. They were dismissive and cold after my son died. I couldn’t even have a fuckin’ funeral for him!”
I didn’t realize that I was crying until Hades wrapped his arms around me and rubbed my back.
He held me tight. “Baby, it’s alright. I need you to calm down, okay.
” He pulled me from him then kissed my forehead.
“Let’s get you in the shower, then let’s go to bed. We can talk about this in the morning.”
We showered, got in the bed, and he held me as I cried off and on through the night. My son died, right? That was what they told me. That was what I believed.
BACK IN CHARLOTTE…
It’d been a few weeks since my father’s birthday party. My mother called me in a rage the next day. She told me that they had taken me out of the will and some other bullshit. I told her confidently to go straight to hell. I didn’t want anything from them. My mind was too consumed with Dorian.
Hades and I talked about him the next day.
I didn’t really know what to think. My mind picked apart his features, but I wasn’t sure why.
My son died. While Dorian and I were talking at the party, Hades took a very good picture of him.
Dindi put it into a Google search, and it pulled up his Instagram page.
I felt like a stalker. He was a typical sixteen-year-old boy in most respects. From his post, it appeared that he worked a lot, more than I thought a teenager should.
“Have you thought about going back to the school in Colorado?” Hera asked.
When we got back from Charlotte, I told the girls, Hera, Hestia, Melody, and Dindi about my past as well as my encounter with Dorian.
I thought that they would look at me sideways, but they didn’t.
Hades had been supportive as well, which I honestly didn’t expect.
We hadn’t been together for a very long time.
In my head, it was too much drama for this stage of our relationship.
When I told him that he could bow out if he wanted to, he told me to shut the fuck up. According to him, I was stuck.
I shrugged. “I don’t really see the point. Go back for what? For them to tell me what I already know, that my son died?”
Hestia placed her hand on my knee. “Jin’jer, you go back to get peace of mind. There is no way that you are at peace with that boy claiming to be your son. Let me ask you this. Did you see your son’s body, or did they just tell you that he died?”
I thought about the day that I was told he died. I asked to see him, but I was told that I couldn’t. My parents didn’t think that it was a good idea. “Um, no, I didn’t see him. My parents told me that it wasn’t a good idea.”
“Well, baby, if your son died, then he had to be buried somewhere, no matter if he had a funeral or not. How about we go to at least find out where he’s buried,” Hestia suggested.
I thought about what she said. I guess she was right. “I never named him,” I said with tears in my eyes.
Hera, who sat next to me, pulled me into her arms. I thanked God daily for meeting her at the hospital. Who would have thought that casual lunches would result in me finding a family. I learned a very long time ago that relatives were given, but family was chosen.
Hestia and Hera made plans to go with Hades and me to Colorado the following day. When we told their parents what happened, Mama Verne prayed over me. I’d never had someone do that. No one ever cared enough about me to go to God about me.
The next morning, we were up early on a private plane that their father chartered for us. The whole way there, I was a nervous wreck. Hades loved on me the entire way.
When we got to the campus, I smiled at the growth of it. I pointed to a building. “I lived in that building when I was here. The on-campus hospital, if in the same place, was toward the back of campus.”
I led the way to the hospital. It wasn’t much different when we walked in. They’d upgraded the décor and expanded, of course. “Hi, is there a Dr. Lidia Sutton here?” I asked the nurse at the receptionist desk. She was an older woman.
With a smile, she responded, “No, she is no longer here.” I asked her how long it had been since she left. “Let’s see, she left the year that I got here. So, that means she’s been gone a little over fifteen years now.”
That answer was bothersome to me. “Oh, okay. Well, is Nurse Janice still here? I think her last name was Scales.”
“Yes! Janice Scales is here, but she is no longer a nurse. She is our hospital administrator. I’ll call her up here for you,” the nurse said.
Hera, Hestia, Hades, and I sat in the waiting area. My knee jumped as I sat there in anticipation. “Hey,” Hades said softly. When I gazed at him, he gave me the smile that I loved. “It’s going to be alright. No matter what happens, it’s going to be okay. We got you.”
“Jin’jer Elle Copeland,” a female voice called out.
My head shot up to the mention of my name. There she was, nurse Janice Scales. She looked amazing. I stood to my feet to move in her direction. “Um, hi, Janice. You remember me?”
“I could never forget you, sweetie. I wondered if you would ever come back,” she said somberly. “You all can come with me.”
Hades grabbed my hand. We walked side by side down the hallway behind Janice.
Hera and Hestia were on our heels. Janice took us to a conference room that was inside of her office suite.
She offered us beverages, which I accepted a water.
Once we were all settled, she smiled then asked, “How are you doing, Jin’jer? ”
“I’m doing well. I live in Charlotte now.
I’m a registered nurse, and I work in the intensive neonatal unit.
” I would always be proud of my accomplishments.
They didn’t come easy for me. Yes, my parents did pay for my schooling, but that didn’t negate how they treated me.
They always thought money bought respect.
Janice’s face lit up. “Oh, that is so great. I always knew you would make something out of yourself regardless of what your parents said.” She shifted in her seat. “So, how can I help you today?”
Like word vomit, I told her about my encounter with Dorian. She sat there and listened attentively. The sadness on her face couldn’t be missed. Once I was done with my spiel, I took a deep breath. “I guess, I came here to ask you, um, did my son die?”
Janice sat there with her forearms on the table and her hands clasped together. “No, your son did not die.” A tear fell from her eye as my heart stopped.
“I know you fuckin’ lying,” Hades mumbled. “Is that the type of shit that this place is on? How do you lie and tell someone their baby died?”
Hestia and Hera both had tears streaming down their faces. I was too shocked to cry. I found my voice after a few beats. “I… I don’t understand. Y’all told me my baby died. Why would you do that?”
Janice dropped her head for a moment then lifted it with more tears in her eyes.
“This secret has haunted me for years. It was part of the reason I worked hard to become an administrator so nothing like that ever happened again.
After we had your baby, you had a spike in your heartrate and blood pressure which caused you to pass out.
We got your baby boy together and put him in the nursery.
Shortly after, the administrator at the time called us into a meeting.
That meeting changed the course of many lives.
“We were told that your parents had chosen to put your son up for adoption. That wasn’t something that was necessarily foreign to us.
We’d seen that before. What we hadn’t seen was us being told that you would be told the child died.
When we pushed back, we were told that if we didn’t comply that we would be reported to the board for some kind of malpractice that would end our careers. ”
Hestia shook her head. “This doesn’t make sense. Why would an administrator do that shit? What the fuck?”
“For the oldest reason in the book, money. The Copelands gave an endowment of eight hundred thousand dollars to the program. It was also rumored that the administrator got a payoff as well. I’m not sure if that was true, but based on her agreeing to do what your parents wanted, it’s not hard to believe,” Janice said.
I zoned in and out as Janice told us that two of the nurses quit immediately.
Dr. Sutton quit about a year later. The hospital administrator eventually retired and went on about her life.
I heard Janice talking about her journey and why she decided to become a hospital administrator.
I didn’t give a fuck about that shit. “What happened to my fuckin’ son? ”
“He was relinquished to the state. By the time we left the meeting, he was no longer in the nursery. The next day, your parents showed up, and they were as nasty and evil as they came. They didn’t care to know anything about the baby.” Janice cried freely. She apologized profusely.
My heart hurt. It felt like I couldn’t breathe. I pushed back my chair then leaned forward.
“I got you, baby, I got you,” Hades whispered in my ear. “We are going to figure this out. I swear to you, we will.”