15. Ivy
Ivy
It was two days after Christmas and day seven million of waking up feeling sick. The nausea that I had been experiencing hadn’t passed. I was unsure how much longer I could hide it from the people I lived with. From the looks that both Trey and Caleb had given me, I could tell they were becoming suspicious. Every meal, I slid the food around my plate, hoping that it seemed like I’d eaten enough.
I pulled out the phone Hunter gave me while looking in the kitchen for crackers. They were one of the few things that settled my stomach. I sent Hunter a quick text telling him I needed to talk to him. He wrote back quickly and told me to come upstairs to the penthouse. I brushed my fingers through my hair, hoping to work on any small knots and make myself look presentable. It was still too early in the morning to get dressed or worry about things like makeup.
When the elevator doors slid open, I saw my brother sitting on his couch, slowly scrolling through his phone. His eyes met mine, and he frowned. “What’s wrong?”
It was a fair question. Every time I spoke to him, I needed a favor, or something had happened. “I think I need to go see a doctor. I’ve been sick for a while, and at first, I thought it was food poisoning, but it’s only getting worse.”
He raised an eyebrow at me before turning back to his phone and typing something on the screen. “Go get ready. I have a doctor that I know. She’ll be able to check you out.”
What he said didn’t need a response, so I hurried downstairs to get ready. After throwing on a pair of jeans and a clean T-shirt, I texted him to ask when we were leaving. I didn’t really want to tell the guys what I was doing. Some part of me wanted to keep my appointment a secret. Hunter texted back that he was already downstairs in the parking garage. Quickly, I wrote a note.
Gone on an errand. Be back soon.
XOXO
Just like Hunter promised, he was sitting on the driver’s side of the black SUV, waiting. I opened the door and climbed in. Before I could fasten my seatbelt, he handed me a ginger ale. I stared at him for a moment, letting the icy cold of the can seep into my hand. He could tell that I was confused, and so he explained. “When I was younger, my mother would give me ginger ale when I was sick. She always claimed that ginger would help to settle my stomach.”
He started the car before filling the silence with questions, asking me if I was adjusting to life in Strathmore. I opened the can of ginger ale and took a quick sip, relishing the spicy, sweet taste and praying that Hunter was right. Maybe it would make me feel better. He waited patiently for my answer to his question. “I’m a little bored, but I understand the fact that I have to stay hidden. I just want my life to go back to normal, or some semblance thereof.”
“This isn’t the first time that I’ve dealt with this. Rayne wasn’t happy having to stay hidden, either.”
The trip to the clinic was short. With the city blurring by my window, he parked outside a small clinic named Helping Hands and pulled the keys from the ignition. We didn’t speak as we walked inside, and he stopped at the receptionist’s desk. Whatever he told her I wasn’t privy to, but she ushered us into a small room where we waited. Soon, a doctor came in and gave us both a smile. “Hunter, what are you doing here?”
He gestured to me. “Nia, this is my younger sister, Ivy.”
The doctor put her hand on her hip and tilted her head at him. “You never told me you had a sister.”
He lifted one shoulder and smirked. “Yeah, because it’s a recent development. I would’ve told you I was an only child a few months ago.”
Nia turned her attention to me. “So, Ivy, tell me what brings you here today.”
My mouth was suddenly dry, and I clutched the can I was still holding like it was a lifeline. “I’ve been nauseous for the past week, but I had assumed that I’d eaten something or gotten food poisoning.”
She looked at me sympathetically and patted my hand gently. “Don’t worry. We’ll do some blood work and take a urine sample. We’ll get you back to feeling better; just relax.”
After that, there was a flurry of activity. A nurse came in, took several vials of blood, and then handed me a plastic cup. She showed me where the restroom was and told me to place the cup in a small window when I was finished. I went through the motions, the entire time wondering what was wrong with me. A tiny voice in my head told me I already knew exactly what was wrong deep down inside. I hoped it wasn’t what I assumed.
Back when I still led a life of luxury, and my father was still my father, the doctor that I saw had inserted a birth control implant even after I had tried to assure him I wasn’t sexually active. Protection was the last thing on my mind with the guys, even though it should have been the priority. None of us needed a baby. But in the back of my mind, I now considered the fact that maybe even the birth control implant was a lie. Everything else had been.
So, I waited for the test results to come back. My heart was in my throat; I could hear it beating in my ears. Even as I shifted my seat, Hunter observed me. “Everything is going to be fine. You know that, right?”
No matter what, everything would be fine. I would do what I’d been doing for nearly the past year. Surviving. Figuring out how to make things work.
When Nia came back, she plopped into the chair across from me. “I see congratulations are in order. It’s not a stomach virus or food poisoning after all. Seems like you’ll be having a baby.” She handed me a card with another doctor’s name on it. “You need to make an appointment with Dr. Matthew’s office for follow-up.”
The world came crashing down around me as my worst fears were put into words. The room was a bit too small. Reality blurred around the edges as we walked out of the clinic, and mechanically, I got back into Hunter’s SUV. The situation we were all in was difficult. Not only were we hiding, but the guys would strike back at the Order in just a few short days. This was the last thing any of us needed. Everything was just getting straightened out. How would I provide for a child? We’d acted so foolishly. None of us had reliable income. Also, what would the Order do if they found out that I was pregnant?
I took another sip of the ginger ale from the can, which was now warm, trying to quell the bile rising in my throat. The thing that I hadn’t said out loud, that I couldn’t say out loud, was that depending on how far along I was, the baby may not even be one of the guys. The baby could be Wells or Luthor’s. Not that long ago I’d been trapped in a basement and then kept locked in a room to be used by whoever Wells saw fit.
Hunter must’ve been able to see the shock on my face. He grabbed my hand and cradled it, comforting me. “You know this isn’t the end of the world, right?” It may not have been the end of the world, but it felt like it. “I’ll support you no matter what your decision is. You don’t have to worry about anything. You have a family now.”
I just had to hope that the guys felt the same way
The shock from my appointment had worn off by the time I walked back into the apartment we shared. The sight of the men I loved brought tears to my eyes, and emotion clogged my throat. How was I supposed to tell them everything? Niko took one look at me, stopped what he was doing, and stood. Slowly, he walked towards me like I was a scared kitten. It was almost as if he was afraid he would scare me by simply touching me. His voice was low, and he murmured. “What’s happened? You said you had an errand to run, and I assumed Hunter protected you. If someone has hurt you, we’ll kill them.”
I snorted a wry laugh and shook my head. No one had hurt me. Not recently, at least. When I finally responded, my voice came out in a whisper. “I’m pregnant.”
Niko’s face scrunched up in initial confusion. Then he pulled me close and wrapped his arms around me, enveloping me in his scent. “Everything’s okay.”
We stood like that for a moment, my head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. I finally looked up. Everyone else had a look of shock on their faces, but Cam was the first person to speak. “It’s okay. Niko’s right; everything is fine.” Several beats passed in silence, and then he spoke again. “You and the baby will be taken care of. No matter who the father is, the baby will be loved.”
I wanted to ask them if they would still take care of the baby if it belonged to Luthor or Wells. How were we going to take care of a child? We were living in an apartment that my brother and his friends owned. Everything felt infinitely more complicated than it had the day before.
I had to take their words at face value and hope that they kept their promises.