Chapter 20
Chapter twenty
"Merge"
Isat low in the corner of the ER waiting room, hoodie pulled over my head and face shadowed beneath the harsh lights overhead. The entire place smelled like Lysol, stale coffee, and human suffering.
I shifted in the stiff plastic chair, stretching my legs out while one knee bounced slowly with irritation.
Between the screaming toddlers, loud televisions, coughing patients, irritated adults snapping at receptionists, and doctors being paged over the intercom every damn minute, the place felt one inconvenience away from a full-blown riot. That shit alone was enough to drive anybody insane.
I glanced at the clock mounted above the nurses’ station.
7:11 P.M.
I huffed quietly, jaw tightening.
I’d been sitting there for at least a good fifteen minutes chasing a ghost and following a tip that was probably bullshit from the jump.
Maybe Ma O’s gift isn’t as sharp as it used to be?
For years I watched that lady predict things that later came true in ways that made people nervous to even joke around her. But sitting in that chaotic emergency room and nothing catching my eye? That felt less prophetic and more like I got tricked into wasting gas and patience.
I rubbed my thumb slowly across my bottom lip, debating how much longer I planned on sitting in that overcrowded hellhole before walking out.
My eyes swept the room again and I clocked everybody instinctively. I catalogued every face, every movement, and every potential threat.
To my right, a janitor dragged a mop across the floor like he hated both his job and everybody breathing around him.
A security guard by the vending machine scrolling his phone as if he was getting paid to ignore the world.
Over to my left, an old man coughed violently in the corner like he was trying to expel dust from the nineteen hundreds.
A tired-looking woman bounced a screaming toddler on her hip while arguing with the receptionist about insurance coverage.
Across from them, a shirtless dude with a bloody towel wrapped around his hand kept muttering that he “didn’t even punch him that hard.
” Then there was a pale junkie-looking white dude sitting two chairs over rocking back and forth dramatically while clutching his stomach.
“The pain is coming back!” he groaned loudly.
Yeah…. definitely faking.
Probably trying to score pills.
I still wasn’t sure what or who the hell I was supposed to be looking for… which only irritated me more.
“Fuck this!” I muttered, standing abruptly.
The plastic chair scraped against linoleum loud enough to make a few heads turn.
I didn't care.
I was just about to push through those sliding doors and disappear into the night when sudden yelling erupted near the front desk.
“Lady, it’s been a whole hour! My baby won’t stop crying! I need to see a doctor now!” a woman demanded, as her baby wailed loudly in her arms.
The entire waiting room shifted slightly toward the noise… including me. And the second my eyes landed on the woman at that desk, my blood didn't just run cold, it froze solid in my veins.
“Talia? The fuck?” I cursed under my breath.
She stood near the front desk in an oversized pink hoodie and fitted cap, bouncing the screaming baby against her shoulder while going back and forth with the receptionist like the next wrong answer might send her completely over the edge.
From where I sat, I couldn’t fully see her body behind the counter. But the face? That was her. She looked a little worn down—more tired than I remembered—but it was definitely her ass standing there causing a scene in the middle of the emergency room.
My hands curled into fists at my sides without permission.
She said that was her baby?
Nah.
No fuckin' way.
The thought hit first, followed immediately by the next one, sharper and more dangerous.
What kind of game is this?
Because this isn’t a misunderstanding anymore; this is a setup… a chessboard. And somehow, I’ve already been playing without realizing somebody else moved first.
The baby’s screaming intensified, cutting through my thoughts like nails on a chalkboard. Talia’s voice rose higher and more frantic. I watched her shift the baby and how she held it, protective and desperate, like it was the only thing in the world that mattered.
My posture straightened slowly, tension rolling through me like a storm.
I stood slowly; eyes locked onto her while fury started simmering beneath my skin.
I was halfway across the waiting room before I even realized I’d started moving.
Each step felt heavier than the last. My Timbs hit that linoleum with purpose, with weight, with the kind of inevitability that made people instinctively move out of the way without knowing why.
A nurse accidentally stepped into my path near the water fountain.
I brushed right past her without breaking stride, without even acknowledging her existence.
She said something—probably an apology or a warning—but I didn't hear it. I couldn't hear anything except the blood rushing in my ears and that baby’s relentless screaming and Talia’s voice still arguing with the receptionist like she didn’t feel me coming.
By the time I reached the nurse’s station, a strange silence had settled over the waiting room. One nurse looked at me, then at Talia, then back at me, like she suddenly realized she was standing in the middle of something she wanted no part of.
Talia’s back was still to me. Her shoulders were hunched and her whole body radiated exhaustion and desperation.
I stopped directly behind her, close enough to feel the heat radiating off her body.
My hand shot out and grabbed the back of her hoodie collar.
My fingers curled into the fabric with controlled aggression, with the kind of force that meant business.
I yanked her backward slightly. She gasped—a sharp, strangled sound—and her words died mid-sentence, cut off like someone had flipped a switch.
The entire waiting room went silent, even the baby stopped screaming for a beat, confused by the sudden violence of the movement.
I leaned in close to her ear, my jaw clenched so tight it felt like it might crack, and let the question drop to a cold, dangerous whisper.
“What the fuck you on, shawty?”
TO BE CONTINUED…