Chapter 28
Jalen was making her rounds to check on her patients.
Most were recovering well and were watching television.
Two of them were sleeping, but she knew it was because of the medication they were on.
She stayed and conversed with all the children who were awake and ensured she remained quiet for the two that weren’t, as she checked their vitals.
She sat at the nurse’s station once all her vitals were keyed in and glanced at the clock.
She only had a few hours of her twelve-hour shift remaining.
She’d gone in that morning at six, and she was glad that she didn’t have to wake Kodi to bring her.
It was Saturday, and her little sister deserved to sleep in.
She knew Kodi had an appointment to do someone’s hair earlier that morning too. So, the last thing Jalen needed was for her to have to be awakened any earlier than she needed to be.
Leaning back in the chair she occupied, Jalen thought over the last few weeks.
They had gone by quickly. Vega had stopped by the apartment several times a week to spend time with them and get to know them all better, as they did the same with him.
He’d been working from his hotel room but would head back home Monday morning.
They had all planned to go out tomorrow before he left.
However, he’d promised to come back in a couple of weeks to celebrate Landon’s birthday at the beginning of April.
“Hey,” Maria greeted as she came behind the station. “How’s Mark doing?” she asked about the little boy in room three-eleven.
“He’s sleeping, but all his vital signs look good. His fever has come down quite a bit,” Jalen responded.
Maria nodded. “Good. He was uncomfortable yesterday before I left. So, I’m glad to hear he’s feeling better.”
The two women sat and talked for a few minutes until the phone rang.
The room number flashed across the screen, and Jalen answered it, smiling as Rachel, the little girl on the other end, asked if she could have some ice cream.
Pulling up her chart, Jalen checked it to make sure she wasn’t lactose intolerant and that ice cream wasn’t something her doctor didn’t want her to have.
When she saw nothing, Jalen asked her what flavor she wanted and told her she’d see her in a few minutes.
She grabbed the strawberry ice cream and went to the room, knocking on the door.
“Oopsie,” she called through the door, though she knew Rachel felt fine.
“Daisy!” greeted her with a little laugh, and Jalen smiled as she pushed the door open.
“Hi, Jalen,” Rachel greeted with a smile.
“Hey, Rachel. I’m happy to see you’re feeling better.”
“Much better,” the nine-year-old informed her. “My doctor said I can go home tomorrow.”
Jalen handed Rachel the ice cream and the little spoon that came along with it. “That’s great news.”
“Yeah, but I’m going to miss you,” Rachel responded, pulling the paper covering off the ice cream.
“I’ll miss you too,” she told her. “But going home is a good thing. It means you’re all better.”
“I do feel better. So, I guess that means it’s time for me to go home.”
Jalen stayed with Rachel for a few minutes as she ate her ice cream, asking her what she was watching on television. Rachel seemed to enjoy the show and went into detail when describing to her what it was about.
After telling Rachel to call if she needed anything else, she returned to the nurse’s station. She was just about to take a seat when a man walked up to it. She smiled at him.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“Yes, please. I’m looking for Jalen Hollis.”
“That’s…me,” Jalen responded, a bit confused because she was sure she didn’t know this person.
He held out an envelope to her. “You’ve been served,” he stated before walking away.
Jalen’s blood ran hot as she watched his retreating back. She knew exactly what it was before she even opened it; doing so only proved her suspicions. She read through the document in her hand. It was a family-court summons. Her mother had filed a petition for custody of the twins.
Jalen shook as she wadded up the paper in her hand.
Valerie had a lifetime to be a parent, and she’d decided not to do so.
Now, when everyone was fine without her, adjusting without her, forgetting about her, she wanted to pop back up and ruin their lives, because it would be exactly what she did if she tore Nathan and Omari from the rest of them.
“Jalen, are you okay?” Maria questioned.
“I need to go. Can you cover my rooms for the next couple of hours, please?”
“Of course,” Maria responded, and Jalen thanked her before going to the locker room.
Pulling out her phone on the way, she texted Rohan.
Jalen: Are you home?
It was almost four, and she knew that he usually stayed at the office until five.
Rohan: Not yet. I’ll be leaving in half an hour.
Jalen: Can I meet you at your house?
She was walking out of the hospital when he responded,
Rohan: Yeah. You can head over whenever, and if you get there before me, just use the spare key.
Getting into her vehicle, Jalen headed to Rohan’s house.
She parked beside his mailbox when she arrived, got out, went to the side of the house, and then into the backyard through the gate.
She unscrewed the false bottom of the birdfeeder and unlocked the back door before putting the key back and going inside.
Rohan had told her where the key was when they’d spent Valentine’s Day together.
Jalen placed her purse on a stool at the bar and went to his liquor cabinet.
She wasn’t usually one for brown liquor, but today she would make an exception.
She pulled out a bottle of bourbon, grabbed a glass, and filled it halfway.
She emptied the contents of the glass before grabbing it and the bottle and going into the living room, where she poured herself another one.
She couldn’t believe the audacity of her egg donor.
Sure, she’d made the threat, but it wasn’t one that Jalen actually thought she would follow through on.
If for no other reason than it meant Valerie would have to take care of someone other than herself.
Care about someone else’s well-being other than her own.
It was a feat that Jalen knew the older woman was incapable of.
She wasn’t sure how long she’d sat there in her thoughts, but she knew she was on her third glass when the front door opened, and Rohan came into view in the living room. She turned her attention to him as he looked from her to the liquor on the table.
He sat beside her, taking the glass from her hand and setting it aside. He tipped her chin up, studying her for a moment, trying to read what was wrong from the look in her eyes, and Jalen felt herself coming apart as tears leaked down her cheeks.
“I hate her,” Jalen stated through clenched teeth.
“Tell me what happened,” he requested, wiping her tears, and Jalen recounted it to him.
“She’s a bitch,” she finished. “She doesn’t really want the twins; she’s just trying to make some man happy, trying to make herself look better.”
“And it was just for Omari and Nathan?” Rohan inquired, and Jalen nodded.
She thought about it for a moment and understood what he was asking. Her threat had included Mikal as well, and she wondered if she’d changed her mind, deemed Mikal too old after all for the family she wanted to create.
“How does she know where you work?” Rohan questioned. “And now that I’m thinking about it, how did she know where Mikal’s birthday party was?”
Jalen sighed. “If I had to guess, I’d say Kodi.
She told me after the fact that she felt like she might have been responsible for Valerie showing up.
She’d posted a few pictures during the party on social media.
She and Valerie aren’t friends on there, but Kodi’s page isn’t private since she uses it to get new clients.
” Jalen paused for a moment. “I know there are a few pictures of us all from a couple of years ago, when I first started working at the hospital. I’m assuming that’s how she found out. ”
She reached for the glass of bourbon, only to have Rohan grab her hand and pull her up instead.
“Come on, I’ll run you a bath, and then I’ll call Kodi and tell her you’re staying here tonight because you don’t feel good.”
“I don’t lie to my sisters,” Jalen replied as he led her down the hall.
Rohan looked over his shoulder at her. “Do you feel good right now?”
She swallowed because they both knew she was pissed, but more than anything, she was scared. Scared that their egg donor may separate them. “No,” she whispered despondently.
“Then it isn’t a lie.” He sat her on the bed before going into the en suite.
Jalen took a deep breath. She wasn’t sure what she’d be doing right now if it weren’t for Rohan.
She knew she’d probably be in a hotel room with that bottle of bourbon because she wouldn’t want her sisters to see the absolute mess that she hadn’t fallen into yet, that she knew it was because of him.
It didn’t matter what she was going through, how tired she was, or how stressed she may have been; he always made her feel as if she could conquer it all. Always took that load from her without her even realizing it.
Jalen felt a few more tears well up in her eyes as the realization hit her. She loved him, and maybe that was why she always felt invincible with him.
????????????
Rohan looked down at Jalen as she slept. It was barely after seven, but he knew she was emotionally exhausted. After running her a bath, he’d made her something to eat. He didn’t want her to get sick from drinking on an empty stomach.
After she’d eaten, he lay in bed with her, and she asked him to tell her about his day. He knew she just wanted to get her mind off of her mother’s actions, so he did so until she’d fallen asleep with her head on his chest. That had been almost an hour ago.
Rohan eased his way out from under her and exited the bedroom.
He entered the kitchen and did the dishes he’d used earlier.
As he did so, he thought about Jalen’s situation.
There was no way he was going to stand by and allow her mother to separate them when she had been caring for her sisters for several years now.
To his understanding, Valerie hadn’t wanted to take any of the girls or be much of a mother the few times she popped up over the past several years, from what Jalen had told him.
He figured she was doing this to spite Jalen rather than her actually wanting the girls, and he couldn’t help but wonder what had changed her mind about wanting to take Mikal.
Or if that was a blow she planned to deal separately, dragging it out by first taking the twins and then Mikal at a later date.
Once he finished the dishes, he dried his hands and pulled his phone from his back pocket. He and Vega had exchanged numbers a couple of weeks ago, and he called the other man.
“Hey, Rohan,” Vega greeted.
“Hey, Vega,” Rohan responded. “I need your help.”
“What’s going on?”
“Valerie had Jalen served. They’re going to family court for Omari and Nathan.”
Vega was silent for a minute. “It seems she can’t let anyone be happy. Let me look into the man she’s married to. Valerie also has skeletons of her own. Let me see if I can bring them into the light.”
“Thanks,” Rohan responded.
“You don’t need to thank me. We’re all family, and she will not get the best of us,” Vega informed him. With that, the two men hung up.
Rohan scrolled through his phone until he found the name he was looking for. He hesitated for a moment because he knew his brother would probably kill him for what he was about to do. However, he’d let him if this call helped Jalen. The phone rang four times before it was answered.
“The sky is falling, Chicken Little, because Rohan Murphy has called my phone,” she answered.
“Hello to you too, Meila.”
“To what do I owe this pleasure?”
“I need a family lawyer,” Rohan told her. He figured there was no point in beating around the bush.
“For?”
“A custody battle.”
Meila paused for a moment. “Is it for Trent?”
“This has nothing to do with my brother. It’s for my girlfriend.”
Rohan was aware of why she was asking if it was Trent he was calling for.
She and Trent hadn’t spoken in years, almost a decade if he remembered correctly.
Not since she’d helped Alynn’s mother abandon the two of them.
Meila had told them she hadn’t known that was what was happening when she’d agreed to help, but Trent hadn’t believed her.
He’d just been pissed and hurt. So, the long-standing friendship between the three of them, along with Meila’s sister, had gone out the window or become complicated.
“I rarely deal with custody battles. I’ll have Aiva call you.”
“Meila,” Rohan started. “I know Aiva is a Pitbull in the courtroom. But you deal with taking someone for everything they own to give to their spouse. That sort of ruthlessness, that’s what I need. I need this woman to be annihilated in the courtroom for what she’s trying to do to my girlfriend.”
“You love her, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Rohan responded without missing a beat.
Meila was quiet for a moment before she let out a sigh. “You’ll pay for my flights, my accommodations, and if I see Trent, I’m adding ten percent to my fee.”
Rohan snorted. She was just as hard-assed as ever, and if she ran into Trent, how was that his fault? But he agreed. “Alright, that’s no problem.”
“When is she supposed to go to court?”
“I don’t know. She was so upset, I didn’t want to make it worse by asking her.”
“Okay,” Meila stated. “Usually, it’s between thirty and sixty days. We’ll err on the side of caution and say it’s thirty. Book me a flight next week. I want to talk to her face-to-face.”
“You've got it.”
“And remember, if I see him…” she trailed off.
“I got it. Thanks, Meila.”
Rohan hung up and sent a text to Vega asking him if he could get him whatever he could within a week.
Then he contemplated calling Trent. He didn’t want him and Meila running into one another when she came to town.
He and Trent had the same relationship that Jalen had with her sisters.
They didn’t lie or keep things from one another.
Placing his phone back into his pocket, he decided he would wait until he spoke to Jalen to tell him. She may not want Trent to know her business, and he wouldn’t tell him if that were the case.
Going into the living room, he grabbed his laptop and turned it on. He figured he’d try to find Landon a birthday gift early and do a little research himself.