Chapter 65
Cori
“Momma Had, you didn’t have to bring me here.
I don’t need a doctor.” I know she’s not hearing me.
She’s been hovering over me since she drove me from that house of horror to the hospital.
Only, I didn’t have to go to the emergency room.
She made a phone call, and I was whisked into a private practice.
“Please, sweetheart, let the doctors check you out.” Dax looks about a hundred years older. I reach for him, and he takes my hands and puts them to his lips. “I’m so sorry, baby. Please know that no one will ever hurt you again. Don’t leave me.” He lowers his head. “I need you.”
“I need you, too,” I whisper. “I knew you would find me.” I let out a half-laugh, half-sob. “I love you.”
“Me, too.”
“Take me home. I’m fine. I’ve been prodded and pricked—”
Dr. Best, a woman in her fifties with dark brown skin, comes in. She tosses her braids and sits down. She reaches for my sore cheek, and I wince.
“It’s just a bruise. You’re fine, Cori.” My husband exhales in relief. “Go home and get some rest.” She rises. “Not yet, though.” She gives me a sly grin.
“See? I told you.” I look smugly around the room. “But why not now?”
“Let’s talk privately.” Dr. Best points toward the door, but my husband and his mother take no steps to leave.
“It’s okay. You can say anything in front of them.”
Dr. Best tilts her head. “Okay, then. You’re pregnant.”
“What?” Dax and I say at once.
“You’re pregnant. I did a pregnancy test with your urine. I’m going to give you an ultrasound, and then,” Dr. Best stops speaking and looks around the room. “You and only you can tell me what you want to do about it.”
“That won’t be necessary. I’m not pregnant.”
“Well, I guess my years at medical school and years as a practicing physician count for nothing, huh?”
I look around the room, and all I see is silent excitement from Dax and his mother. “Dax, tell them I’m not.” I point at him. “I better not be. I swear to God, I will divorce you.”
“Dr. Best, can you find out if it’s a boy today?”
“First of all, I’m not pregnant. Second, why are you asking that, Daxton? There will be no boy. You’re going to be stuck in a family full of women, including that mutt.” I reach and pull his ear.
“Cori, you’re pregnant.” Dr. Best shakes her head at me. “And Daxton, you know it’s too early.”
“Dummy,” I whisper to my husband.
Daxton cups my cheeks and plants a kiss on my lips. Momma Had soon shoves him away and hugs me tight.
“Don’t worry, baby. We are going to take such good care of you and my grandbaby.”
There’s a flurry of activity in the room. Dax’s phone blows up throughout the ultrasound, and once the doctor finishes, he excuses himself.
According to Dr. Best, I’m seven weeks along, and everything appears to be normal. She refers me to an OBGYN and prescribes me prenatal vitamins.
“I can’t wait to go home.” Haddie sits next to me and pulls me into her arms. She kisses my forehead.
“Are you okay, sweetheart? Those men didn’t—”
“I’m fine. I was scared, but I knew Dax would find me.” I let out a laugh. “Now I sound like one of those stupid women. Don’t tell him I said that.”
“There’s nothing wrong with depending on your husband. He depends on you, too, you know.”
“He does?”
“Yes. He loves you. He needs you. He was so lonely before, but now, he’s happy, and that’s because of you.”
“But I didn’t do anything.”
“You’re you, and that’s enough. My son’s a good man, and he will be a wonderful father to this baby.” She rubs my belly. “I didn’t ask him, but he helped me raise his sister. And don’t worry about a thing. You have me now. I will be a bonus mom to you.”
“Don’t be a bonus mom. Be my mom.”
“You got it.”
“Do you think you—”
My request to have her cook us dinner is interrupted when Dax returns. From the look in his eye, I know something is wrong. Haddie must sense it, too, because she sits up as if she’s waiting for bad news.
My husband opens his mouth, but no words come out.
“What is it?” I ask.
“That was your father on the phone. Your mom is in the hospital. He thinks it’s a heart attack.”