Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 72329 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72329 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
“Will she be okay? If you do the surgery to relieve it?” Derek asked.
Derek had been the first one to me as I’d come practically sprinting out of the house with Rowen in my arms.
“Dr. Aviv?” A man came into the room, holding a piece of paper.
Dr. Aviv, Rowen’s doctor, took the paper and scanned it, his eyes stopping on something before he looked up at me.
“Okay,” he said, handing the paper back. “List it in her chart. This is going to change the meds I have her on.”
The nurse nodded and received an entirely different med list, causing Derek and I to look at each other.
When the nurse was gone, Dr. Aviv looked at me, then to Derek.
“Ms. Roberts, it seems, is pregnant. Those were her labs.”
Ten words that had the power to change my life.
I opened my mouth, then closed it, unsure what to say.
Pregnant.
“Okay,” Derek took over the questioning. “What…”
That’s when Rowen’s mom walked through the door, hurrying as fast as her legs would take her.
“What’s going on?” she asked, her voice breathless. “What happened?”
Derek looked at me, then looked at the doctor.
“Dr. Aviv, this is my mother, Rowen’s mother. She’s…”
Before Derek could finish, Luke filled the door.
He didn’t come running in, but he definitely wasn’t walking, either.
“Tell me what’s going on,” Luke ordered.
His eyes weren’t on the doctor, though. They were on me.
I opened my mouth to tell him what was happening—what had happened—but just then the sweetest sound on this Earth filled my ears.
“Dax.”
My eyes went from Luke’s wired ones to Rowen’s, and I couldn’t stop myself.
I leaned down, dropping down to one knee, and brought her hand up to my face.
Pressing a kiss to her palm, I said, “Rowen, you’re okay.”
She smiled and rolled her eyes.
“You’re here. I know that I’m okay.” She narrowed her eyes. “They shaved my head again, didn’t they?”
I snorted. “No. They didn’t have to. But they might if…”
“…hit her with a hammer,” I heard Derek say softly.
Rowen’s eyes widened. “My head hurts. That’s why, isn’t it? Shondra hit me with a hammer.”
Shondra.
I looked over at Derek, who’d heard the words his sister had said because he’d paused mid explanation.
“Derek.”
Derek nodded and pulled out his phone.
The doctor took over explaining to Luke and Reese what was going on, leaving me to look back at Rowen.
“It hurts really bad,” she whispered, her eyes closing. “Can you turn off the light?”
I didn’t hesitate to plunge the room into darkness.
The doctor never missed a beat in his explanation, and I distinctly heard the words ‘she’s pregnant’ all over again.
And, like last time, they still didn’t scare me or freak me out.
“Better?” I asked softly.
She nodded once. “Better.”
“Don’t move your head if you can help it,” I suggested. “You have a skull fracture and a concussion.”
She squeezed my hand. “What else?”
I didn’t say the ‘P’ word, instead, I was about to tell her that we’d just learned who the person responsible was and hadn’t even considered any suspects up until this point.
Except Katy, who I hadn’t realized was even in the room, said, “She’s pregnant?”
That scream of excitement had Rowen closing her eyes.
Then opening them right back up.
Her eyes resembled those little emojis that she liked to use so much.
The one with the wide eyes and the ‘O’ mouth.
“Yeah, it’s kind of new for me, too,” I admitted.
“She’s only about two to three weeks along, according to her blood levels,” the doctor said, explaining.
“I’m going to be a grandma?”
That from my mother.
Another person I hadn’t realized that was there.
“You’re already a grandmother, Peyton.” My dad laughed. “Don’t act all excited. Two weeks is very early.”
“Would y’all shut the fuck up and get out,” I snapped.
Rowen’s eyes were getting wider and wider. At this point, I could see her entire eyeball.
The room went silent, and slowly but surely the entire thing emptied except for the doctor who came over to look down at Rowen.
“You have a concussion,” he said, shining a light in her eyes.
Rowen blinked.
“Does your head hurt?” he asked.
She swallowed hard and then said, “Yes, sir.”
“I suspect that’s going to be the case for a week or two while this fracture heals,” he said, shining his light into the other eye. “As of right now, you’re doing as good as can be expected. I have the nurse coming in to see if she can get a visual of the baby via transvaginal ultrasound. But it’s too early to even see a heartbeat yet, so I doubt we’ll be able to tell much other than seeing implantation.”
Rowen swallowed hard.
“Okay,” she said.
“If your brain starts to swell, we’ll have to take you into surgery,” he said. “Right now, I don’t know how it’ll look for you in a day’s time. It’s possible that you’ll be just fine. Won’t need any surgeries at all. But it is a possibility, okay?”