by Ann, Natalie
“Who’s Derek?” Mac asked as Zoe came walking in with a baby doll cradled in one arm and a plastic bottle in the other.
“Mommy, are you OK?” she asked.
Beth’s face look haunted when Mac looked at her. “How about I put cartoons on for you, Zoe? You and your baby can watch them together. Doesn’t that sound like fun?” he asked gently, trying to mask his building anxiety.
“OK,” she said, her little feet padding into the other room.
Just as Mac found the right channel on the TV, he heard the bathroom door slam shut and rushed toward the kitchen to the sounds of Beth losing her dinner. He went to turn the handle to check on her and found it locked. He rapped his knuckles on the frame. “Beth, open up.” But all he heard was her empting her stomach.
The opened letter on the kitchen table caught his eye and he picked it up, scanned it quickly and swore.
Hearing the toilet flush, he folded the letter back up and shoved it in his pocket without a thought. He waited for the water to stop running and then addressed Beth again, “You OK? Open the door.”
Something that sounded like sobbing came from the other side, mixed with a gagging noise, increasing his anxiety to another level. Slamming his open palm on the door he yelled, “Unlock this door or I’ll break it down. I mean it, Beth. I have to see if you’re all right.”
Another moment passed, more water running, and then he heard the lock turn. Opening the door, he saw her sitting unsteadily on the lid of the toilet bowl, face in her hands, sobbing.
“Come on, let’s get you in bed, you need to lie down.” He reached to help her up on shaky legs, guiding her the length of the small apartment until she was on her side of the bed with a blanket tucked over her.
He walked out and saw Zoe’s wide eyes filling with tears, her lower lip trembling. “Is Mommy sick again?”
“Yeah. Mommy isn’t feeling too good right now. Let her sleep a bit. Why don’t we get you in the tub for the night? What do you think, want to draw on the walls again?” he asked with a grim smile.
“Color the tub pink,” Zoe said.
Yeah. Color the tub pink, and every other color in the box of soap crayons he bought her weeks ago. That should entertain her and take her mind off Beth.
He doubted it would help him though.
***
By the next morning Mac was ready to pull his hair out with how stubborn Beth was being. He was waiting outside the bathroom door, as he had multiple times throughout the night. He tried to talk to her about the letter, but every time she started to speak, she would end up running to the bathroom and throwing up again. At this point he was worried sick and knew she was dehydrated.
He did everything he could for her throughout the night. However, every time she got fluids in her, she would start to talk to him and then run back to the bathroom. He finally told her to forget it for now. They would deal with it another day.
Now it was a little after five in the morning and he knew he had no choice, she was too weak to fight him on this. He let her have her way throughout the night because she tried to drink, and she kept some of it down, but he was finished with being patient.
“You’re going to the hospital,” he told her, seeing her on her knees again. Her eyes looked black and hollow, her face was white as a sheet and she looked ready to break if he touched her wrong.
“I’m not going, Mac, I’ll be fine. Just make me a cup of tea,” she suggested.
“No. Get up and walk to the car, or I’m carrying you. End of story. If you won’t think of yourself, then think of our child. I’m done discussing this,” he said firmly.
“What about Zoe?” she asked, too weak to even drum up enough tears in her eyes at the moment, even though he knew she was extremely upset.
“I heard movement upstairs. I’ll run up and get Mrs. Wilks to come down and stay with Zoe, so she can sleep a few more hours, she will be fine. Stay here until I get back.”
A few minutes later, Mrs. Wilks arrived, concern written all over her face. “Oh dear, you should have contacted me last night. Don’t even worry about Zoe, she’ll be fine. I’ll take good care of her.” She rushed off to give the two of them privacy and went to watch TV quietly in the other room.
“Let’s get you up and changed if we can,” Mac said, reaching a hand to help her stand.
Once in her bedroom she sat on the bed, shaking uncontrollably while Mac patiently dressed her with the same care he had Zoe in the past. “Let’s go. Can you walk?”
“I think so,” she said with a shudder. But when she tried to stand she ended up grabbing the bed to steady herself.
“Forget it.” Mac reached down and lifted her as if she weighed nothing, cradling her in his arms while Mrs. Wilks rushed in front of him to open the door to the apartment and then his car.
Once on the way the short distance to the hospital, Beth said quietly, “Everyone is going to know.”
“Know what?” he asked absently.
“That it’s your child.”
“Your point?” he asked.
“I don’t want to make things uncomfortable for you at your job. I’m sure it won’t reflect well.”
He pinned her with a sharp look. “Don’t test me. I’ve reached my limit with you right now. Let’s get this very clear. I. Don’t. Care.” He slowly said each word. “I’m not trying to hide anything. I never have. That’s all you.”
Not that he wanted her to be this sick, but maybe this was the push that was needed for her to realize he wasn’t embarrassed. He was thrilled that he was going to be a father. He wanted to shout it to everyone; only she kept holding him back. No more after today.
She closed her eyes and laid her head back against the headrest, too weak to even argue at this point.
Since she refused to be carried into the ER, Mac pulled in front of the entrance, got a wheelchair and pushed her right past the admission desk toward the nurse’s station.
Thankfully it was a slow morning. Or maybe not, as speculation rose when he started to explain Beth’s condition over the last twenty-four hours.
Another
“You look like hell,” Brooke told Mac when she and Lucas walked into the ER an hour later.
Once Beth was settled, he’d called Brooke, right after he called the office to let them know he wouldn’t be in. Not that he needed to worry about that, it was most likely making the rounds of the entire hospital at this point. Which was another reason he needed to tell Brooke, before she heard from someone else.
Mac stood up and ushered both of them to a private area restricted for staff. “Sorry to call so early,” he said. “But I wanted you to know.”
“Mac, don’t apologize. I wish you had called earlier.” She went to him and gave him a hug. “What’s going on, does she have some type of a stomach bug? Food poisoning? She didn’t look good at all.” Brooke hadn’t done a good job hiding her gasp when she walked in and saw Beth sleeping with the IV attached to her arm.
“No, not a stomach bug. Or food poisoning.” He felt himself starting to smile. “Let’s say she isn’t handling things as well as you right now.”
Brooke looked confused. Lucas seemed to catch on, if the tilt of his head was any indication.
Mac looked at Brooke’s tiny belly, still not really showing, even though she was wearing looser fitting clothing, more for her benefit than anyone else’s. “There is another Malone on the way,” he said, pride showing in his eyes.
Stunned speechless, an O formed at Brooke’s mouth, as she tried to digest the news. But Mac’s smile told her it was OK, so she reached up and gave him a teary eyed embrace. “Wow. You said I worked fast,” she said with a laugh.
Mac knew his sister by now, and saw her brain processing the information. “Not far behind you, a little over a month. Let’s say that fireworks show is going be a lasting memory in my mind.”
Lucas shook Mac’s hand, but couldn’t help to push his buttons. It’s not like Mac hadn’t pushed plenty of Lucas’s o
ver the last year, so he expected it in return. “Guess you were never a Boy Scout.”
Mac slapped his brother in law on the back and laughed. “Always a Boy Scout. Unfortunately being prepared doesn’t always mean the equipment works as it should.”
“Seems the equipment worked fine to me.” Lucas laughed back.
“Enough, you two,” Brooke interrupted. “How is Beth doing? Everything OK with the baby? Obviously she isn’t feeling well.”
Mac sobered. “Baby’s fine. Beth’s dehydrated right now. They want to keep her for the day, maybe overnight, for observation. I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind bringing Zoe over later on your way home from work? I’m sure she is upset right now, but I don’t want to leave Beth alone either.”
“Of course we will,” Brooke said. “I have a light day. Just my weekly staff meeting with the Legal Department,” she said, pausing to grin at her husband, who was the head of that Department at Albany Medical Center.
Lucas grinned back. “We’ll take off a bit early, pick up Zoe and bring her over mid afternoon. After her nap, how does that sound?”
“Good, thanks. I need another favor, too.” Mac said and reached into his pocket for the letter that caused most of the trauma over the last twelve hours.
***
Lucas scanned the letter, looked at Mac and sighed. “I’m not the best person for this, but I know who is.”
Mac replied, “Yeah, I thought so. But I wanted your take right now. I want to be able to tell her something to calm her. What time is your meeting? They should have her in a room shortly if you don’t mind talking to Beth yourself. She isn’t going to believe me if I’m relaying the information.”
Looking at his watch first, Lucas replied, “We’ve got two hours before we need to be on the road.”
“Let me see where we stand right now with a room.” He led them back to the ER.
After another thirty minutes of finagling, Beth was finally awake and in a private room, embarrassed over the whole situation. “I’m sorry,” she said, apologizing to Mac once again.
“Will you stop apologizing to me? None of this is your fault.” He fought not to snap at her.
Brooke and Lucas watched on with humor as Mac lost his temper. He was always known to go with the flow, stay calm, and usually got his point across that way. Or shrugged it off with a laugh. But he was losing his finesse, and clearly didn’t appreciate that Lucas found the whole situation funny.
“Congratulations,” Lucas said to Beth.
“Ah, thanks. It’s still a bit of a shock,” Beth said.
“Beth,” Mac started. “Do you feel up to telling us everything? Don’t leave a single thing out regarding this letter. I’m assuming Derek is Zoe’s biological father.” He struggled even to say that much about the guy who’d left Beth high and dry during her pregnancy to raise Zoe on her own.
“Yes, he is. I don’t understand.” Beth started to cry. Thanks to the anti-nausea medicine, no one was too worried about her being sick again. “Why now? Why after four years does he want to see her? He told me never to contact him again and I haven’t. I kept my end of the deal,” she sobbed.
Lucas frowned. “What deal? What are you talking about? Tell me everything you remember.” He opened his laptop that he had retrieved from his car when Beth was being transferred to her room.
After Beth relayed everything to them. All the details of her brief relationship, how Derek told her she meant nothing to him, how he was engaged to another woman the entire time and how he paid Beth off to keep quiet, Mac was more enraged than ever before. “We are going to fight this,” he told her.
“How? His lawyer said he has a legal right to visitation and even custody if he is paying child support. If I stop the support he can fight it, can’t he?”
“You said his name isn’t on the birth certificate, correct?” Lucas asked.
“Correct, but he can ask for a DNA test. He even stated that in the letter, too,” she pointed out.
“Yes, he can, but he won’t win. We have the upper hand here,” Lucas stated.
“I need you to trust me, Beth,” Mac interrupted. “I love Zoe, too. I won’t let anything happen to her. You know that, don’t you? You believe me, right?”
“I know you love her. And I know you won’t let anything happen to her, but I don’t see how I can win this.”
“Don’t worry about that right now. I want to hear you say you believe me—believe in me, and trust me to protect you and Zoe.”
The tears were running unchecked down her cheeks at this point. “I trust you. Please don’t let them take my baby from me,” she cried as he pulled her into his arms.
Mine
Derek Whitfield looked over at his wife sitting in the first row of the courtroom, dressed in a pretty little navy dress beaming with anticipation of what was to come. While he stood there seething and trying to figure out how he got in this mess.
He hated kids. Never wanted them, and even went so far as to get a vasectomy four years ago when he found out he fathered one.
Unfortunately he let that little bit of information slip out to his fiancée at that time and she wasn’t too happy. Said she wanted kids and didn’t want to be with someone who disliked kids as much as he did.
His dreams of becoming of the owner of the restaurant he worked at vanished. The owner, his fiancée’s father at that time, sided with his daughter, not even caring Derek was the best chef in the area. So not only did that mean the end of his engagement—which he really wasn’t heartbroken over since she was so lousy in bed—but the end of his job as well.
So he moved on to another target, and was finally married. Christine, currently sitting in front of him, was anxious to see the little bastard he sired. Some fifteen years his junior, Christine was the perfect wife for him. Beautiful, rich, and her father owned the restaurant he was hoping to own some day.
Plus, Christine was dumber than a box of rocks. He had been able to sweep her off her feet, tell her everything she wanted to hear and sway her enough to convince her father he was the perfect guy for her.
Only, once again, children became an issue. He learned his lesson though, and wasn’t about to tell her about his vasectomy. Now after two years of marriage and failed attempts at conceiving, Christine had started to talk about getting tested for fertility issues. And of course that meant he would need to be tested, too.
Fear of his secret being discovered, he did the only thing he could think of. He told her he had a child already in hopes she would think the problem was hers, and not push the issue of his testing.
Unfortunately, that backfired on him. As much as he tried to play the victim, that Beth was an evil bitch who refused to let him see his child and only wanted his money, Christine came to his defense. She got angry for him.
In another moment of weakness—in bed this time—because Christine was the best he ever had and she knew it, she managed to get the name of the lawyer out of him that handled his case before.
So now, here he was, exactly thirty days after Beth received the official letter from his lawyers, waiting for her appearance in court.
He hadn’t heard a word from Beth, not one peep. If she didn’t show up today with a lawyer, by default he would get his visitation with his child. He couldn’t even remember if it was a boy or a girl. Somehow he would have to find a way to stomach his way through them, for the sake of keeping this marriage and his dreams of owning his own restaurant.
“Derek.” Christine interrupted his thoughts. “If she isn’t here in fifteen minutes we get visitation rights automatically. Why wouldn’t she even attempt to contact you?”
“Who knows,” he told her with disgust. Maybe Christine would think he was repulsed over Beth’s lack of communication rather than this entire situation. “I told you what a bitch she was. She’s probably going to drag this out for years. Are you sure you want to go through with this? Wouldn’t it be easier to keep trying to have our own child?” He hoped that sounded sinc
ere.
“But it may never happen, and I want a child so bad. A child of yours is the same as mine, right?” she asked. “I mean I would still be a mother then, a stepmother.”
He sighed deeply and rolled his eyes, then turned to address his lawyer. Thankfully Christine’s father was footing the bill for all of this. That would have been another needle in an open wound if it came out of his wallet.
***
Mac looked over revolted at the man who fathered Zoe. In the past thirty days they had dug up all sorts of dirt on the guy. It seemed Derek had a fondness for young innocent girls, some even of a questionable age and profession. Must make him feel like a man.
When Derek’s first engagement failed four years ago, he made his way through two more women. Both were related to his employers at that time. And both times he had women on the side, therefore ending those relationships when he was caught.
By all appearances he seemed to be faithful to his wife. Mac didn’t think Derek had a sudden change of heart and decided to be devoted to his wife; no it was just that he got smarter. So it took a bit more digging, but they finally found the string of women Derek had been paying for over the last two years.
Too bad for Derek, those women weren’t smart enough to keep their mouths shut. They were more than willing to throw him under the bus, since it seemed he didn’t treat them well, either.
He was trying to see what Beth saw in Derek. About the same height as her, and same build, probably even weighed the same. Mac supposed Derek was good looking, in a sleazy kind of way, with dirty blonde hair, light colored eyes, and dressed immaculately in a suit. But all he did was turn Mac’s stomach.
When he heard Derek refer to Beth as a bitch, he had all he could do not to stand up and make his presence known. However, he had a plan and he had to stick to it. He had been here for over thirty minutes, in the courtroom dressed in plain street clothes, seemingly fitting in.
