Technically Piper wasn’t sure if you could consider someone holding you and pulling you around skating, but it still felt like a little victory.
Marty spun around, skating backward to face wobbly-legged Piper. Looking at him head-on made her dive impulsively into a conversation that should have required more tact. “I have to ask you something, Marty. You and Connie have been so kind to me. Too kind, really. Like to the point where it feels like something more might be going on here. I’m a tough girl; I’ve been through a lot in my life. But I’m not sure I’ll be able to take it if you are lying to me or holding something back. I would much rather just hear it from you straight. Did you know about me? Did you know I was yours? I wouldn’t blame you for keeping your distance, I wouldn’t be angry.”
“I’m sorry we’ve made you feel that way, Piper.” His brows came together, the lines around his eyes growing deeper. “You have been through more than enough in your life, and we don’t want to put you through anything else. I can promise you that I didn’t know you were my child. I wish I had, I would have fought for you. That isn’t it.”
“Then what is it? What are you not telling me? Are you mixed up in something? If you are, we can help you. Michael is a lawyer, Bobby is a cop. You don’t have to handle any of your problems alone.”
“Who told you that?” Marty demanded, angling his skate to the side and stopping them both suddenly. Piper jolted forward and he caught her as her legs gave way beneath her.
“Marty,” Connie shouted from the side of the rink, her arms waving frantically for them to come over.
After straightening Piper, he pulled her along quickly, reacting to the urgency in his wife’s tone.
“What is it?” Marty questioned, bumping them both against the side of the rink and nearly knocking the wind out of Piper.
“Something is wrong with Jules,” Connie said, gesturing to the bench next to the rink where Jules sat huddled, trying to disappear into the thick scarf around her neck. Her face was ghost white, and her lip quivered with fear as she blinked back tears.
“She’s bleeding,” Connie murmured quietly.
“Are you cut?” Marty asked, stepping off the ice and pulling off his skates. Connie was right there handing him his shoes, anticipating his every move.
“No, I’m pregnant, and I’m bleeding.”
Marty sat down next to her and kept his face calm and steady, a professional through and through. “I see,” he said, pulling her wrist into his hand and looking down at his watch as he checked her pulse. “How far along are you?”
“Two months.” A shiver ran up Jules’s back, and Marty shook out of his coat and placed it over her shoulders. “Am I going to lose the baby? You see, I didn’t plan this, really, and I’ve been kind of thinking sometimes, what if something happened and I didn’t have the baby? But I didn’t mean it. I didn’t really mean it.”
Piper stood back and watched as Connie took a seat at the bench and took Jules’s chin into her hand. “That doesn’t mean a thing, Jules. If every woman who thought, what have I gotten myself into, ended up having a problem with her pregnancy, there would be no babies. Don’t put that stress on yourself.”
“Bleeding does not always indicate miscarriage,” Marty assured her as he stood and extended his hand to Jules. “Is it a heavy flow? Are you having any pain?”
“I just noticed it when I went to the bathroom, it wasn’t very much blood. Maybe some cramps I guess. Nothing really strong.”
“Have you been treated by a doctor at all?”
“Yes, I was getting prenatal care where we were staying. I’ve had some blood work but no ultrasound. That was going to be next week.”
“Well I think you should be checked out. I’m going to take you to my hospital.”
Jules stood tentatively and rested her weight on Marty’s arm.
“Piper, find Michael for me. Tell him.”
“Tell him what? Everything?” Piper asked, pointing down to her stomach.
“Yes, I’ve been trying to tell him since he got here and I can’t pluck up the courage. Just tell him everything and meet me at the hospital.”
“I will,” Piper promised, feeling a lump in her throat grow as Jules disappeared around the corner.
“I’ll round up the kids and tell Michael you need to talk to him,” Connie said, squeezing Piper’s arm.
A few minutes later when Piper had run a thousand possible conversations through her mind, Michael was in front of her.
“What’s going on?” he asked, searching over her shoulder for Jules.
“It’s Jules,” she whispered, realizing her voice was coming out tinny and quiet. She cleared her throat, and at the sight of Bobby coming up behind Michael she found a little more confidence. “She just left with Marty, they’re going to the hospital.”
“Her stomach bug?” he asked, his face twisting in confusion. “She said she was feeling better. Wait, you let her leave alone with him?” Michael’s voice thundered through her, and she jumped. “After the conversation we just had last night, after what I told you he might be involved in, you let her go off alone with him?” He threw himself down on the bench and feverishly began unlacing and tugging on his skates.
“You don’t understand, it’s not a stomach bug.” She sat down beside him and tried to work the knot out of her own laces.
“I bet it isn’t. What a perfect plan. Do something to make her sick and then rush her off alone. He could have put something in her food or her drink. Didn’t Connie bring her some tea?” He reached for his sneakers and wrestled his feet into them. “How the hell could you do this again, Piper? How many times do your friends have to be in danger before you realize what you’re doing? Sticking your nose in the judge’s business, not going to the police about your father. You keep making all these choices and dragging Jules through this mess. When are you going to learn, you just aren’t . . .”
“Worth it?” she finished for him, assuming that was what he was aiming at. It didn’t matter, though, it was something she’d been asking herself every day since she met all of them.
“No,” Michael boomed back. “That isn’t what I was going to say.”
Bobby handed Piper her shoes and grabbed his own as he spoke. “Let’s not jump to any conclusions. Marty isn’t exactly some monster. I doubt his plan is to lure Jules away and then start pulling out organs.”
“She’s pregnant,” Piper forced out, almost feeling the shock wave blow through Michael. “She’s pregnant and she was bleeding a bit. She was scared and Marty thought it would be best if she were checked out right away. I wasn’t thinking about what he might be caught up in, I just wanted to make sure she was okay.”
“She’s . . .” Michael murmured, running his hands through his messy blond hair. “And she’s bleeding? What does that mean? She’s losing the baby?” His face was ghost white, his hands moving with a slight tremor.
“No, it doesn’t necessarily mean that. Marty made it seem like it could be nothing. He was very calm about it. I know there are some things to this story we don’t know yet, but I don’t think he intends to hurt Jules.”
“This is why she’s been avoiding me? Why didn’t she tell me?”
“She was afraid,” Bobby said, his voice steady as he tried to shuffle them away from the rink and toward the street for a cab.
“Afraid of what?” Michael demanded, his voice laced with confusion and hurt.
“She didn’t know how you would react. She thought you might be upset.” Piper put the hurt she felt from Michael’s words away for now. She could feel them later. Right now, it was about him.
“Fine, I can see that. She wasn’t sure how I was going to react, but you,” he spun toward Piper as Bobby hailed a cab, “you know me well enough by now. You know I would stand by her. Even if she was scared, even if she couldn’t tell me, you should have. And now . . .she’s maybe . . . I might never get the chance.”
“I’m sorry,” Piper said quietly, as they all pi
led into the cab. “You’re right, I should have told you. I shouldn’t have let Jules go off with Marty until we knew more about what he’s mixed up in.”
The only thing worse than Michael booming back a response, was his silence. Other than directing the cab driver to the hospital, he said nothing. Bobby squeezed Piper’s hand, tucked it down between their touching thighs and tried to tell her silently that it was going to be all right. That she hadn’t ruined things, that it wasn’t her fault.
As they found their way into the hospital they were met by Marty who was talking to the nurse at the front desk of the emergency room.
“Where is she?” Michael asked a bit too accusingly. Piper felt the need to temper his brashness.
“Thank you, Marty, for getting her here so quickly. Can we see her?”
“Yes, she’s in with the OB/GYN on call right now. I believe they are just prepping her for an ultrasound. She’s doing well, stayed very calm on the way over here. You should be proud of her. I’ll show you where her room is.”
Michael hung back a step and put his hand on Bobby’s shoulder. “Marty might be helping her out right now, but that guy over there,” he gestured with his chin to a man in a black baseball hat and dark coat, “he’s one of the guys he’s been meeting with. I’ve got a picture of him on my phone from my PI contact.”
“You take care of Jules, I’m on it,” Bobby said, slapping him on the shoulder. “And Michael, she just needs you to be with her right now, that’s it. There isn’t much else you can do. So just be there.”
Michael nodded his head and picked up his pace slightly to rejoin Piper and Marty down the hall.
As the door to the room opened, Piper felt a knot in her stomach tighten almost to the point of snapping her in half. A small, smiling woman sat on a rolling stool by Jules, and clicked buttons on the machine in front of her.
“Michael,” Jules quaked as he rushed toward her and pulled her into his arms. “I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you, I didn’t know how.”
“It’s fine,” he murmured, smoothing her hair and squeezing her tighter. “Are you okay? Piper said you were bleeding.”
The doctor cut in, “She’s spotting a little, which can be normal for some women during pregnancy. We’re just about to do an ultrasound now and that will tell us how the baby is doing. Miss Grafton, do you want company for this or would you prefer I clear the room?” Michael was still holding Jules who was trying to speak to the doctor over his shoulder.
“I want them to stay,” she managed, and sucked in a much-needed breath as he released her.
“This gel is going to be a bit cold,” the doctor said as she lifted the sheet and squirted it onto Jules’s belly. “Now it is early, but we should be able to hear a heartbeat and get a good indication of how the baby is doing. We’ll start with this ultrasound and if we need to get a better look, we can do an internal one.” The doctor turned the screen of the ultrasound machine toward Jules and Michael, who seemed lost as they stared at the grainy black and white screen. Piper took two steps forward, trying to manage her desire not to intrude with her overwhelming curiosity. She’d never seen anything like this before. Plenty of girls she knew had gotten pregnant, but she’d never been this close to any of them. She’d never been rooting so hard for the promise of a new life.
As the doctor pressed the wand down on to Jules’s stomach the machine came alive with noise. It hummed and echoed as she explored Jules’s belly, searching for something only her trained eye would be able to distinguish. And then it happened; she hovered over one spot and smiled widely, initiating a sigh of relief from everyone in the room. A rhythmic, watery thumping filled the room—the unmistakable sound of a beating heart.
“The heartbeat sounds great. Very strong. We’re waiting for your blood work to come back, but everything looks great here.” She clicked a few more buttons on the machine as she spoke. “Do you see right here?” she asked, pointing to a small grainy blob on the screen. They all leaned in slightly, Piper taking another two steps forward. “That is your baby.”
Jules smiled and a light Piper had never seen before, filled her face. Her skin seemed to glow with joy. But even more unexpected than her luminous reaction was the shock of seeing the air leave Michael’s body so quickly that he had to gasp to catch his breath, to fight off the tears that had overtaken him.
“Our baby?” he asked, still in shock. His legs buckled slightly beneath him and he braced himself against the rails of her bed.
“I know this isn’t what you wanted. I’m so sorry to spring this on you. I’ve given it a lot of thought, and I can do this on my own. You didn’t plan this and you have your life just where you want it.”
“Stop,” Michael choked out, releasing his hands from the rails and dropping down to his knee.
“Sir, do you need a chair? It’s normal to feel a bit overwhelmed, perhaps I should call in another doctor for you?” the woman asked, as she stood quickly and rolled the ultrasound machine out of the way.
“No, I don’t need a doctor,” he laughed, not able to contain the emotion. “I need a wife, a mother to my child.” He reached out for her hand and pulled it to his lips. “Julie Winifred Grafton, will you marry me?”
The machines monitoring Jules’s vitals began to beep more rapidly as she sprung up to a sitting position. “Yes,” she exclaimed. “Of course I will marry you!”
“You may want to curb the celebration just a bit. You are doing very well, but you need to relax. Take it easy for the next few days.”
“Yes, Doctor,” Jules agreed, squeezing Michael tightly as he leaned in to her for a hug and an anxious kiss.
Piper took her opportunity to sneak out just behind the doctor. Maybe Michael didn’t mean all the hurtful words he said today, or maybe he meant every word of it. Either way, this was their moment, and she wasn’t going to let her baggage muddy it up.
She searched the waiting room for Bobby and saw him striding down an adjacent hall at a steady clip. She walked quickly to catch up with him, and as she reached a hand out to touch his back he pulled her into a doorway with him.
“Quiet,” he whispered, putting his fingers to his lips. “The guy that just walked into Marty’s office is one of the people he’s been meeting with.”
“Jules and I tried to overhear a meeting Marty was having with a man the first day we came to the hospital. But we couldn’t understand anything from the conference room.”
The two voices pouring out of the office started low, but then grew. If the door remained open, then they’d be in luck.
“I told you never to come back here. Now get the hell out, Rueben,” Marty shouted, clearly upset.
“And I told you this isn’t finished until we get our money. You can’t just stiff us and think you’re going to get away with it.”
“I’m going to call security,” Marty threatened, and Piper could hear him lift the receiver of the phone.
“Really? Because, the way I see it, you have just as much to lose as I do. Well, actually, maybe a little more. You see, I’m not married, no kids either. So before you go calling in the cavalry, why don’t you think about them for a minute? Your hands are pretty dirty in this, and there is no way you’re taking me down without coming with me. So how about you just pay me my money and I disappear. You don’t have to worry if I’m spending time at Roosevelt High School or taking in a little league game at Tyson field.”
Piper could only assume, but the sound of a phone being set back on its base implied that the man’s threats were being directed at Eli and Jennipher.
“You listen to me, you monster, if you go within a hundred feet of my kids you won’t have to worry about who takes who down, because I’ll kill you myself. I know every inch of the human body and I can slice you open so fast you won’t know what hit you. You’d be dead before you hit the floor. If you show up here one more time I will turn you in, even if I have to go down with you. Now get the hell out.”
The man backed slowly out of t
he room. “Sorry Doc, it doesn’t work that way. It isn’t over until I get my money. And guess what? The price has gone up now. One hundred thousand dollars. See you soon.”
Bobby and Piper ducked farther into the room where they were hiding, and Piper pressed her nails into his arm.
“Holy shit,” she whispered. “He’s a monster, too. How is that even possible? I knew I should have just left all this alone.” Piper’s breath was coming fast and she felt herself growing lightheaded.
Bobby squeezed her arm. “We don’t know any of that for sure. Plenty of decent people get mixed up in things like this. The way these organ rings work is they prey on desperate people and then exploit and threaten them. It’s just as likely that Marty needs our help.”
She shook her head, not wanting to hope for the best. “You heard the guy. Marty’s hands are dirty, too. At a minimum he’s done something illegal. And he’s putting his family in danger.” They stepped back out and listened as Marty dialed his phone.
“Hi Gene, I need to make a withdrawal from my account. It’s going to be fairly substantial, but I don’t want Connie to know about it. Is there anything we can do, something we can move around?”
Bobby and Piper walked back down the hallway and away from Marty’s office. Piper wanted to believe Marty was a good man, but the events of the last fifteen minutes were making that nearly impossible.
“What do we do now?” Piper asked, lacing her arm through Bobby’s and realizing how grateful she was to have him back in her corner.
“We go to Christmas dinner tomorrow and if the opportunity arises, we talk to Marty. We see if we can get him to talk to us about it, and if he needs our help, we do what we can. How is Jules?” he asked, sucking in a breath and holding it.
“She’s good, great really. We got to see the baby on the monitor and the heartbeat was strong. Michael was so excited he dropped to one knee and asked her to marry him. It was really sweet.”
Changing Fate (Book 3) (Piper Anderson Series) Page 15
