Page 52 of The Secret to a Southern Wedding

Cyril quickly moved forward to help Imani hold him up so he wouldn’t fall. Kaden’s body shook as he placed a hand to his head. He took short, unsteady breaths as they tried to get him stable.

Cyril looked at Imani. “Is he okay?”

She shook her head. “No. Let’s get him to the emergency room.”

“I’ll help you get him there.” He looked at Mr. Crowley. “We’ll come back for the meat.”

Concern masked Mr. Crowley’s face as he waved them on. “Don’t worry about the meat. I’ll get it delivered. Just let me know how Kaden is later.”

“Thank you, Mr. Crowley,” Cyril said and helped Imani half carry Kaden to his truck.

Imani’s neck and shoulders ached as she and Cyril left the hospital later that night. Tension and suppressed rage had tightened her muscles from the moment she’d seen Kaden enter the Meat Market through getting him settled in a hospital room. Kaden had been admitted because his blood pressure was too high. He’d have to stay the night so the doctors could monitor his condition. Imani and Cyril had stayed with him until his partner, Barry, could get off work and come to the hospital.

“I can’t believe Dr. Baker refuses to see Kaden,” she said the moment they were in the parking lot.

Cyril walked beside her toward his truck; weariness lined his eyes. “I wish I could say I can’t believe it, but Dr. Baker has some old-fashioned views. He gave a lecture to one of the teenagers from the high school who visited him about being loose and without morals because she wanted birth control.”

Imani stopped in her tracks. “How do you even know that?” Was the doctor going so far as to spread his patient’s business around town?

“The girl’s parents came into the bar that night. They were upset and complained about how he even went in on them for bringing her there in the first place. Honestly, a lot of people in town are fed up with him and wish they had other options.”

They started walking toward his truck again. “I can’t believe another obstetrician hasn’t come to town,” Imani mumbled. She’d hoped after what happened to Halle’s mom that there would be someone in town who would try and prevent other women from getting inadequate care. Her hopes had obviously been in vain.

“Small town. Most people here are used to going to the local doctor for help and traveling to Augusta or Atlanta if they need a specialist.”

“That sucks. Especially when the reason you can’t get care is because the only specialist in town is an asshole.”

Cyril grunted. “That’s true.”

They were silent as they walked up and got into Cyril’s truck. He didn’t speak again until he maneuvered out of the parking lot. “Have you dealt with this situation before?”

Imani stopped glaring out the window to look at him. She appreciated how he’d stayed with her the entire time. He didn’t have to, but his concern for Kaden was just as deep as hers. “What situation?”

“A trans man having a baby? I’m just curious.” He paused. “Having someone who’s more accepting in this town would be so much better than the closed-minded person we have now.”

She let out a sigh. “I have. I wish I could say the all doctors in Tampa are any different. There are just as many closed-minded OBs there. Patients just have more options. There was a doctor in the practice at my hospital who had a problem with it. I’ve only wanted to see people get quality care no matter what. When Halle’s mother died after childbirth when we were teens that’s when I decided I would be an obstetrician. At first, I said I didn’t want to see another woman die the way she did. Because the doctor didn’t see her as a person and didn’t believe her when she said something was wrong. Later, when I had a pregnant trans man come into the office to be seen, I changed my statement to not wanting to see another person die because a doctor refused to see them.”

“Sounds like you really are worthy of being called doctor of the year.”

“I don’t see it as being anything special. At the bare minimum doctors should help people regardless of who they are or where they come from. I was selected for doing the bare minimum.”

“It’s not the bare minimum. Some Black people have mistrusted doctors for decades and for good reasons. It goes beyond doing the bare minimum to showing compassion, caring about your patients and giving them a place to go where they can be heard. Don’t undermine what you do. Kaden is proof that everyone doesn’t have what you try to provide.”

Imani was silent as she considered his words. She had viewed the way she treated her patients as the way she was supposed to behave. That she was doing what every doctor should be doing. Sure, she understood there were doctors out there who didn’t treat their patients with respect, but she hadn’t considered herself as special. Realizing not everyone had the luxury of being believed or even seen as deserving of care hadn’t hit home in years.

“I haven’t thought of myself as unique in a long time,” she admitted softly.

“Why not?”

“Because when you start to think you’re special something happens to prove that you’re not.”

He glanced at her from the corner of his eye. “Now I don’t know about all that.”

“It’s true. I grew up thinking my family was special. That my dad was perfect. That my parents had the greatest marriage. That I was the smartest and brightest kid in the Peachtree Cove school system only to find out that my family wasn’t special, we were just messed up.”

“Everyone’s family is messed up.”

“Not like ours.” She considered revealing what happened between her parents. She wasn’t sure how much her mom had told him and his father about what happened. They had to have heard from the gossips in town. “You know our story...right?”

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