Page 66 of Tempted

“Worse actually.” Another wave of dizziness hit her. “You know, I think I might need to take a break, after all.”

“Sure. Take as much time as you need.”

“Thanks.” She took a couple steps and the room began to spin, and she saw two of everything. She stilled, hoping the feeling would go away.

“Jasmine,” Earl’s voice came to her in a fog.

She took another step and everything went black. The last thing she remembered were big arms catching her as she fell into oblivion.

* * *

“I don’t understand. It’s not possible.” Jasmine shook her head trying to make sense of the news she’d just been handed. Just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse, they did. Who did she piss off in her last life? She woke up in hospital bed after suffering from dehydration and exhaustion. It was bad enough she had to worry about how to pay this bill with no insurance, but this…

The doctor gave her a puzzled look. “Miss Brookes, I’m pretty sure you understand the logistics as well as I do¯”

“Doctor, I know how it happens and I’d appreciate if you lay off the sarcasm. What I’m saying is, I can’t be pregnant. There’s no way. Your test is wrong.”

Doctor Lyons sighed and took the seat next to her bedside. “Miss Brooks, I apologize if I came off as sarcastic, but you’ll have to face facts. Your pregnancy test came back positive. And with a 99.9 percent accuracy rate, it’s not likely the test is wrong. May I ask why you feel it’s not possible?”

Jasmine closed her eyes tight. “Because, that’s what I was told…I was ra—attacked. Um, there was a lot of bleeding and…” She’d never told a single soul about this, not even Madeline or Jason and getting the words out was painful, “extensive scarring apparently. The doctors said I’d never conceive again.”

“I’m sorry. I guess that explains things. You have to understand, I get so many young mothers in here who make the same assertion while knowing full well how it happened.”

Jasmine shrugged. “It’s okay.”

“Sometimes the body heals itself. If this pregnancy is unwanted, there are other alternatives.”

She knew exactly what he meant by ‘other alternatives’. There was no way she could terminate her child’s life. When she was pregnant with Star, Jasmine had gone to a Planned Parenthood clinic with the decision to abort her baby. But when she’d seen Star’s heartbeat on the monitor, she couldn’t do it.

Jasmine shook her head. “No.” She firmly believed that every woman had the right to choose but it wasn’t an option for her.

“There’s also adoption. There’s a demand for healthy newborns from couples who can’t conceive if you’d like to go that route.”

“Doctor, I don’t know what I’m going to do when the baby comes but I will have this baby.”

“No you won’t. Not if you stay on the path you’re on. You’re dangerously underweight and malnourished. You’re stress level is off the charts. My recommendation would be complete bed rest for the next few months and for you to get a proper evaluation from an OBYGN. We’ll go from there.”

Could the news get any worse? Her savings would only take her but so far. It would barely last a month with no other source of income. And what about Star? “I have to work in order to pay my bills.”

“I don’t think you understand how extremely close you came to miscarrying. If you don’t want to lose your baby, you’ll go on bed rest, otherwise, I can’t in all conscience release you from the hospital. Why don’t you think about it and we’ll discuss this later.”

Jasmine had no answer.

Left alone to stew in her hospital bed, Jasmine touched her belly. Pregnant. With Victor Meade’s child. How could she have been so stupid to get involved with a man who was so unyielding? Judging from how they’d parted, she wasn’t sure he’d take the news well. She understood his anger, she’d withheld information from him but his reaction had been extreme. The violence he’d displayed told her she had been right to be cautious with him.

She wanted to believe that his explosion was a one-time thing but then again, Phillip had claimed he never meant to hurt her either when he’d repeatedly used her as his personal punching bag. No. She definitely couldn’t tell Victor.

She’d tried not to think about him these past several weeks but every now and then, he’d creep into her thoughts, especially when she let her guard down. The way his eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled, his lop-sided grin and the way his tongue touched the corner of his mouth when he was deep in thought. It was the little things that haunted her the most.

She was probably forgotten and the kids had a new nanny. Jasmine missed Chelsea and Tyler so much.She wondered if they thought about her as much as she did about them. Her heart ached at the thought of never hearing Chelsea’s incessant chatter again or receiving her random hugs. She’d give anything to hear one of Tyler’s bad knock knock jokes and the way he explained Fortnite and Minecraft to her as if he was a Harvard Professor. She even missed Adam. The two of them had formed an easy friendship and she wondered how he was doing. Then there was Madeline who’d been her champion from the beginning. Jasmine had wanted to call her but thought better of it. She thought a clean break from the Meade clan would be best so why did it still hurt so damn much?

The doctors wanted her to rest, but she wasn’t the least bit tired as worry made her mind race. The doctor had threatened to sedate her if she didn’t get some sleep.

The door creaked, signaling someone had entered her room. It was probably one of the nurses checking up on her.

“Jasmine?” Jason’s voice registered.

Her eyes popped open. She tried to sit up, but the effort required more strength than she had. “Jason?” He’d been such a good friend to her since he’d re-entered her life. After that first initial kiss, she’d been worried he wanted more than she could give him, but he didn’t press. He picked her up from work every day and served as a sounding board when she needed one. She was glad to have a friend in her corner.

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