Page 93 of Ruled By Fate

“We come from very different worlds. And where he comes from, to be with someone like me is considered taboo. Whether or not he wants to… it isn’t allowed.”

Rashida considered this, then nodded slowly. “Sherry mentioned that he might be Amish when you went to the bathroom.”

Brie didn’t know what to do except agree. “Right. Well, the point is, being with me might destroy his relationship with his people — with his family. And I don’t know if I’m selfish enough to want him to do that. But I’m afraid that I am.”

Rashida was quiet for a minute. “I know exactly how you feel.”

“You do?”

She laughed humorlessly. “Believe it or not, dating as a Nigerian woman in the American South hasn’t always been the smoothest sailing. I’ve run into a few families less than thrilled to accept their son’s new girlfriend with open arms.”

“What did you do?”

Rashida shrugged. “The only thing I could do. The only thing anyone can do. I made my choices, and they made theirs. Sometimes, I walked away. I decided that they were too much work, and if they wanted to be with me, they’d stop dragging their feet and make it happen. Sometimes, I took the initiative. I made my feelings known, and they took that information and made their decision.”

She looked over at Brie. “It’s all about choices. In the end, you can only be responsible for your own.”

Brie swallowed hard and looked at the road ahead. “Rashida? I’m thrilled you’re our third.”

Chapter Nineteen: Horns of a Dilemma

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“Stash your stuff. We have a bad one.”

They’d scarcely walked through the door when Denise jerked her head to indicate that Brie should follow her fast and close. Brie lifted her hand to Rashida in a hasty goodbye and stashed her backpack with Cindy with a brief nod of understanding, then hurried down the hall.

They swept into a trauma room, and Brie stopped cold. A red-haired girl, no more than six, lay on the bed. Her lips were white, her face tinged with green. Her breathing was shallow, and she lay perfectly still, except when a round of convulsions shot through her like a bolt of electricity, arching her back and shaking her limbs like rubber toys.

Her mother stood in a corner, her eyes wide with shock. She was being questioned by a nurse Brie hadn’t met before.

“I don’t know. I don’t know,” she kept repeating. “She was fine when I brought her in. That doctor examined her, and she was fine. Just a fever that wouldn’t go away. I only brought her in because it was so high, and our doctor is away on vacation.” She looked at the nurse with tears spilling down her cheeks. “What’s wrong with her? What’s wrong with my baby?”

“I don’t know, ma’am, but that’s what we’re going to find out.”

“Don’t just stand there, Weldon.”

Denise snapped her fingers, and Brie shot back into focus. She immediately walked to the girl’s side and assisted the other nurses attaching monitors, taking vitals, and taking her blood pressure. It was dangerously low, so low the machine registered an error the first time.

As Brie bent down to readjust the cuff and try again, the pendant slipped from her shirt, knocking lightly against the girl’s arm. Suddenly, the shaking stopped. Green eyes flew open, locking onto Brie in an instant of sudden, inexplicable lucidity. Tiny fingers curled around her sleeve.

“Please,” she whispered. “Please, help me.”

A second later, her eyes rolled back in her head, and she started convulsing again.

There was a sudden commotion on the other side of the room. The nurse had dropped his clipboard. The mother was staring in complete shock. Even Denise looked rattled, planting her hands on her hips.

“Weldon, what was that?” she demanded. “What did she say to you?”

Brie stared for a split second longer, then the words burst from her lips. “It’s poison.”

There was a beat of silence.

“What?” Denise asked doubtfully, staring with concern. “Weldon, there’s no—”

“It’s poison,” Brie said, louder. “Cut her clothes off, don’t pull them over her head. Run fluids. A ton of them. She needs an anticonvulsant. Take vials of her blood immediately and deliver at least one of them to Rashida Botha down in the morgue. And pump some fresh air into this room. We don’t know how this got into her system, but it got in while she was here.”

Everyone in the room had stopped and was staring at her.

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