Page 21 of Baby Me

He patted my leg and stood. “I’m going to give you time with your daughter.” He glanced at the clock. “She’ll probably be up to eating within the hour. Let’s see if she does better with her mom here to offer her a bottle. I have a feeling some of her failure to eat and thrive was due to missing her mom”

“I was breastfeeding her,” I stated sadly. “They had no right to stop that.”

His warm hand landed reassuringly on my shoulder where he gave a little squeeze. “I have no doubt that your lawyer will make them pay dearly for that. Remind him to add this as another problem the delay in getting you to your daughter caused, especially if no one even bothered to ask you to pump breastmilk for your daughter while she was outside of your care. Your inability to breastfeed your daughter set her health back further than if you’d been able to continue. I will testify to that fact, if need be.”

“I will let him know. Thank you, Dr. Jenkins, for everything.”

“Anything I can do to help, you just let me know.”

He left after that, and I immediately texted the information to the Averys so that they would know, and I wouldn’t forget.

Hours later, I couldn’t delay my own needs any longer. My stomach growled relentlessly and made me feel a bit queasy. I got up and went to the cafeteria where I ran into a woman who eyed me speculatively at first. Then, she seemed more determined as she threw her shoulders back and came toward me.

“Didn’t you used to hang around the Savage Vipers clubhouse?”

“Why?”

“Sorry, Bagger and I are together.”

“How could you possibly know I was associated with them?”

“I thought you looked familiar. I’ve seen your picture or something.” She insisted, which was weird, but truthfully, she looked like one of the rich girls who used to come to open-house club parties as a ‘fuck you’ to their parents’ rules or whatever.

“What can I do for you?”

“Are you sick?”

“No, my daughter is.”

“Does she belong to a member?”

I glared at the woman for a moment and then decided, ‘What the hell?’. I had nothing to lose anymore because I’d set my pride aside, give every ounce of my blood, money, and anything else I could gather to keep my daughter alive. I told her my story, starting with my finding out I was pregnant and leaving before I had to figure out who the father was, and ending with how that information was now desperately needed to save my daughter’s life.

“I bet it was Bagger. He sometimes forgets to wrap it up,” she muttered under her breath, as if I wasn’t supposed to hear her. For some reason, I doubted her. When our eyes met, she must have seen the wary look on my face. “Sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it. We had a pregnancy scare at one point, that’s why I said that.”

I still didn’t know if I could believe her, but she popped up and offered her hand. “I can take you to Bagger’s place. It could be a good starting point for you, so that you don’t have to drag all the men through DNA testing, if it isn’t necessary. He would go in and get it done without question. Probably in the hopes of checking himself off the daddy list, but he also has a big heart. If he is the daddy, he will do everything in his power to make sure she survives.”

“Why are you helping me? Didn’t you say you’re his girlfriend?”

“Yes, and while it would suck to know he had a baby with another woman, what would it say about me if I knew there was a possibility and didn’t tell him. I mean, he might think I’m disloyal for trying to help hide a club baby.” I flinched at that because soon enough my daughter’s father – whoever he turned out to be – would be wondering the same thing about me.

The woman continued on despite my thoughts. “Plus, if there has to be a stepmom in the picture, you want me to be that woman. I won’t try to claim your child, or get in your way, but I will be there as a support system for you both.”

Her smile seemed genuine. I glanced down at what was left of my food and grimaced. I’d eaten enough to fend off the waves of dizziness but couldn’t stomach anything further.

“Okay. I can go with you to Bagger’s. I need to figure this out for my daughter’s sake, and I need to go home and get a shower and fresh clothes, too.”

“Perfect. Let’s go, so you can get back to your daughter sooner and I can find out if my man is her daddy or not. I know I seem cool with this situation, and I promise not to give you any trouble, but I’ll feel better once we know for sure.”

I could understand that.

By the time we arrived at Bagger’s house, the woman, who told me her name was Missy, seemed far more nervous than I was. So much so that when I went to get out of the car, she didn’t budge.

“Are you coming?”

She shook her head. “I’m going to stay here until one of you comes to get me. I think this is something you need to confront him with alone, so that he is more apt to tell the truth about being a possible father. If he gives you a hard time, I can come be there, obviously.”

“You’re far more trusting of your man than I think I would be in this situation.”

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