Page 54 of Twisted Empire

“There must be something else I can do,” I muttered to Paulson, who was still on the phone with me.

“There are medications which can make the tissue pass faster, but if she’s bleeding as much as you say, I don’t think they’d be appropriate in this case.”

I covered my face with one hand, trying to hide my expression from Tatum. “So that’s it? It’s just… gone?”

“I’m sorry, Elias.”

The next fifteen minutes crawled by at a snail’s pace. The bleeding seemed to have subsided for now, but cramps were still wracking Tatum’s body, making her cry out every few minutes. Her fingers clutched at the sheets around her like twisted claws and her eyes were clouded with misery.

“It’s gonna be okay, Doll,” I murmured, squeezing her hand. “You’re gonna be okay.”

She didn’t reply.

“Elias, I think I’m here. There’s some sort of electronic gate with a sign. Does that sound right?” came Paulson’s voice from the other end of the phone.

“Yeah. That’s it.” I stooped down to Tatum’s level on the bed and squeezed one of her hands. “I have to go up and get the doctor. I don’t wanna leave you but he can’t get past the gate by himself.”

Her chest rose and fell in a series of heavy breaths. “Okay. Go and get him,” she whispered.

“I’ll go as fast as I can.”

I made a brief stop in the control room on my way to the main elevator, just to make sure Paulson hadn’t brought anyone else with him. I didn’t think he would—I was sure he was on my side—but I needed to double-check anyway, just in case Tatum was right about him playing me.

I squinted at the camera feeds. It was just him, waiting by his car at the gate on the property boundary. No one else in sight. Breathing a quick sigh of relief, I dashed out of the room and headed for the elevator. It seemed to move as sluggishly as cold molasses, but I knew it wasn’t actually running any slower than usual. I was just in a state of panic where time seemed to warp around me.

Once I’d finally brought Paulson back to the shelter with me, I led him down to the medical wing and watched as he attended to my girl. He was calm and soothing, a stark contrast to my white-knuckled agitation, and Tatum seemed to breathe easier as he worked around her, fiddling with an ultrasound machine and whatever the hell else he was getting up to.

“What’s happening?” I asked impatiently. I knew he needed time to work, but I needed to know if Tatum would be okay. If the baby would be okay.

“The bleeding is under control, and Tatum is going to be just fine after she’s had some time to rest and recover,” he replied, eyeing me over his shoulder. He turned back to face her and patted her hand, then beckoned to me. “I need you to sit down, Elias.”

My shoulders drooped, arms hanging slack at my sides. “We lost the baby, didn’t we?” I said, my voice flat and distant as I collapsed into a chair by Tatum’s bedside. Her face was pale and placid, unlike a few minutes ago when she was screaming and crying, red creeping up her neckline, inflaming her cheeks and forehead.

“This isn’t a miscarriage,” the doctor said, shaking his head.

My brows shot up. A spark of hope flared in my chest. “So it’s okay?”

He rubbed his jawline. “I don’t quite know how to tell you this,” he began in halting tones. “But there was never a baby.”

His words punched me in the gut so hard they made it almost impossible to breathe. I saw my confusion mirrored in Tatum’s gaze. “What?”

Paulson pointed at the ultrasound screen. “See that?” he said. “It’s called a corpus luteum cyst.”

“What the fuck is that?”

“It’s a type of ovarian cyst. When an egg is released from a follicle, the follicle becomes something that’s known as a corpus luteum. It produces hormones in preparation for conception. Usually it breaks down when conception doesn’t occur, but sometimes it turns into a cyst and fills with blood and other fluids,” he explained. “They’re mostly harmless, but sometimes they can get too big and rupture. That’s why all the pain and bleeding occurred.” He tilted his head slightly to the side and patted Tatum’s hand again. “I know it doesn’t feel this way, but you’re actually quite lucky. Sometimes severe internal bleeding or ovarian torsion can occur, but that hasn’t happened to you.”

Tatum shook her head. “I don’t understand. They told me I was pregnant!”

Paulson nodded. “These cysts can secrete HCG, which leads to false positives on pregnancy tests. If the Lodge doctors had bothered doing more than a blood test, they would’ve realized you weren’t actually pregnant.”

I stared at him, my eyes wide. I felt empty, cheated, robbed of something which belonged to me. But why? Tatum was never pregnant. How could I grieve for something we never really had?

“So all this time… there was really no baby?” Tatum’s face was even whiter now.

“I’m afraid so,” Paulson said in a grave tone. “I’m very sorry to have to tell you like this. I know how hard it can be for people to hear.”

“But what about the nausea? The cramps?” Tatum shook her head. “That’s why they tested me for pregnancy in the first place. The nausea, I mean. I had it badly for a couple of weeks.”

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