Page 52 of Finding Forever

“What on earth do you think will happen to me? I’m pregnant, not suffering from some dread disease. Knock on wood.”

Cade fought to keep the grin off his face as she quickly tapped the wooden desk in front of her.

“Superstition?” he asked, battling to keep the amusement out of his voice. “You went to a Catholic school, I would sooner have expected you to cross yourself and bust out a rosary.”

“Just because I went to a Catholic school doesn’t mean I’m Catholic.” Her voice was prim, and this time it was she who fixed her gaze on the poster behind the desk.

“It doesn’t?”

“No, it was just the first and furthest boarding school Granger could find that would take me in the middle of the school year.”

“How soon after your mother’s death did he send you to boarding school?”

“As soon as he could arrange the student visa—three weeks later.”

The thought of it infuriated Cade. Her whole world must have been upended after her mother’s death. And while the wound of that loss had still been raw and bleeding, that fucker had simply removed her from everything and everyone familiar and parceled her off to a different country and a new school, where nobody knew her or cared about her.

How frightened she must have been.

Fern wasn’tsure what was going through Cade’s complicated mind. Something dark was brewing behind that impassive stare. He looked almost angry and she wasn’t sure why.

“Well?” she prompted and he stared at her in blank confusion. He must have lost track of their conversation. “What do you think will happen to me?”

“I’ve been reading up on all the catastrophic shit that could happen to you while you’re pregnant.”

How…odd.

“Why would you do that?” she asked, confused.

His shoulders shifted uncomfortably but before he could reply, the door opened and the doctor walked in with a slightly harassed smile on her face.

“I’msosorry to have kept you waiting. Just had to deal with a minor emergency. Hello, I’m Dr. Amina Khan. And you must be the Hawthornes.”

She was a petite, dark skinned, attractive middle-aged woman with a short, sleek black bob, and kind eyes. She rounded her desk and Cade and Fern both stood to shake her hand, before they all took their seats.

“And this is your first pregnancy, right?” she asked, after consulting the folder on her desk.

“Yes,” Fern said with a nod, feeling unaccountably nervous. She still wasn’t too happy about Cade being here, but he’d made it clear that he wasn’t going anywhere, so the next best thing was just to proceed as if he wasn’t there.

The first appointment was longer than Fern had expected. It involved an overall assessment of her physical and mental health. Bloodwork, pelvic exam, uterus size. Andsomany questions. Dr. Khan was friendly, informative, and extremely thorough.

Cade remained a grim presence throughout most of it, and he wasn’t very pleased on the few occasions that Dr. Khan asked him to step out. He listened attentively and peppered the doctor with questions about the most doomsdayerish topics: ectopic pregnancies, gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, anemia, even depression.

The doctor answered his many questions with a great deal of patience.

“And what about the likelihood of placental abru?—”

“Oh, heaven help me,” Fern muttered with a roll of her eyes. “Cade, will youstop? None of these issues are of immediate concern.”

He slanted her anare you kiddinglook that she met with a stony glare.

“It’s natural for your husband to have these concerns, Mrs. Hawthorne, and I’m happy to answer his questions.”

Fern had noticed that none of his questions were about the fetus or its well-being, they had all been these worst-case scenarios that did nothing to settle her nerves.

“I just need to know if the baby is healthy,” Fern said and the doctor smiled.

“Time for your dating ultrasound then,” she said. “This will tell us if all is well with your pregnancy as well as determineconception and due dates. Please pop into the room next door and I’ll join you and my technician Lee-Anne in just a minute.”

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