Page 104 of Defect
“Go find her, Ezra. Text me when you know she’s okay.” I lifted my head and raised my eyebrows.
“You sure?”
“Yes. Go. I know if she sees me when she wakes up she’s going to ask about you.” I stood up and headed out of Malachi’s room. “Hey, Ezra…thank you for not leaving her.” She blinked away the tears shimmering in her eyes. I nodded and gave her a hug.
My feet carried me down brightly lit hallways until I reach information. I begged the woman behind the counter to tell me where Solana Monroe was. After five minutes of asking, she told me that Solana was in triage room four. I tossed a thank you at her and ran back toward triage. I came to a stop in front of room four and steadied my breathing. When I walked in, nurses surrounded the bed and Solana’s petite body laid there looking around, scared. She was awake though.
“Ezra,” she creaked out.
“I’m right here, Solana.” I held her hand, reaching through the sea of workers and she grabbed on.
“Sir, you can’t be in here right now.”
“I’m her fiancé,” I said, looking directly into those brandy eyes I’d fallen madly in love with. The nurses looked to Solana for validation and she nodded her head quickly. They let me stay, thankfully. I didn’t let go of her hand once.
It took them twenty minutes to take her vitals, take her blood, and check her injuries. Once they finally left, I moved closer to her and kissed the back of her hand. “How are you?” I asked, trying to keep my emotions in check.
“Not so good,” she said sadly. “I think my ribs are broken. They hurt so fucking bad.”
“I’m sorry, baby. I am so sorry.” A few beats of silence passed then I said, “I fucked him up. He was still sitting in the bushes when I got to you. He thought he killed you. I thought I killedhim.” I looked down at my red, swollen knuckles and shook my fists out.
“He was still there?” She said in shock. “I was so scared, Ezra.” Tears spilled out of her beautiful eyes and I wiped them away. She didn’t need to cry over that motherfucker anymore.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there with you.”
“I don’t regret you being here with Malachi. Is he okay?” I nodded and kissed her forehead.
“Amaris is with him.”
“Oh, thank god.” She gave my hand a squeeze.
“Miss Monroe, we’re going to stitch up your cuts. By then your blood work should be back and we can go get your x-rays done.” I watched the nurses work to sew her up and I wished I could rewind time and beat Vince’s ass again.
Solana needed five stitches on her cheek and three at her hairline. As they finished, another nurse came in, crowding the already small space. “Okay, Miss Monroe we have your blood work back. No infection. We’re going to get you right over to ultrasound to check on the baby. Do you know how far along you are?”
I blinked repeatedly as if it would help me hear better. I looked at Solana and she had an expression that matched mine. “I’m sorry…did you say baby? I had no idea I was even pregnant.”
The nurse smiled a little and said, “Well, your blood work is showing a pregnancy that seems to be pretty far along. I assumed you knew. I’m sorry if this was a shock. Let’s get you an ultrasound.”
“Wait, wait…she thinks her ribs are broken. Can she get an x-ray?” I asked. I was still in shock and didn’t know what else to say. My mind was reeling. I wanted to postpone the ultrasound for a little while because I was terrified that something would be wrong with the baby after the way Vince beat Solana. If she lost the baby before I even know there was one, I’d crumble.
“We need to check on the pregnancy first, sir. After that, we’ll check on her ribs. She has been given pain killers to dull the pain.” Solana looked at me and tried to smile but I could see she was scared too.
While we waited for someone to come with an ultrasound machine, I sent Amaris a text telling her that Solana was awake and doing okay. I didn’t tell her about the baby because I was still scared.
Time ticked on forever while we waited.
Then finally, the ultrasound machine rolled in. I waited with bated breath while they squeezed goop on her belly and searched for a baby. They couldn’t find one. The tech looked at the nurse in the room and frowned.
“You said her HCG levels were showing a twelve-week pregnancy, right? We should be able to see it. Ma’am, do you know how far along you are?”
“No. I didn’t even know I was pregnant,” Solana’s voice trembled and I kissed the back of her hand. I felt helpless. All I could do was stand by while they fired questions at her.
“Okay. Don’t worry. We’ll do a transvaginal ultrasound.” I watched them probe inside of her with a wand and after a few seconds, I heard a staggeredwooshover the speakers on the machine.
“There’s the heartbeat,” The tech said slowly.
Woosh. Woosh.
