The Whispers

11

Just after breakfast, Betty, Doctor Craig Montgomery's assistant and nurse, summoned Bea to Doctor Craig's office.

Sitting down across him on a plush leather chair, Bea gave a nod in greeting.

"Beatrice, I have your blood test results," Craig said reaching for a sheet of paper from the stack in the left corner of his desk and inspecting it. "There was low blood sugar but that was not the only problem."

"Dare I ask what was the other problem?" Bea's heart hammered so hard in her chest. Anxiety mixed with fear, for there were so many deadly diseases these days.

Craig handed her the report and awaited her reaction.

She scanned the paper once. Twice. Thrice. Her face paled and she gripped the report so hard it began to tear.

Craig reached her just as she passed out and would have fell from her chair, possibly taking it down too.

He sat her in her seat and loosened her shoelaces and clothing, sprinkled her with water and fanned her face with a document of multiple stapled papers, waiting for her awaken.

Just a short moment later, Bea woke up and sat up straighter, looked at her loose clothes and shoes and looked suspiciously at Craig.

"I had to loosen your-" he indicated to her with his hand, "-so you'd breathe."

Bea was already straightening her clothes. She took the report, thanked Craig and rushed to her room.

How she was still functioning was a mystery even to her. Everything didn't make sense and her mind was jumbled. The earth seemed to have shifted on its axis while the life she'd fantasised about seemed so out of reach now.

Maybe if she slept a little she'll wake up to find that all this had been a terrible dream.

She closed her eyes and willed herself to sleep until the fog of sleep wrapped her in a fitful slumber.

She was startled awake when Lily repeatedly rang the buzzer on her door.

She shuffled to open the door while rubbing the remnants of sleep from her eyes. She wasn't even ready to talk to anyone because she was still to wrap her head around the fact that she was pregnant with...that...devil's baby. Her mood soured all over again.

"What do you want, Lilian?" She growled at the intruder.

Lily scowled, gasped and took a step back. Guilt clawed at her for hurting her friend. She'd come to check up on her because she cared and here she was being an ass.

She sighed heavily. "I'm sorry."

"Want to talk about it?" Lily's voice was gentle.

How could she tell her friend that she was stressed up because she was pregnant with her ex-fiance's child while attracted to another man? Sounded selfish even to her.

"Not really. I was just resting after taking my meds. Where are the others?"

"In the drawing room." Her eyes lighted up. "Oh, and you have a visitor."

"Oh. Let's go then." They strolled down the corridor to the drawing room, Lily being her chatty self and Bea only half listening.

She wasn't ready to meet Nate either but what excuse would she use to avoid the meeting? It was hard enough dealing with the pregnancy. Now she'll have to face Nate and act like everything was okay. What she did not expect when she walked into the room was to see Rebecca surrounded by the rest of the flowers. Nothing from Rebecca was ever good!

She squared her shoulders and put on a bright smile. "Hey, Becca. Never thought I'd see you here."

Rebecca's brows drew together in a confused frown. "I called your house and left a message to some guy."