branded (phantoms mc #2)

twenty-three: in which she accepts the truth

"Freedom is a curse that I don't want to break" –Koda, Curse

********************************

I hated clinics.

Well, clinics, hospitals, medical facilities, in general. Any place with doctors and nurses and fucking medication was like hellfire to me.

But I would suffer through it for family, and Eve was family. My family.

"This really wasn't necessary," she was saying from her seat beside me.

I didn't know if she meant driving out to a clinic in another town, or how we were visiting a clinic to begin with. Eve was being surprisingly calm about possibly carrying the child of the man she'd murdered. In the twelve hours since I'd found out about her pregnancy, I wondered, for the millionth time since I'd known her, if this was the calm before the storm.

"Evie," I said to her, "we need to know if you're really pregnant, okay?"

I'd reminded her about Maya's false positives before she finally fell pregnant with Keegan. Something about abnormally high HCG levels. So, with that possibility, it just made sense for us to make sure that Eve was actually pregnant. I really fucking hoped she wasn't.

"I am," Eve replied. She picked up a Family Planning pamphlet and opened it, but I knew she probably wasn't even seeing the words. "Four positives kinda confirm it, don't they?"

"And you're okay with that?" I asked, really looking at hers. "You're okay with carrying Ty's child?"

Eve lifted her shoulder in a shrug, her eyes intent on whatever happy-sappy crap was written in that pamphlet.

There was a woman sitting across from us; Asian, round-faced and in a floral-patterned summer dress. She was heavily pregnant, sitting there with one hand on her protruding belly in that irritating I'm-with-child way that all pregnant women did. Aside from the receptionist, she was the only other person in the waiting room of the Embersdale Women's Clinic.

"You can tell me how you really feel, Evie," I said gently. "Even if you want to get rid of it."

Eve shrank away from me, her face painted with what I assumed was horror. "What?" she hissed.

I held my hands up. "I'm just saying. You have options."

"First, you don't even believe I'm pregnant, and now..." Her voice trailed off and she shook her head. "And now? Now, you want me to have an abortion. Which is it, Pussy? Does my baby not exist, or does it exist and you want me to kill it?"

Eve wasn't exactly whispering now, and both the pregnant woman and the receptionist were looking at us, definitely hearing every single word Eve was saying. Oh, yeah, being incognito sure as hell wasn't going to be an option.

"Calm down, Eve."

"Don't tell me to calm down! Why can't you just be supportive, P?"

There were tears in Eve's eyes now, and I honestly didn't know how we'd gotten to this. Eve had gone from zero to a hundred in the space of a few minutes, and I just prayed that I'd be able to calm her down.

"Ms. Jackson?" the receptionist called out, staring directly at us.

Who the hell is Ms. Jackson? I thought, before remembering that it was the pseudonym I'd used for Eve when I was making this appointment.

"That's you," I whispered to Eve, standing up.

She was glaring up at me, and I sighed.

"Eve, I'm sorry, okay? Whatever you decide, I will support you. I promise."