The dent in our vows

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Dawn's Pov

While my Sunday ended with watching Cecilia Bartoli perform live at a VIP opera event and then getting railed with her playing in the background because David loved his classical music and thought it was a perfect idea to torture me by only going deep when her voice hit the pitch, my Monday started off pretty simply, except I was skipping work today and paying a visit to my OB/GYN slash elder sister, Paula, for the ovulation predictor kit I ordered without telling him.

Of course, I knew I should've but I didn't think it was necessary. With his back-to-back late-night meetings that kept him mostly in the office, we had no time to talk. Plus, he'd rather spend more time drilling into me hard like a love-starved Viking which was what he'd been doing since the incident between Jacob and me.

"Dawn?" I snapped out of my thoughts.

"Dawn Argent?" The nurse in green scrubs standing by the doorway repeated again with a smile on her face.

"Hi," I got up. "Is Doctor Montgomery done yet?"

"Yes, she is. I'll take you to her."

Nodding with a smile, I grabbed my bag and followed behind as she led me out of the waiting area and through the pristine white hallway leading to an office door that had my sister's name on it.

"You can go in." She urged and I thanked her before stepping into the air-conditioned office.

"Why don't you visit the tech and I'll see you next week?" Paula said to the patient she was currently shaking hands with. "I'm sure it's nothing some medications can't fix."

"Thank you, doctor."

I stayed silent as she ushered her out, a graceful smile on her face as she did so.

If there was one thing I loved about my sister, it was her charming smile and the ability to make it disappear faster than it appeared.

"You," she frowned at me, shrugging off her white coat to reveal the curvy Latino body, not at all scarred from childbirth. "After all these years, the prodigal sister finally returns."

I narrowed my eyes and pulled her into a scented hug. "I've missed you too, Paula. And it's only been two months."

"Doesn't matter. I've missed you." She kept me wrapped for a minute before letting go. "Look at you, all fresh and energetic. That heartbreaker must be doing something right."

I laughed softly. "My husband is not a heartbreaker." I corrected. "He was, but not anymore."

"Well, I beg to differ." She shrugged and walked around her desk.

Right from the very beginning, Paula hadn't been a huge fan of my relationship with David, matter of fact, she didn't want the wedding because she believed a playboy didn't just change overnight. She was cynical that way and I couldn't say I blamed her. I mean, her husband of six years did cheat and had been cheating even before they had their first child.

"Here you go." She pulled something out of her drawer. "The kit you asked for." She handed it to me and I graciously received it.

"Thank you for this."

"Are you sure you want to be pregnant for this guy?" She scrunched her face as though she couldn't fathom the idea. "I still don't trust him."

"I do." I smiled. "It's been a year, he's not going to hurt me."

"Michael and I had been together for five years but he still managed to rip my heart apart." She walked around the desk back to me and tapped my shoulder. "I really don't want the same thing to happen to you because fool me once, shame on me, fool my little sis and I just might cut your balls off."

I tried to laugh her words off even if my gut squeezed at them. "Oh, don't worry." I waved her off with a flick of my wrist and lowered my gaze to the box in my hand. "So, how does this work?"

She let me go and leaned her hip on the edge of her desk. "It comes with a set of ten test strips. You should start using it about two days before you expect to ovulate. If you're not sure when you ovulate, you can use an ovulation calculator." She took the box from me and pointed to the photo illustration. "See here, it has two lines. One line is the control line. The second line is the test line. When the test line is as dark or darker than the control line, the luteinizing hormone is rising. This is when you should start having frequent sex." She rolled her eyes at her last word and I tried not to smile but it crept on my face anyway. With David around, that wasn't going to be a problem.

"Preferably the missionary and doggie-style positions." Paula continued, looking as though she did not want to share this information with me but had to for professional reasons. "It allows for deeper penetration and brings the sperm in closer proximity to the cervix." She cleared her throat. "Just be sure to read the instructions again when you get home."

I nodded. "It's a bit confusing but I'm sure I'll get a hang of it."

"As much as it is confusing, it is not also always accurate so just be observant."

I lifted my eyes from the box. "Are there other methods?"

"Well except you would like me to sit you down on my exam table and examine your cervical mucus?"

Jeez.

"Yeah, no." I laughed. "How long does it take to get pregnant after going off a pill?"

Her brows shot up in worry instantly and I realized I should've thought this through before mentioning it to her. "You've been on a pill?"

When I didn't say anything, all humor drained from her face.

"Araceli, did that asshole put you in a pill even after marrying you?"

I bit my lip and looked away from her flaming baby blue orbs. "We weren't in a rush to start a family."

She snorted. "The Dawn I knew was always excited about having children."

"I know, but I just wasn't in a rush."

She pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. "You just keep giving me more reasons not to trust that guy."

"It's fine, honestly, and I'm off them now."

She looked up at me again and quirked a brow. "So he knows you're here getting this kit?"

I pursed my lip.

"Come on, Dawn!" She scowled disapprovingly at me.

I sighed. "I'll tell him, I was going to, I've just not gotten the chance. Believe me."

She stared hard at me for a moment and then ran a perfectly pedicured hand over her butterscotch hair. "Well," a sigh left her lips. "You can get pregnant within a month. Depending on the length of your cycle, you could start developing an egg a week after you stop. What kind of pills do you take?"

"Uhm, progestin-only."

"Mini pills, great, that means your cervical mucus will quickly return to normal, making it easier for sperm to reach the egg and if the timing is right, you could potentially conceive between two weeks but I do advise waiting a month before trying to conceive. Give your body time to return to its natural state."

I smiled. Honestly, all this baby talk was starting to make me feel nervous. A good kind of nervous. "Thank you, Paula. I mean it."

She held my hand in hers. "As a doctor, I'll tell you to go for what you want. As a mother myself, I'll tell you that having a child of your own is one of the most sweetest thing ever to experience, but as a sister who is genuinely concerned, I want you to think really hard about this." She squeezed my hand. "A child changes the ball game. Look at me, I still have to see Michael's cheating jackass face every Monday and Wednesday because of Hermione. He's moved on with a new family and I'm somehow still stuck with the 'divorced single mum who couldn't keep her man' title." She chuckled bitterly at her own dilemma. "It's not as fun as they make it seem in movies. It's usually depressing and I don't want to see you hurt like I was."

I released my hand from hers and pulled her into a hug instead. "I'll be fine, Paula. David is never going to hurt me."

"Well, he better not."

I chuckled. "He won't."

I trusted him.

I did.