Overcoming The Lie

Chapter 1

As the gentle, yet chaotic waves crash against the shore and the sun stretches closer and closer to the horizon, Addison can feel each breath getting heavier. This will be the last time she is able to experience such beauty and peacefulness from this spot. As soon as day turns to night, Addison made the trek off the balcony and downstairs to the main office where he was waiting for her. As she stepped into the room and shut the door, her stomach leapt into her throat, but she forced herself to take a deep breath.

"Mark, I need to tell you something, and you are not going to want to hear this. But I need to get this out before I change my mind."

"I'm confused, what is going on?"

Okay, you can do this Addison. Just tell him, you have practiced this hundreds of times before. Addison thought, reassuring herself. Here goes nothing. "Eleven months ago, your sister came to me, swore me to secrecy, and then asked if I could run some tests on her. She had not been feeling well, and that something felt off. Her and Adam had been trying to get pregnant, but every test she took turned up negative. At first, we thought that maybe the tests were wrong and she actually was pregnant. It matched all her strange symptoms. So I ran a full blood workup, changing her name so you wouldn't find out. The tests confirmed that she was not pregnant, but they did confirm something else. Marli's blood-work showed an increased white cell count; very increased count. I told Marli that I needed to run more tests...

***

"Hey Marli, it's good to see you again, how are you? And how's Adam?" Addison inquired as she hugged Marli, Mark's younger sister.

"Addison, it is good to see you too. Adam is great, we have been trying to get pregnant. That's actually why I'm here."

"That's great! How can I help you two?"

"Well, the first few months were great, we were having great sex, and really connecting with each other. Even though the tests kept coming back negative, we were still enjoying the process. But about three months ago, something changed. I started feeling really tired, some days were so bad I could barely get out of bed. I thought maybe I caught a flu bug, but it only got worse. I started feeling nauseous, everything I try to eat makes me want to hurl. And my periods are all out of sync. Addy, I think that maybe I am pregnant, but all of the at-home tests keep coming back negative. I am started to get worried here; that maybe something else is going on. Can you help me? And please, we can't let Mark find out I was even here, he would worry too much."

"Of course I can. Sometimes those tests can be wrong, so I want to run a full blood panel and we will go from there. Don't scare yourself Marli, we are going to take this one step at a time, and more likely than not, the tests will all come back normal." Addison calmingly responded. She then admitted Marli under a different name to hide her identity and took her blood for testing.

The next day, Addison received Marli's test results, and quickly called her back into the office. Luckily, Mark was out of the office for the day, speaking at the local college so they did not have worry about her running into him. When Marli arrived, Addison took her into one of the exam rooms and sat down with her.

"Marli, I got your test results back. I am sorry to say that the tests confirm that you are not pregnant."

"Oh, okay. I guess we can keep on trying. Is everything else good?"

"Well, your tests did show something else. It could be nothing, but I want to run a few more tests before I say anything conclusive. Marli, your blood tests show that your white blood cell count is higher than the normal range. Actually, it is much higher than the normal range."