Angeline awoke on an exam table. It was a room into which she had ushered many patients while she stood off to the side. Lifting her lids, she almost thought that she saw a former version of herself, waiting. Just as quickly, it evaporated into the air, and Angeline knew nothing but the plush leather pressing into her back as Lillian scanned a printout and handed it off to another nurse. She closed the door tightly and pulled a stool to Angeline’s side.
“You’re up,” Lillian said. “Glad to see it.”
Running a hand across her flushed face, Angeline smiled.
“Guess I’m just tired,” Angeline said. “Long night.”
But well worth it. She had him back. He would be here at five. After so many years without, she wanted to have, to hold him again. He believed her, and Noel had failed. Even the rape faded away when she realized that she had won.
“I thought it best to draw blood,” Lillian said.
Angeline turned her head and saw the gauze taped to her arm. A part of her wanted to assure Lillian that she was just fine. Yet she was curious as Lillian flipped through the pages in her hands.
“Can your tests measure happiness?” Angeline asked, her voice full of joy.
Lillian seemed taken aback, confused. She only knew the sad girl that had shuffled towards her office as she marked off days on a calendar. And when the marks stopped, Lillian surprised her with a hug and tried to assure her that everything would somehow still be okay.
“So you’ve found someone else?” Lillian asked.
Angeline sat up and laughed.
“No,” she said. “Kane is alive. We… we were together. Just last night.”
Running her hands through her hair, Angeline remembered the ways in which he had kissed her after taking her again. She forgot doubt when he rested his lips to her eyes.
***
“I’ll keep you safe,” Kane promised. “Just trust me.”
***
And she did then. She did now. It was nothing to tell Lillian the truth. Angeline expected her smile, and her teeth chattered when Lillian returned her gaze to the printout.
“Just last night?” Lillian asked.
Angeline nodded and brought her body to the edge of the exam table. Her eyes found Lillian’s, and she gave her a confident nod.
“I have him back,” she said. “Guess that’s why I’m a little shaky. Kane—”
“But there was someone before him,” Lillian said.
Angeline flashed back to Noel. He had taken her, but it was nothing compared to Kane. Noel only crept close on the back of a cruel lie. Kane was the truth, and she was not about to apologize.
“His friend,” Angeline started. “He… hurt me.”
Lillian seemed startled. Give her the chance, and she would turn this into something that it no longer was.
She had to put her mind at ease.
“It wasn’t real. Kane gets it. So we’re going to forget. I—”
“Not sure that you can.”
Lillian turned the page to her with a sad sigh. Angeline blinked around the figures.
“hCG?”Angeline said. “Why is it so—?”
“Last period?” Lillian asked.
Angeline searched her mind, and she suddenly realized that it had been two months, the space between Noel’s assault and this moment. She had given no thought to the lack of blood flowing between her legs. She was tense. It was nothing more than that.
Unless…
“Angeline,” Lillian said as she scrunched her small nose and took the page back. She scanned the document and finally, knowingly, glanced over the edge of the page.
“How long?” Lillian asked again.
“A month,” Angeline whispered. “Maybe two.”
Lillian nodded with utter certainty as she took her hand.
“Makes sense,” she said. “You’re that far along.”
Angeline’s blood ran cold. No. Kane had sworn that Noel would be kept at a distance now that he was back in her arms.
And now…
“What if…?”
Angeline knew that she was grasping at straws, but she still hoped.
“I was with Kane,” she said. “Maybe that’s it. Maybe…”
In her frantic mind, it made sense. Kane was strong enough to plant his seed with one sure stroke.
It had to be his child. It just had—
“Angeline” Lillian started as she sadly shook her head. “You’re too far along. It had to be someone else.”
And she died inside as she touched her stomach.