Nickolas-1 (19 page)

“Your brother Damon asked me to take you to Devin’s office. He’s been detained on another emergency. Would you be all right with that?” Shit, it was time. “Ah, yes, I guess that’ll be fine. Anytime you’re ready is fine with me.” He stood up and stretched out the kinks in his back and shoulders. He’d been sitting there for nearly two hours and was no closer to figuring out what to do than before.

Forty-five minutes later and they were seated in Devin’s office waiting on the results. His entire family had shown up to wait, with the exception of Damon.

He’d just called to say that he was on his way.

Nick didn’t know what to think about that. They would all be supportive, but to whom, he didn’t know. His mom was still upset with him, he knew, and Damon was barely speaking to him. He was standing next to the window, watching the rain pelt the pane, when he saw Damon pull into the parking lot below him.
The gang’s all here.

As Damon slammed his door shut and was darting to the front doors, the courier service pulled up too.

“They’re here. The service just pulled up out front. Damon is here too,” Nick told the room in general. His belly suddenly took a slight jump. Then he started rubbing his chest again. Christ, he could be a father in the next twenty minutes, he told himself.

Devin had asked him how he wanted the information. He had his choice of having it read by Devin in private, or Nick himself could read it in private, or Devin could read it to everyone. Nick really didn’t know. He wanted all of them to happen at the same time. Privately with his family while Devin read it to him while he was still at home.

The courier handed the clipboard to him to sign, and once he had, handed the envelope to him. Nick sat down with it and didn’t say a word.

Without looking at anyone in the room, he opened it and pulled out two sheets of paper. The first one was a table with rows and columns on it. Nick looked at it for several seconds and looked up as Damon walked over to him. He handed it to him. He didn’t know what he was looking at anyway. The second sheet was an explanation.

RESULTS OF DNA ANALYSIS

Interpretation: Based on the DNA analysis submitted, the alleged father NICKOLAS PATRICK GRANT is the biological father of the twin unborn male children of MORGAN BECKY because they share the same genetic markers.

Combined Direct Index:

17,446

Probability Percentage:

99.9942%

Nick’s first thought was,
I’m the father
; his second was,
twins
. He was the father of Morgan’s twin baby boys. His and Morgan’s twin baby boys. Father. He was a father.

“They’re mine. Morgan’s sons are mine.” He was sure his family was saying something, but he couldn’t hear over the loud buzzing in his head. The only thing he could understand was, “Twins, Morgan, Mine.” It kept a constant loop going around and around in his head.

Nick didn’t know how long his mom had been saying his name when she was suddenly in front of him. She was grinning. What the hell was there to be happy about? he thought.

“I said, are you going to go and talk to Morgan? She must be excited. Twins.

And boys too. There haven’t been twins born in our family in a few generations.”

“She doesn’t know she’s carrying twins, or sons. She doesn’t know anything about her babies other than their health,” Libby Sugar said as she sat down across from him on the little, dark blue love seat.

“What do you mean she doesn’t know? How is that even possible?” Nick asked her. Morgan was too thin, he realized. Much too thin to be carrying twins and be almost seven months pregnant to boot.

“She doesn’t...no that’s not right. She feels she can’t get attached to the babies. She’s not keeping them. And as for not knowing, she couldn’t afford an ultrasound so none was ever preformed on her. She’s been barely making it every month with just paying for the doctor and hospital bills in advance,” Libby said. He watched as she pulled out a sheet of paper with neat columns on it.

“The doctor demanded that she pay up front for his services. Let’s see, that’s about eleven thousand dollars. And as she doesn’t have insurance, she’s been making a payment every month to a special account to pay the hospital with when she delivers.”

“Is that why she’s so thin? She’s not eating to pay the bills?” How could she jeopardize her health like that? Why the heck wasn’t she asking for help? That sobered him. Why should she ask for help? She had to know he wouldn’t have given it to her.

“No, she’s thin because Simon had her on a three thousand calorie a day intake. He told her he didn’t like his women to put on too much weight at delivery. He was about to lower that to twenty-five hundred because she’d had too much of a gain last month. He’d never checked for multiple births, and as she couldn’t afford the ‘extras,’ as he called it, he’d never tested her.” Damon sat down next to Libby on the love seat.

“Is that common practice, to have women eat so little during pregnancy?” Nick asked. He stood up and began pacing the room. He just happened to glace over at Damon when he realized he was rubbing his chest. Damn it, he was under a little pressure here, he thought.

“No, actually, it’s very unsafe for both the mother and the baby. In Morgan’s case, babies. Morgan isn’t all that big anyway. If she makes it to full term, she’ll be grossly underweight and may be too weak to deliver on her own,” Damon told him.

“
If
? What do you mean if she makes it to term? You won’t let anything happen to her, will you?” He watched as Damon looked over at Libby. “What’s going on? What’s happening with Morgan?”

“I’m no longer her doctor as of you reading that letter. She went back to Simon this morning.”

“Damn it! What is wrong with her? Does she want to die?” Nick sat down again. Hard against the seat and back. Did she? Neither Libby nor Damon would look at him directly. “Mother fuck!” he shouted.

After getting Devin’s car keys, he took off back to Zanesville. It was high time him and his little mother-to-be had a long, serious talk.

~~~

“No, please, don’t hurt me again. I hurt so badly now.” Morgan had to get away before he caught her. Her legs ached and pulled. Something was wrong with her, something bad. If he caught her, he’d kill her. She could see the light ahead, the tiny pinhole of light. She opened her eyes.

Hospital room…she was back in the hospital room. When she had blinked enough, she realized that Nickolas Grant was sitting on the little couch and staring at her oddly. She glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it was nearly eleven-thirty. He knew about the baby. Morgan felt along her bed sheets, found the pull for the nurse, and pulled gently on the cord.

“Morgan? Are you all right?”

She ignored him. No, she wasn’t all right. She was seven months pregnant and in the hospital, stupid schmuck.

A nurse pushed open the door a few seconds later and walked in on them.

Morgan still hadn’t acknowledged him when he greeted the nurse politely. She did, however, smile for Shannon.

“Hi, Dr. Grant. Morgan, whatcha need?” she asked her.

“I need to go to the bathroom, please. And get a shower.” She started to straighten out her gown and fuss with the sheet. She’d had a bad dream and had soaked them through with sweat.

“All right, but try to only stand up for five minutes. You remember what the doctor said. Stay off your feet as much as possible.” She nodded. She knew what Damon had told her. He’d said to stay off them altogether, but she was no longer his patient.

When she stood up next to the bed, she swayed heavily. Her vision blurred and she had to quickly lean back against the bed. If Shannon hadn’t been holding on to her, she would have fallen in a fat heap on the floor. Morgan saw Nick move to her side, but she didn’t, no, she couldn’t look at him right now.

“You don’t need a shower that bad. Get back into bed before we have to pick you up off the floor. Stupid woman, don’t you know the meaning of the words too much?” he said.

Morgan would have laughed at the look of pure shock on Shannon’s face at his words if she hadn’t been trying so hard to stay upright.

It took her all of an hour to get to the bathroom and bathe. She hadn’t had the energy to shower, so Shannon helped her take a quickie bath. It felt good to lie in the water and relax. Especially after getting to wash her hair for the first time in two days.

When she came out of the bathroom, Nickolas was still in the room. As Shannon was helping her back to the bed, he walked over. Actually, she thought it looked more like stalked over, scooped her up into his arms, and deposited her on the fresh bed. Even as she squeaked with indignation, he already had her put down and himself on the couch again.

Giggling loudly, Shannon left them alone again. She didn’t have the energy to deal with him, so she rolled to her side away from him and put the sleeper to her cheek, rubbing gently.

Shannon had found it just this morning. It had gotten wound up in her blankets when she’d been taken down to the x-ray room yesterday. She had been so happy she cried for nearly ten minutes.

Morgan was just closing her eyes when she heard a chair being moved across the room. Apparently, he didn’t like being shut out. She didn’t care and started to close her eyes again.

“I want to talk to you about our children.”

Oh, now they were
... Her eyes popped open and she stared at him.
Children
?

As
in more than one?
He didn’t say another word. She knew he had to know she didn’t know about the children. Damon would have told him she didn’t have any information about the baby, or babies, she guessed now. She closed her eyes again and realized what Shannon had meant when she’d said she needed to buy another one, another sleeper. Sons, they were twin boys.

“Okay, I’ll talk and you’ll listen. Starting right now, you’ll eat as much as you want. No, let me amend that, you’ll eat as much as Damon tells you to eat.

Every day, Morgan. As soon as you’re released from the hospital, you’ll live in my house with me. I have several servants there that will see to your every whim when I’m not there. Someone will take you to your doctor’s appointments and you’ll follow the doctor’s orders to the letter. I’m very serious in this.” She thought he was finished with his rules, but apparently, he was saving the best for last. “And as soon as it can be arranged, we’ll be married.” Morgan didn’t even open her eyes or say a word. He could say whatever he wanted, about whatever he wanted, but she was a grown woman. There were long minutes of silence. Too long, she guessed later. It wasn’t long until she was sound asleep.

When Nick woke up, he was alone in the room. There was a faint light coming from under the bathroom door and he assumed that Morgan had gone back to the bathroom. He stood up and stretched and realized it was full dark out. He must have slept the full day away. He actually felt pretty good.

Nick walked over to her bed and groped around for the light switch for the lights on the back of her bed. The sudden light illuminated the entire room and he immediately knew something was wrong. Shit! She was gone. He went to the nurses’ station to ask where Morgan had gone.

“Can you please tell me when Morgan left? I was supposed to take her home with me, but I must have fallen asleep.” Damned girl, he was going to strangle her when he found her.

“Dr. Grant? She left you a message.” Nurse Fist handed him an envelope, went back behind the long counter, and flopped, no other word for it, back into her chair and went back to playing solitaire on the computer.

Dr. Grant,

I hope you enjoyed your nap. I’ve gone home. I don’t want anything from you.

Morgan Becky

P.S. You snore.

Yes, when he found Morgan Becky, he was going to strangle her good. But first, revenge. Smiling, he left the hospital and made a few phone calls.

“Mom, its Nickolas. I need your help. Morgan is refusing to marry me and I was wondering if you could please go over to her apartment and talk some sense into her for me?”

“Of course. Why is that silly girl refusing to marry you? You’re a good catch, and my grandbabies need a father. Not to mention the last name of Grant. I’ll go over there first thing tomorrow.”
Oh yeah
, he thought.
Revenge is going to be so
sweet.

“Not too early. I’m on my way there now, and I want to talk to her. Tell her what’s going to happen with our future.” He was hoping that anyway.

His next call was to his brother Devin. He wanted to make sure there was no way Morgan was going to be implicated in the murder of Denty. And that she would never see the inside of a prison cell again.

“No, she won’t. Those pictures she took did the trick. The man’s name who killed Denty is Marty James. He’s an ex-cop on the police force from somewhere out West. He and Denty go way back and were lovers at one point.” He could hear the hesitation in his voice. There was more.

“Tell me. I’m on my way to Morgan’s house right now. The little imp left the hospital even though I expressly told her not to.”

“She doesn’t strike me as the type to just obey without question. If it matters at all, Nicky, I really like the girl.” He stopped and leaned against the car.

“Yeah, it does. I like her too. Of course, I want to choke the girl most of the time, but I think I really like her.”

“There are two minutes of video on the phone she recorded when she was pushing buttons.” He was quiet for so long, Nick was afraid he’d lost the call and started to pull the phone back to check when Devin spoke again. “Nicky, what she endured...what they did to her was so much more than she told us. I...you should see it. I’ve been a criminal lawyer for a long time now and I was... No person, especially not a woman, should go through what she did. Ever.” Nick didn’t want to see the video; he didn’t even want to think about it. But he needed to be able to help her. “I’m going to go get a few things from my apartment and then go get a few things here in town. I need you to get my house opened up and ready for us sometime tomorrow. I’ll meet you here tomorrow and see it then, all right?”