Children of Vice (Children of Vice #1)(49)

“I’m going to tell you something and I was going to wait until it wasn’t your day but might as well lump all the shit together—”

“What is it?”

She sighed, opening her purse to pull out her phone and show me a medical report…Klarissa Moretti’s medical report.

“She’s pregnant,” she said as if I couldn’t read.

Looking away, I tried to think, but my mind went blank.

“I can—”

Jumping off the sink counter, I walked out of the bathroom, trying to figure out where to go.

“Ma’am.” Greyson, the hulk, stepped in front of my face. “Are you all right?”

When I didn’t answer he reached for his phone, but I shook my head.

“Stop.” My voice was barely over a whisper as the wheels began to turn in my mind. “When Ethan isn’t around you have to listen to me, right?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He nodded, putting the phone back in his pocket.

“He’s not here. So take me to Klarissa Moretti’s room.”

“Ma’am—”

“Now.”

He looked over his shoulder and around us, but no one else was there, with the exception of the guards. Nodding, he led me, not to the elevator, but to the stairs.

“Ethan knows, doesn’t he…about her,” I said as we walked down the white staircase, which led to her level of the hospital. But I answered my own question. “Of course he knows. If Nari knows, he has to know.”

He said nothing as they walked down only one floor. The guards in the staircase moved for us as we went down. Opening the door to her floor, I followed him, noticing for the first time how late it was since all the lights in the rooms were dimmed. There was only a nurse on the whole floor. All the doors were closed and blinds down, but I knew no one was in there. Grayson stopped in front of a room 9219.

“This is it.” He nodded to the door.

I thought for a long time how this would go, making him say “Ma’am, don’t do it, it won’t make you feel better.”

“Grayson, ninety-percent of the things I do now aren’t to feel better.”

Hearing the nurse get up and start to leave, I turned back to her. “Excuse me!”

“Ma’am.” Grayson tried to stop me from talking to her, but I ignored him, walking over to her. She was an older woman, maybe a few years older than Evelyn. Her dull gray-blonde hair reminded me of how mine was before it was fixed.

“Did you need something Mrs. Callahan?”

Mrs. Callahan already? Apparently word got around quick. I pointed to the golden Claddagh brooch, the heart was made of a bright white pearl, that was pinned on her deep blue scrubs. “Where did you get this? I love it a lot.”

She looked down brushing her fingers over it; “This old thing? I bought it for a dollar at my neighbor’s yard sale.”

“Can I buy it from you? I’ll pay a hundred thousand for it.” I said with a smile on my face.

Her eyes widened. “What?”

“The brooch. I really like it.” I repeated it.

She looked at me as if I were insane, but took it off and gave it to me. I looked it over before telling her.

“Thank you. Grayson, please pay her,” I said, turning around, placing the brooch into my open purse and heading straight towards room 9219. The wooden door squeaked when I stepped inside. Making the woman inside, who wasn’t even looking towards me, say, “I knew you’d come.” She turned, the grin on her face deflating as she saw me instead of the man she hoped would come.

Her hair was brushed over her shoulder, and she had cuts on her arms and face, including the one from the punch I’d given her. She sat up on the bed earlier…she’d been waiting.

“How did you know he’d come?” I asked as I walked further into the room, closing the door behind me.

“Because he values family more than anything else. Once he knew, he’d have to come,” she said proudly, placing her hand on her stomach. “Aren’t I lucky? Our son’s a fighter just like his father.”

I glanced at her stomach and then at her again. “You aren’t scared of me, are you?”

“Why would I be?”

“Yeah, most people say that.” I sighed.

She snickered, even popping her head to the side. “You don’t belong in our lives. This is proof. Congrats, you may now be Ethan’s wife, but I’m going to be the mother of his child...he won’t let anything happen to either of us.”

“…hmmm.”

“What?” She glared at me. “There’s nothing you can do. Other than get used to me, that is.”

Without a word, I turned to the machine beside her, reaching inside my purse I pulled the card I’d stolen from the nurse as she gave me her brooch, swiping it on the machine.

“What are you doing? Stop!” She tried reaching over to smack my arm away but she couldn’t reach and I did what I needed to do.

“I’m sure you really love Ethan.” I said, turning to her. Picking up her morphine drip and pressing down hard, the limit was taken off it and the drug flooded into her system. “And I can’t say I do…so this may seem unfair. But life has been unfair to me too. In the past…I just let it go. Good will win out at the end of the day. That’s what I told myself…But I was wrong. Now I have a second chance, Klarissa. I can’t wait for the end of the day. I can’t be the better person. I can’t be left behind.”