“I can’t eat anything. I’m still sick from the crap they gave us back in the prison.” I hadn’t been able to hold anything down and had lost weight in just a handful of days.
“I’ll make you chicken soup.” She got up.
My phone started ringing, buzzing on the coffee table. I winced, still anxious to answer it. I didn’t think anyone could blame me. I looked at the screen and saw it was the hospital again. They’d been calling and leaving messages to contact them. I’d been putting it off because of everything that was going on.
Dad’s funeral, Luc’s trial, Millicent’s funeral in a few days’ time. The last thing I wanted was to be drawn off to the hospital or something medical.
I guess though, now that everything was over, I could take care of myself.
Gigi nodded at me as I answered the phone, and she left me.
“Hello.”
“Hi, is this Miss Rossi?” came a soft feminine voice.
“Yes, speaking.” I adjusted the phone at my ear.
“Hi, I’m Doctor Ferguson at the Chicago General. You are a very difficult woman to get hold off.” She chuckled.
“I’m sorry. I had a lot of things to sort out. It’s been a stressful time.” That was probably putting it mildly.
“Well, stress is one thing you don’t need right now.”
“No, I agree.”
“Well, that’s a good start. I’m contacting you today because it was revealed in the tests we conducted while you are with us that you are pregnant.”
At first, I didn’t quite hear what she said. Then it hit me. It hit me hard, like someone had thrown a truck at me.
“I’m sorry. Can you repeat that?” I narrowed my eyes and pressed the phone closer to my ear.
“Congratulations, Miss Rossi, you’re pregnant.”
Chapter 21
Luc
* * *
“You look like shit,” Claudius said, looking me over with disdain.
It was typical of him to point out the obvious.
I knew I looked like shit with my black swollen eyes and bruises all over my face.
“What the hell happened to you?” Pa asked.
I sighed with frustration. “Six guys jumped me. Romanos boys. Pricks.” I wouldn’t last in here. Not because I couldn’t take care of myself, but because I couldn’t control myself. Those assholes thought they could pick a fight with me because it was them against me. They were wrong.
They’d come at me when I was eating the filth they called lunch in this shithole. I took them down effortlessly, but that had landed me in solitary confinement for two days.
“You okay? I mean, are you hurt?” Pa asked.
“I’m alive. You should see the other guys.” They had broken arms and legs.
This place was killing my soul, undoing all the good I’d done in the last few months. It was undoing me, the man I’d become since meeting Amelia.
I needed her. This was the first day I was allowed visitors, and I was going to tell her straight that she needed to move on with her life. Not that I assumed she would wait for me. I was just hoping. Hoping with my stupid heart, but at the same time thinking with my brain for a change.
