“Which is?”
“She told me that she was pregnant that first time too, and that Dr. Proctor gave her an abortion in his own clinic. That’s why it took so long.”
Vince was confused. “Wait a minute. He gave abortions?”
“Not that I know of, no. But he gave my sister one.”
“Why would he do that?”
Ricki exhaled. “Erica said he was the father of that baby.”
Vince was floored. He sat up in bed. “Hewas the father? How?”
“She went to see him with a friend of hers, this fifteen-year-old fast-tail girl who thought she was pregnant. He saw my sister with the girl and said she should be examined too since she was sexually active as well. But instead of examining her, my sister said he picked her up from a park later that evening, took her to this little house he owned on the bad side of town, and raped her. And that was how she got pregnant.”
“She didn’t tell anybody?”
“Nobody.”
“You believed her?”
“Every word of it. She doesn’t lie, that’s what I’m trying to tell you. No matter how bad it makes her look, she’ll tell you the truth. That man raped her and then gave her an abortion to cover up his tracks. She never lies. She’s always been that way.”
Vince was stunned. Those so-called sweet little towns held so many bitter secrets! But he could tell that wasn’t the worst part of the story. “Go on,” he said to her.
Tears appeared in Ricki’s eyes as she continued. “I was so angry I didn’t know what to do. So I grabbed my mama’s butcher knife, got in my car, and went to his office.”
“What did you do?”
“I cut his ass, that’s what I did. I would have killed him if the people in his office didn’t hold me back.”
Vince’s heart melted for her. He stared at her. “Did they arrest you?”
“So many Police showed up at that office and they kicked me and beat me and threw me in one of their cars and took me straight to jail. Dr. Proctor delivered their kids too. He was the most respected OB/GYN in town. How dare I harm their hero?”
Then she took a moment. “I was looking at fifty years for attempted murder from what my public defender was saying.”
“Why didn’t your sister tell them about the pregnancy and the abortion?”
“She told them but they didn’t believe her. They didn’t believe my sister’s story about the abortion since there was no record of an abortion. They even produced this supposed blood test that showed Erica wasn’t pregnant the day she claimed he gave her an abortion. My parents didn’t believe her either and said I was a fool if I did. But I did.”
“What happened to your case? You did time in prison?”
Ricki shook her head. “No. Dr. Proctor knew my sister was telling the truth and he just wanted it all to go away. So he didn’t press charges.”
“Even though you stabbed him, he didn’t press charges?”
“None. He claimed it was an accident. A misunderstanding. So the prosecution had no choice but to drop the case.”
“There’s no way in hell an innocent man would have refused to press charges.”
“That’s what I said. But of course everybody in town claimed he was that kind of stand-up guy who didn’t want to ruin my young life by putting a felony on my record.”
“Bullshit,” said Vince.
Ricki looked at him. “Oh so you can cuss, but I can’t?”
“Damn right. That was how long ago?”
