Page 59 of Endure the Pain

“Sixteen or twenty-four, I don’t want kids. I’m religious with my birth control. So I don’t know how this happened.”

“Then let’s confirm that you really are pregnant. I’ll make some calls and get you in to see a doctor,” he said.

“Okay.”

“Are you going to tell Jameson and Louie?”

I shook my head. “I don’t want anyone to know. Especially Stefan.”

He assured me he wouldn’t tell anyone and left to find me a doctor. I numbly and patiently waited for him on my couch. Dean and Asher, smartly, kept quiet.

A half hour later, Brody returned. “Get ready. We need to leave in twenty minutes,” he told me.

I rushed to get ready and sent Asher and Dean ahead of me to get Will and bring the car around front.

As Brody and I were stepping off the stairs, heading for the front door, Stefan walked into the foyer.

He eyed the both of us and our outerwear. With it officially being wintertime and freezing out, we both had on heavy coats. “Where are you two going?”

“Would you let it go if I said it was a secret?” I asked him.

“No.”

Of course not.

“Christmas is around the corner. I need Brody’s opinion on a gift I want to get you. Thank you for ruining the surprise,” I lied, and it wasn’t hard to sound annoyed. Before more could be said, I quickly dragged Brody out the front door. Stefan was the most perceptive person, other than Jamie, I knew. One wrong look or breath from either Brody or myself, he’d know something was up.

It’s cold. I thought as I sat, shivering, on the exam table in a paper gown.Yeah, keep telling yourself that.

There was a hard knock on the door before a Dr. Greene, one of the best OBGYNs in New Haven, according to Brody, walked in. He was a seasoned doctor with gray hair and wrinkled hands.

Before he'd had me dress down into a paper gown, we had gone over my medical history. He had asked a lot of questions about my accident, specifically the medications I'd been prescribed. When I'd told him about the antibiotics, something had flashed in his eyes. He'd then explained to me that a type of antibiotic can decrease the effectiveness of birth control and one of the ones I’d been taking was known to do that.

“You ready?” he asked as he took a seat on his little rolling stool.

I nodded.

“Go ahead and lie back,” he instructed as he rolled over and pulled out the stirrups for me to put my feet in.

I was very surprised to learn that he had to do the sonogram up my hoohaa and not over my stomachwith a long wand that was cold and didn’t vibrate. Dr. Greene twisted and quite literally probed me with the wand as he stared at a computer screen. He took screenshots and typed in various things I didn’t understand. “Well, based on the measurements and from what you told me about your last cycle, the baby appears to be about nine weeks. We might be able to hear the heartbeat,” he mumbled the last part absently before twisting the wand again.

“That won’t be necessary,” I said quickly.

A fastthump, thump, thumpsound poured out of the computer’s speaker. It was completely and utterly unsettling.

Dr. Green smiled. “Sounds good and strong.”

At the end of the sonogram, Dr. Greene printed off a picture and gave it to me. I had no idea what the hell I was looking at. Dead center was a tiny jellybean shaped blob with tiny stubs for what I assumed were arms.

“Do you have any questions?” Dr. Greene asked.

“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “What if I don’t want to keep it?”

“You’re thinking about aborting?”

I nodded.

“If you decide to do that, I can refer you to a colleague. But you must decide soon. He will only perform the procedure up until a certain stage of the pregnancy. I have a pamphlet I can give you.”