“No. I just took a sleeping tablet now and then but stopped when I found out about the pregnancy.”
“That’s good. Now, I need to do a urine test. There’s a ladies' room.” She pointed at a white door to the left. “The pee cup is on the cabinet and already has your name printed on it. Once done, you can undress from the waist down, pull on one of the robes and make yourself comfortable. Doctor Garcia will be with you shortly.”
She turned halfway before looking back and pointing at a tray next to the bed. “Oh, and you can grab one of those large paper sheets to cover yourself with.”
“Thank you.” I tried to plaster on a warm smile even though I was slowly suffocating.
When I opened the ladies' room door, Silas stood in the far-end corner of the room the entire time, probably freaked out of his mind. And after I peed in a cup and pulled on a robe, I came back, finding him in the exact same spot.
“You okay?” He studied me while keeping his arms crossed.
“Yeah. You?”
“I’m not gonna lie. This place is scarier than I imagined. The entire fucking aura in this place is screaming babies, babies, babies.”
I snickered at his unease. “It’s because this place is mostly about babies, babies, babies.”
The bed creaked as I sat down, and Silas started toward the door. “I should probably wait outside.”
“Silas,” I called. “Would you…would you stay? If it’s not too weird.”
“Oh, it’s weird as fuck.” His brows arched. “But I guess ten minutes in this tiny room with my half-naked sister won’t kill me.”
I smiled, but my hand shook as I tried to tuck a red curl behind my ear.
“I’ll just be way back here, and as soon as we walk out that door, we never speak about this again.”
My smile disappeared as I lay back on the bed. Staring up at the white ceiling, I tried my best to focus on my breathing rather than hyperventilating. The fluorescent light was sharp and bright, making up for the lack of natural sunlight because the damn room had no windows.
The door flung open, and I nervously sucked in a breath as the doctor walked in with the same nurse that was here earlier.
“Miss Whitlock,” he greeted. “I’m Doctor Garcia, and I’ll be examining you today.”
“Hi, Doctor.”
“Your urine test came out clean and showed that you are definitely pregnant.”
I held my breath as the doctor pulled on his gloves and took a seat next to me. Suddenly air no longer reached my lungs, and all I could think about was the panic attack I had at Andrew’s party. It was terrifying. It felt like my heart would stop at any moment, and the thought of experiencing that again had fear clawing at my chest.
“Um…Silas, would you just,” I held out my hand, and without hesitating, he inched closer and took it, wrapping his fingers tightly around mine.
“I’m here.” He shot me a half-smile. But we weren’t in the dark like we were the other night when I told him I was pregnant. The worry in his eyes was evident within the emerald rings of his green eyes. It was hard to ignore.
Doctor Garcia adjusted the paper sheet, and my skin erupted with chills even though the warm air from the air conditioning wafted across the naked skin of my belly.
“Ah.” I breathed out, biting back tears as the nurse squirted the cold gel on my stomach. It felt so fucking unreal, me being seconds away from seeing my baby on a small monitor.
Silas squeezed my hand. “You’re doing great.”
I nodded, but I wasn’t doing great. I was terrified out of my fucking mind.
“Let’s see what we have here.”
My eyes opened as he typed something on the machine and started moving the ultrasound wand around my lower abdomen. I kept on staring at the ceiling while clutching Silas’s hand. At that moment, I had this out-of-body experience, as if I was an innocent bystander watching everything from the other side of the room.
I was twenty years old. A college dropout because I had no intention of going back after I got my heart broken. I was failing more than half of my classes anyway, so what was the use of even trying?
“Okay, so you are almost seven weeks pregnant. Everything looks good. This little shape right here is the baby.” His finger tapped at a black dot that looked nothing like a baby.