Kiersey Lips tucked her hands into the hollow of her thighs to hide the slight tremor rippling through her skin. Her normally radiant face was pinched tight with worry as she waited for the clinic workers to see them.
Rocco, her stout husband shifted uncomfortably on the plush leather reception seats beside her. "You'd think they'd answer us immediately after making all that racket about an emergency over the phone," he said in a barely concealed voice. Rocco had patience the span of a fireworks's lifecycle. He glanced at his wife and frowned. "Kiersey, stop fidgeting."
Obediently, Kiersey removed her hands from between her thighs and bunched them into fists beside her to calm the involuntary shaking. She raised her head to give Rocco a slight smile. He still had his annoyed frown on his face and she wished they would be called in sooner. It wasn't a good thing for Rocco to be annoyed for a long stretch of time. Especially at her.
He was a good husband, most of the time, he just had anger issues. She wouldn't put it past him to lash out at her, verbally or physically, right here and now if she didn't stop fidgeting. She wasn't very certain, though. He hadn't vented his anger on her since she'd gotten pregnant. But that could be because he hadn't been angered at all during that period.
"What do you think they wanted to see us about?" she asked.
"I don't know," Rocco snapped, his bushy, brown eyebrows coming together in an angry conference again. "And I'm tired of hearing you ask that a thousand times over." He exhaled. "If those people don't come out in sixty seconds, I'm going to fucking break that fucking door down."
Kiersey winced and looked away. She couldn't start to imagine the number of eyes that were now turned to them.
"Dr and Mrs Lips?"
She jerked up instantly, almost getting a head rush. "That's us."
A tall, dark-skinned guy in a lab coat, who looked like he belonged in high school smiled at them. "Come with me. We apologise for the delay. Our senior staffs were having a meeting about your case."
"Who fucking asked you? Let's just get this over with. I have a meet-up with my buddies in an hour." Rocco stood up, still wearing his frown.
The guy's smile only faltered for a second before he put it back on and started to walk out of the room. "The head staff's office is just in the next hallway."
"What did you want to see us about?" Kiersey asked, fiddling with a leather strap of her lilac handbag.
The guy renewed the plastered smile on his face. "I don't know, Mrs Lips. I was just told to fetch you guys."
Kiersey blew out a deflating sigh and shrugged. "It sounded like something bad."
She had worried her poor stomach into knots ever since she had picked the call from the hospital. And now her poor tummy churned like a washing machine with worry. And that also worried her about the growing baby. If she was this worried, she was bound to give herself high blood pressure and that would be bad for the baby, first trimester or not.
The lab coat guy veered off into the next narrow hallway and stopped to push open the first set of swinging double doors to the right. They entered into a large, airy room with blazing florescent lights overhead and a few gurneys to the side. A long formica-topped conference table dominated the center of the room, embraced all around by a number of high backed chairs.
The whole room gave a feeling of an operation room to Kiersey. She was sure it had been meant to be or used to be one. She rubbed the chill away from her arms. Operation rooms brought bad memories to her.
"Dr and Mrs Lips." A slightly rotund, balding man stood up from one of the nearest chairs to shake their hands.
"Good evening, doctor." Rocco's anger at dissipated on entering the room. He was a famous chemist with a wide chain of retail pharmacies all around the state and he always tried to make a good impression on anybody in the medical field.
"Good evening, sir, ma. Please have your seats."
Now that they were finally about to be told the news, Kiersey's worries escalated some more. What was the news going to be? There were about four other people at the table, all female, and they didn't look like bearers of good news. Now that she thought about the grim looks on theirs faces, she noticed a thick fog of untold horror hung in the room, thick as cotton wool. Kiersey almost choked on it.
Why would the artificial insemination department want to see them? And why now? No matter how much she searched through her mind for a reason, none highlighted itself. She hadn't started any prenatal care yet, so how could it be about her baby? Even if it was about, why was it the AI unit that was seeing to her? All they did was inject? the baby in her.
They took their seats and were all settled. Kiersey and Rocco looked at them expectantly. It didn't escape her notice that they were sitted on opposite sides of the oval table with them.
An elderly woman in faded pink sweater cast a glance at her colleagues and they all slightly nodded. She cleared her throat and turned back to face them.
"Dr and Mrs Lips. We regret to inform you that there was a mistake in the insemination. We—"
"A mistake? What mistake?" Rocco cut in. His eyebrows were drawing up and he was relaxed in his seat, contrary to his facial demeanor? He was angry.
Kiersey's heart turned in the cages of her ribs. What was happening? Whatever did they mean by 'a mistake'?
The woman looked away, regret deep in her chocolate-brown irises. "There was a mix-up at the lab. The two samples were put in the wrong compartments. A disastrous error on the part of the interns."
"Please, what are you saying?" Kiersey was pretty close to tears with the horror building up inside her. She felt fit to erupt and explode with compressed worry at the news to come. She could feel, already, what was about to be said.
"What we're trying to say," an Asian woman spoke up, "is that you were given the wrong sperm. The baby is not Mr Lips's."
Rocco burst into laughter. The audience in the room were confused at his reaction and cast worried glances among themselves.Kiersey didn't even notice her husband's reaction. It was like a loud bell had gone off in her skull at the news, it brought agony and pain and blocked out every other sound in the room. Her mouth dropped open like a parched fish and she looked down at the little bump of her stomach."No." That single, monosyllabic word carried so much pain and horror in it, it captivated the attention of every other person in the room. Rocco even stopped laughing to cast her a worried glance."You've got to be joking," Rocco said, glaring from one hospital staff to another.The woman in pink shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Dr Lips—""Oh, please, save it." Rocco pushed up from his chair, filling the room with the sound of wood scraping against tiles. "How coul
"And that's it for today, class. You can start your assignments while you wait for the bell." Kiersey dropped the marker and walked out of the classroom.Two girls appeared at her sides as she stepped into the hallway. One was a leggy white girl with chocolate wine hair and black eyes. She might only be sixteen and a sophomore, but she had the reasoning of an adult ten years older. She was Kiersey's favourite student in the eleventh grade Economics class.The other one was shorter and curvier and had hair of a lighter shade of red. A black American girl with the mirthand lively bubble of a Santa. She was also on the list of Kiersey's favourite students."Are you okay, Mrs Lips?" The leggy girl asked, placing a hand on her arm."Yeah, yeah, I'm good, Peyton." She produced a smile to dispel their worries."You seemed a little off in class this afternoon," the other
Kiersey.I'm writing to let you know that I've left. I've had enough time to think this over and I've decided I can't do this. I can't stomach the idea of fathering another person's child. I'm not going to raise a bastard. And why should I wait for us to have another baby when I could easily have one just as soon?I'm going back to Sienna. She came back to me in January, just so you know. I turned her away, but now that your baby isn't mine, oh well . . .I would probably have waited for you to be back from work but Sienna is impatient, we're flying out in a few minutes. Besides, knowing you, your crying theatrics would only make me more late.Oh, and, I left your copy of the divorce papers on the dining table. Sign them and mail to the address on the form.Don't look for me, Kiersey. I'm never coming back.Best of luck,Rocco Lips.Hot tears casca
Kiersey rummaged through her clutch purse and finally came up with the Vix inhaler. She dabbed the little container of liquid on her little handkerchief and plugged a deep breath down her nostrils. The fresh heady mint smell filled her head and lungs, filtering out every other smell.Kiersey found herself smiling like an addict inhaling drugs as she pulled in the next minty fresh breath.Her nausea had started up again just this morning and after she'd thrown up her pancakes breakfast outside the hospital today, a pregnant stranger had advised her to get a Vix inhaler.God bless that woman.Tucking the Vix and the handkerchief back into her purse, she sat straighter and breathed in minted air. A redhead teenage girl and her mother came to seat beside her and she nodded her head in greeting. The two looked distraught and Kiersey wondered what could have brought them to this part of the h
"What is it this time?" she questioned in a squeaky voice. She could feel her tear ducts getting busy already."Mrs Lips, you must understand—""That you guys are a bunch of careless, useless crap? Just tell me what you've done wrong this time. Let me guess, there was a mix-up in the name?"The woman winced and gulped visibly, darting her brown eyes around the room, as if she felt Kiersey would attack her any minute and was searching for any form of defence."What is it?" Kiersey screamed, standing up from the chair. The woman's fidgety ways and expression was greatly pissing her off. If she kept on delaying the news anymore, she might just jump over the desk and scratch her eyes out.The elderly woman blinked and swallowed again. She wouldn't take her eyes off the sheet of paper. "The reason there was a mix-up was because the sperm sample had been tagged for discarding. We did a recent
The sun was just brightening up the afternoon when she pulled her brown BMW out of the hospital parking lot into the light traffic. She glanced at the digital clock on her dashboard and sighed.One twenty two.She had been rather been hoping to make it back to school in time for the second segment of the day after lunch break, but then, she hadn't known she was going to get some more bad news in the hospital—bad, perturbing news that would require her withgoing school for the day. On the hunt of a guy who lived on the other side of the city—and inadvertently, on the hunt of her sperm donor; her baby's daddy.She glanced at the piece of paper again. Ryan Vice. Twenty four years old. She was supposed to be looking for a Ryan Vice who lived in a trailer house in Springfield.She rubbed tiredly at her eyebrows. That was if she found him. People that lived in trailer houses didn't mean to stay in it for long, and Kiersey
She wasn't really shocked when, on getting to the trailer home, a big haired, kohl-eyed girl informed her in a monotone that no fucking Ryan lived in her home. Rather, she was just sad. It wasn't like she had expected to find Ryan Vice so easily, but confirming her suspicions still didn't hurt less.Chewing on the corner of her bottom lip, she glanced at the girl from the window of her beemer. The latter stood with her hips cocked on the extension porch and eyed her back. Kiersey swallowed the urge to roll her eyes. It seemed like she had caught her in her worst mood.She wondered if she get more 'friendly' information from the girl. She didn't look to be older than nineteen, or even eighteen and, from the torn pants and checkered top she had on, Kiersey didn't think she was well off. She wondered if she could dare offer her money for some more information. How would the girl see that?But then, she reasoned, she m
It was almost two thirty when Kiersey found herself back on the highway on her way home. She pressed a button to ease down her window and breathed in fresh air. Her hunger pangs were acting in again. After the pancakes she had thrown up this morning, what remained was the diet coke she had bought from a vending machine in the hospital and the junk from the gas station. If she had been in school, she'd have bought lunch or even made one in the staff lunchroom.She sighed and leaned back in her seat. But she was stuck trailing a nameless, faceless guy that had donated the sperm for her baby.The hospital had suggested utero testing of the foetus, it would have been easier that way to know without running around looking for the guy. But that also came with the risk of miscarriage and that was a risk Kiersey was most definitely not about to take.Ryan Vice was definitely in Cali. She was going to have to take days off