“You really think that? Everyone knows you’re his favorite. All he talks about is his doctor daughter and those Uganda trips. It was stupid of me to think Leighton could close the deal, even with a baby.”
Garrett’s bitter look made me realize something else. “Was Leighton ever pregnant in the first place? Did she really have a miscarriage?”
“She would have been. We were working on it,” Garrett answered.
More sick feelings rolled my stomach. “I can’t believe you would sink this low, use people like this, just for money. You’re a monster.”
“We can't all be like you, Saint Olivia,” Garrett said with a nasty tone, grabbing my arm again.
I ripped it back and started walking toward the clinic.
But Garrett called after me. “And if you think I’m a monster, what does that make your current fiancé? He’s the biggest monster in this story.”
He’s the biggest monster in this story.
Garrett’s words echoed in my head as I conducted my next appointment. Luckily it was just a third-trimester growth scan for one of my older deaf moms. Everything looked great, and I gave her and her wife a cheery goodbye, knowing I probably wouldn’t see them again until it was time for the baby to be born.
After that, I’d planned to work on a job description for the third OB I’d decided to bring on for the clinic. But instead of returning to my office, I asked Bernice to cancel the rest of my appointments for the day.
It was time. Time for me to go home and call my father and tell him about the break-up.
Garrett was horrible but technically right. Phantom had been playing me all along.
Let me in.
An embarrassed heat rushed through my body as I remembered the desperate way he’d taken me after he’d shown up at my door.
Mind games. That was all that was.
I should feel nothing but used and violated.
Yet, as I thundered home on the subway, one thought kept swirling around my mind. But what about his grandma?
I’d seen her fall with my own eyes. She’d held onto my hand and refused to let me go until her grandson arrived. There was no way Phantom could have orchestrated that. No way.
The tinny voice overhead announced my stop, but I didn’t disembark.
I kept going. I kept going and switched trains to get off at the stop right underneath Chelsea Sinai.
All my life…
All my life, relationships had been something that happened to me. I’d had crushes at my mostly white private school, but I’d been so afraid of rejection that I’d never pursued them or let any of the boys I liked know.
How many times had I been jealous of Eric’s ability to spot a man he found attractive and level up to kissing before the hour was through? Or Bernice’s secret superpower of being able to talk to any guy she wanted after throwing back a couple of drinks?
I’d never been able to do that. Every guy I’d ever dated had made the first move. And my relationship with Phantom had been the same. He’d appeared to give me the decision of accepting his proposal at the party. But he steered every inch of it, then jumped out of the driver’s seat and left me to crash into a wall.
But what about his grandma?
The question kept ringing in my head as I walked up to the emergency room’s front desk and asked to see the nurse who attended to Phantom’s grandmother the day of the accident.
No more letting life happen to me, I decided.
It was time for me to take back the wheel, demand answers.
And by demand, I meant politely ask the nurse to look up the address record for the old lady who came through the emergency room on my birthday. I made up a story about picking up her day planner but having only found the time to return it today.
Yes, I was willing to break several HIPPA laws if it meant finally getting some answers.
Fortunately, the nurse was extremely busy. She just gave me the information I wanted without any further questions.
And about a half-hour later, I found myself standing outside a mixed-use apartment building in Chinatown.
Phantom’s grandmother pushed open the red security door from the other side before I even got the chance to find her unit on the call-up box. As if she’d been waiting for my arrival. Her entire face lit up with a gummy smile when she saw me.
Without saying a word, she yanked me down and hugged me, strong as a tree despite her age. It was a hug I hadn’t realized I truly needed until tears stung my eyes.
She drew back and cupped my face to babble a bunch of words I didn’t understand.
Which immediately cut short the Rocky theme song playing inside my head. I’d been so determined to find her and get my answers, I’d forgotten about the total language barrier.
