Chapter 5: Quick Karma
1452 Words
Evangeline
Mother had lost her memory. She couldn't remember anything.
The doctor explained it could be temporary. She needed to be kept for a couple of days more for monitoring.
"What happened?" Mother finally asked after the doctor had checked her vitals and assured her that everything was fine. Everything except her memory...
"You took a FALL to the head, Mom. But the doctor says you will be fine."
"Wait..." Mom croaked. "I have a daughter?" Her eyes widened, as if she couldn't believe it. As if my existence in her one little world was a miracle.
"Yes, you do, Mom." I muttered as my heart tightened painfully at the memories of her cruelty.
Mom and I remained at the hospital, and I continued to care for her. Despite the dizzying headaches and constant fever I experienced, I pushed all of those aside and focused on Mother.
And even though she remained unseeing, she expressed her gratitude to me for never leaving her bedside. She was nothing like the woman who had raised me.
She remained gentle and polite. No covert insult. She made no demands.
And somehow, her newfound guilelessness thickened my guilt and tortured my heart. It would have been easier to deal with her cruelty and heartlessness.
"Evangeline, you should rest. You retched all morning, and you've not been able to keep anything in. You have done enough for me. Please, rest."
"I'm fine, Mom," I whispered as another wave of dizziness hit.
There was silence. Mother had learned to study the silence. And this time, when she spoke, her tone was gentle and measured.
"Do you have a man in your life, Evangeline?"
She now called me Evangeline, as if she quite enjoyed the way the name rolled off her lips. Other times, she called me that with a hint of pride in her voice, like she was proud of herself for coming up with such a name.
"I do not have a man." I snapped.
Mother sat up, her eyes veering upwards, but concern etched on her features.
"Why is that, Evangeline? You're such a sweet girl. Any man would be lucky to have you."
Anger consumed me at her words, and rage unlike anything I'd ever known lit my blood. How could she ask me that, after Luke?
Did she really not remember?
"I had a man, but you were selfish enough to ruin him because you wanted me by your side at all times. How can you not remember that?"
"What?" Mother whispered in a tiny, broken voice.
But I didn't wait for any more questions. I dropped the folded cloth at the foot of the bed and ran out, away from Mother's disturbing new personality.
But I couldn't outrun the pain. The guilt.
"No running along the hallway!" One of the nurses called out.
But I paid her no mind, continuing towards the door, but I didn't make it out, because in the next minute, I was hit with pain so dizzying I crumbled to the ground.
***
I woke up on a hospital bed, with a killer headache and a tongue that felt too heavy for my mouth.
I looked around the white-painted walls, wondering what I was doing here, until the memories slowly trickled in.
Gavin's death. Mom's amnesia. That dizzying spell.
I sat up and instantly clutched my head as another wave of pain hit.
"You should probably lie back down. You took a bad fall."
I looked up and into the kindest bright blue eyes I'd ever seen.
"What happened?" My voice was scratchy, just like Mother's voice was a couple of days ago.
"You fell while trying to escape the hospital. So, I should ask you what happened, Ms. Thatcher."
I sighed as I recalled mother's question. She had asked why I was single, as if she hadn't architected it.
I shook my head slowly.
"Evangeline, is there anything you'd like to share?" The doctor asked in a low, kind voice that gave me the instant urge to drop my head on her shoulders and bawl.
But instead, I drew up my legs, rested my head on them and shook my head slowly.
The doctor stepped closer, and I caught a whiff of her scent. She smelled like fresh daisies and spring.
She sat on my bed, and it creaked slightly as it absorbed her weight.
"When you were rushed back in, I had to check your vitals. And when I was sure you weren't going to have a concussion due to that nasty fall, I decided to palpate you."
The doctor paused, and when the silence stretched for far longer than it was necessary, I looked up. The doctor rested a hand on the arm that was wrapped around my knees, her gaze never straying away from mine as she began.
"I am not sure, Evangeline, but I think that you might be pregnant. Palpation is never a hundred percent correct in cases such as this, which is why I'd like to suggest a proper test."
"No, no. I whispered as tears filled my eyes. That can't be possible. It's not... I c-can't be—"
"I'm not certain, Evangeline." The doctor gave my arm a comforting squeeze. "But a proper test will give us the truth."
"I can't be pregnant." I repeated over and over, as though the reiteration was going to erase the evidence of truth in my stomach.
The signs had all been there, but I'd been too absorbed in my misery to notice. The morning sickness, the constant dizziness, the absence of appetite.
Jesus Christ.
"Would you like to carry out the test now, or would you like some time to recoup?"
I shook my head.
The doctor looked slightly confused at my action.
"So, you need time then?" She asked, as if to ascertain what I was answering."
Without conscious thought, I brought my hand to my still flat stomach, my heart speeding fast as I felt the painful contraction I had been experiencing intermittently for days.
"I don't need time, doctor. I need the baby gone."
The words left my mouth in a rush, and pain shot through my heart at the declaration, but I knew I had never meant anything more.
Surprise registered on the doctor's features, but she recovered quickly.
" Evangeline, I understand you're in deep shock. But you have to carry out a proper test. You can't get rid of something you're not even sure exists."
"I know I'm pregnant." I whispered, my hands still flat against my stomach. "I can tell."
"Well, we generally do not carry out procedures like that, and you still need to carry out a proper test. But I could recommend a few doctors—"
"There'll be no need for that, doctor." I stood up and marched towards the door.
"Evangeline?" The doctor called out. I didn't look back. I didn't have to.
Even though I desperately wished for the baby to be Luke's, I knew that it wasn't. Luke and I hadn't been intimate for over a month. And we had always used protection.
The life growing in my stomach had been put there by Gavin. One drunken night of senseless mistakes was here to haunt me forever. But I wasn't going to let it.
Enough was enough. I was no longer going to cower in the face of my nightmare.
I stepped into the sun, my finger dancing over the keypad on my phone, as I googled the safest clinic for my procedure. I wasn't going to breathe another second with Gavin's abomination in my stomach. No, I wasn't.
And then, suddenly, I experienced the frightening feeling of being watched and looked up, my blood freezing at the sight that greeted me.
Black leather pants, black shirt rolled up. A smattering of tattoos on his neck that disappeared underneath a starched collar.
Dane Calder. Gavin's bastard son stood several feet away, back resting on a spotless white Audi.
Dark bottomless eyes locked onto mine, freezing me. Keeping me in place.
“How does it feel?" His voice was pitched low, but somehow, I heard him, "Knowing the man you were hoping to take everything from died before you could finish the job?"
I opened my mouth to answer, but no words made it out.
"Karma came quicker than you expected, didn’t it? And now, you think you can get rid of the consequence of your mistake?"
"How did you kn—"
Get in the car.” He commanded. And when I looked into those obsidian eyes, I knew I'd die quicker than a street rat if I refused.
Karma had gotten me, and it had gotten me real good.
- Writer
