I caught his hand and turned it over in mine. The words came out before I could stop them.
"To check if I'm pregnant? Wallace, do you really want to have a child with me?"
He smoothed my hair back, his eyes so tender they looked wet.
"What a silly thing to say. Of course I do. A girl who takes after you, a boy who takes after me. Wouldn't that be perfect?"
He played it so well. A man bred to lie since the cradle, raised in a house where every word was a knife wrapped in silk. If I hadn't heard them laughing in that backroom, I would have believed every word.
By the time the car rolled through the gates of the private clinic the Baxter Family kept on retainer, Wallace's two brothers and Ivy were already waiting in the corridor.
They looked me over, none of it friendly.
The two men raked their eyes over me, slick and possessive, the way made men sized up a thing they'd already decided was theirs to use. My skin crawled.
Wallace pulled me behind him. "Word is you might be pregnant. They came to congratulate you."
The blood test was quick. The result matched the one I'd run myself. I was pregnant.
Wallace held the report. I couldn't read his face, but Ivy's sour mood was plain to anyone with eyes.
He looked up at the doctor. "Can we do a paternity test now?"
The doctor glanced between Wallace and me, more than once. He knew whose money kept his lights on, and the knowledge made him careful. "She's only three weeks along. We can, but generally we don't recommend—"
He cut in, low and flat. "Then do it. Now."
The doctor rushed to add, "At this stage the only option is amniocentesis. It's hard on both the mother and the fetus, and we can't use anesthesia. The woman will be in a great deal of pain. Sir, you may want to reconsider."
His brow creased, impatience surfacing.
"No anesthesia, then no anesthesia. Are you having trouble understanding me?"
The temperature in that white corridor seemed to drop. The doctor turned back to me without another word of argument.
I gave a bitter smile. "Do it."
A paternity test takes a week. They couldn't wait to see the results, and any later would cut into Ivy's night at the wager house. Whether or not it hurt me wasn't their concern.
Out in the open, in front of the nurses and the soldiers loitering by the doors, people had started murmuring, glancing.
After the doctor collected the hair samples, Wallace dropped another stone into the water. "Take samples from my two brothers as well. Test all of them together."
The murmuring caught fire.
"What's going on? This woman gets around that much? Three men?"
"Why else would a man bring his newly pregnant wife in for a paternity test? He doesn't even know if the kid's his!"
"Husband's tall and good-looking and she still cheats. Ungrateful. If I were her husband I'd beat her to death!"
The doctor, who'd shown me pity a moment ago, decided he'd been played too. There was no anesthesia to begin with, and now his hand was heavier. Pain tore through my belly until my vision went black and tears slid down from the corners of my eyes. My thumb found my wedding band and turned it, around and around, the only thing in that room I could hold onto.
I came out bracing myself against the wall, and Wallace strode forward to take me in his arms.
Then Ivy ran off, eyes red.
Wallace's two brothers hurried after her.
The arm that had just closed around me went rigid, and he let go. I dropped to the floor.
"Go home on your own first. I need to check on Ivy."
He turned and ran toward where she'd gone.
Look at that. When he goes to her, he runs.
The onlookers saw the state of me and savored it.
"A bus anyone can ride. No wonder her husband ran off with someone else!"
"Hey, gorgeous, give me your number. How much for a night? I can definitely afford you."
"She charges? Free! One call and she'll be flat on your bed in a heartbeat!"
I clung to the railing and pulled myself up slowly, head down, eyes fixed on my own toes as I inched my way out.
By the time a cab had carried me back across Baxter territory to the house, the sky had gone dark.
Breathing hard, I gripped the door handle. The moment it opened, a damp, heated smell rolled over me.
The sounds of Ivy and Wallace tangled together nearly pierced my eardrums.
I shut the door, breaking, and slid slowly down the wall until I crouched there, holding my head in my hands.
