They left me at the hospital to watch the baby.
By the time the small hours came around,
I was just about to close my eyes for a bit when my glance snagged on the baby's birth certificate. Blood type: A.
Wait.
I was fairly sure Terry was type O.
And Arlene was type B.
So how could the baby possibly be type A?
I was still puzzling over it when the door to the ward flew open under someone's kick.
A big-bellied man in a tank top and boxer shorts came barreling in.
Before I could even react, he slapped me hard across the face.
“So you're Delia Perry, huh?”
The blow knocked me to the floor.
But he wasn't finished.
He kept going, kicking and punching.
“You disgusting woman, you nearly got my son killed……”
It took hospital security, the doctors, and the nurses rushing in to finally drag him off me.
I was hurt in a dozen places.
My face had swollen up, and my eye burned and stung.
“Who are you? I don't even know you!”
I was furious.
The man only puffed himself up more, jabbing a finger at me.
“You're exactly who I came to beat!”
I pulled out my phone, ready to call the police.
“Then you can explain yourself to the cops when they get here!“
The man's expression shifted.
“I—I'm Arlene's cousin!”
“Arlene told me you nearly got the baby killed.”
“So I came to teach you a lesson!”
he wheezed out.
Cousin?
Something didn't add up.
But the man wrenched his arm free of the guard holding him and pointed at me again.
“Everybody take a look and tell me who's in the wrong here. She's my cousin's sister-in-law, her husband's sister, and she's always looked down on my cousin.”
“We asked her a few times to come help my cousin through her postpartum recovery, and she refused every time!”
“Then the one day she finally shows up, the baby ends up with severe heatstroke and almost dies!”
“My cousin says she did it on purpose, that she wanted to hurt the baby!”
The moment he said it, the way everyone else in the room looked at me changed.
Confusion, contempt, and something angrier underneath.
Two of the nurses were whispering off to the side.
“Bad blood between a wife and her husband's sister is common enough, but using a baby to get back at someone, that's just vicious.”
“Put it that way, she had that beating coming. Honestly, I'd say she got off light.”
“Right? The baby's so tiny……”
I couldn't help frowning.
“It was Arlene who wouldn't open a window or turn on the AC. She's the one who left the baby to stew.”
“And you say you're Arlene's cousin. How come I've never seen you before?”
At the question, the man froze for a second, and his face changed again.
“Hmph. You watch yourself from now on!”
“If anything else happens to that baby, I'll kill you!”
He shot a glance at the baby on the bed, then slunk off, still cursing under his breath.
The doctors and nurses who'd been looking down on me a moment ago left too, awkward now.
I made a call, though, first thing, to my assistant, Edna.
I gave her a few instructions.
The next morning,
Terry came to the hospital to see the baby.
I asked him whether he knew Arlene had a cousin.
And I described the man's face for him.
“Oh, you mean Darrell. Darrell Lambert.”
“He's a neighbor of ours, good guy. Arlene took him on as a sworn brother.”
“How do you know about Darrell?”
So I told him everything that had happened.
When Terry finished listening, he actually laughed.
“Ah, Arlene must've said something to him. He's just a warmhearted type, wanted to stand up for her……”
Crack!
I drove my fist straight into his nose.
Terry just stood there, dumbstruck.
“What'd you hit me for?”
I fixed him with a cold stare.
“You think this is funny?”
Terry flushed, humiliated and angry.
“It's not that big a deal. You really need to take it out on me?”
