I turned to her, grin wide on my face, and took the paperwork. Then I handed it to Eerie who snatched it out of my hand and immediately started to read it.
Her face blanched as she stared blankly at the paperwork.
Her eyes looked up at me, startled. “You didn’t take my DNA.”
I nodded my head. “You did. You left that drink here. The one that you bitched about not taking into the room with you because it wasn’t going to hurt anything. The lawyer took the straw. He said it’d be easier to do that than to call you back to give us a sample.”
Eerie was furious. “This can’t be right.”
I shrugged. “Have it done again. That doesn’t change the judge’s decision for today. Now, I better not see you here again without a court order, understand?”
Eerie stomped her feet and bared her teeth. “I’m not leaving.”
Willet snorted and made her way to the washing station.
“Oh, by the way,” I said before Willet went back inside. “I would like to start our son on breastmilk, effective immediately.”
Eerie’s enraged shout followed soon after, and I heard more than felt her launch herself at me.
But I’d grown up with Nathan as a playmate. Nathan who, might I add, wasn’t ever gentle with me.
We brawled, we hit, kicked, punched and bit. We didn’t give one single fuck when we were growing up whether we were hurting the other person.
And that’d given me the ability to fight with the best of them.
Which meant that I could stop her, but I chose not to.
Because if she hit me, then I would have the ability to press charges, and you bet your ass I was going to press charges.
I turned so that I was facing her just in time for her to rear backward and punch me as hard as she could in the face.
The ring that she was wearing on her finger cut my face, and I knew without a doubt that I was going to need stitches.
I felt my cheek rip open from one side of my temple to right under my eye.
It hurt like a bitch, and even better, there were witnesses.
“I will not stand for this!” she shrieked.
I pulled out my phone and dialed the cops.
“Don’t let her go,” I said. “I’m pressing charges.”
Eerie let out another enraged shriek that ended with the security guards each grabbing her by the arm and tucking her in tightly to their bodies so that they could control her if she tried to go at me again.
“Ma’am,” the bigger of the security guards said. “That’s enough.”
He was a cop that worked security at the hospital for extra cash. His name was Beetle—which was his actual last name if you were wondering—and he looked like he wished he didn’t come to work today.
I winked at him and he raised his brows. “You might want to grab a towel and grab that blood before it stains your shirt.”
Too late.
I looked down and the blood started to drip down my cheek.
The elevator dinged behind them and I was startled to find Dr. D stepping off looking at his phone.
He looked up, took a look at everything that was going on, and immediately came to stand by my side.
I loved Dr. D.
He was the sweetest, most caring doctor I’d ever met, and I was happy that I got to work with him as often as I did.
He took one look at me and glared at Eerie. “You’re not welcome in my NICU anymore.”
I laughed and jerked my head toward the papers. “She’s not for real. She’s not the baby’s mother.”
Dr. D’s lips twitched. “Good.”
Then he walked to the washing station and scrubbed himself clean before going into the NICU without another glance back.
I walked over and did the same, grabbing towels to clean myself off and rewash my hands before the cops got there.
They arrived within three minutes and wasn’t it my lucky day, the man to come inside was none other than Ford Spurlock.
He took one look at my face and his face got thunderous.
“I’m pressing charges,” I said without preamble. “She assaulted me, and I have three witnesses.”
Ford’s eyes went to mine, then to Eerie.
“Did she now?” he said softly. “Ma’am.” He gestured at Eerie. “Please let me have your hands. We’ll do this all nice like.”
Eerie bared her teeth at him and nearly lunged at him, but the security guards still had a hold of her arms.
“Y’all mind walking her down to the ER entrance with me?” Ford asked the two men.
“Sure thing,” the shorter one said as he pressed the button to open the elevator doors.
The elevator arrived within short order and Ford stepped in with everyone else. He placed his hands on the doors, though, and looked at me. “You call him yet?”
I shook my head. “Not yet. He’s in a meeting right now. Or he was supposed to be. With you as a matter of fact. But I’ll be leaving right after I get this looked at. I’ll let him know then.”
Ford nodded. “Good. And I had some things to take care of. I was just here when the call went out, and heard your name over the scanner.”
Then he let go of the door and stepped back.
The elevator doors closed and the doors behind me opened.
“Get in here and let me put a few stitches in there,” Dr. D ordered.
I followed him inside to the nurses’ station and took a seat where he directed.
Then he proceeded to put seven stitches in my cheek.
He then sent me home.
“Go get changed. Come back when you’re clean. Don’t want to scare the other parents,” he ordered.
I sighed and agreed.
“I need to talk to Nathan anyway.”
I drove straight home, not stopping until I pulled into our driveway, even though I could sorely use a fucking cookie.
When I got there, I was relieved to see Nathan’s truck in the drive.
I could see him sitting on the couch grinning at something on his phone.
Last night, after we’d decided to
