My Ward My Woman

“There’s only one person entering the room before she showed up. Whoever it is never looked at the camera and it’s hard to tell much from the angle. Obviously there’re no cameras in the dressing area since it’s illegal.”

“What about when they were leaving?”

“Same story. They kept their head down, but you can tell they were wearing a wig and the clothes didn’t fit right which means they were padded. Sorry boss.”

I walked away and called my own team to take care of the White Rabbit situation.

I still had the information in my home office so I gave them the IPO. “Find out where this is. If it’s a bouncer, follow it until you have something useful. I want this fucker’s head on my wall by end of day.”

I headed out to the pharmacy with my mind back upstairs in that room. Time to put shit in perspective. If Jessica was indeed responsible, I will make her pay in ways she couldn’t even imagine, but first I had to think about the child. Whatever she was, the child was still a part of me. Though I could wish it different.

“Wait here, I’ll be right out.” I headed into the pharmacy, something I had never done a day in my life and followed the signs to the back. There was a line of people and I had to remind myself that the world did not revolve around me as I waited with a tight leash on my impatience.

I felt a hand on my arm and turned to see Melissa, one of Jessica’s friends. “Fancy seeing you here.” She hasn’t done anything to you Solomon don’t bite her head off. “How are you Melissa?” I forced a smile and looked at the line ahead of me willing it to move. I was in no mood for chitchat.

“We missed you at the club last night.”

“I was busy.”

“Oh well, we could’ve used someone to take Jess home, that girl sure doesn’t know when to quit.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean she was shit faced drunk. Tasha had to take her home since she couldn’t see straight to drive. Why so surprised? You do know Jess likes to drink.”

“Yes, but I thought with the baby…” How dare she.

“Baby, what baby?”

“Jess didn’t tell you? She’s pregnant.” It struck me as odd that she hadn’t shared the news with her best friend. I didn’t understand the laughter.

“Where did you get that? You must’ve heard wrong, Jess can’t have children.”

“What are you talking about?” My body tensed up and I willed myself to stay calm.

“It’s true. It happened when we were travelling one year as kids. She caught one of those third world diseases, measles, smallpox; I don’t remember which one now, but it left scarring inside. I do remember her mom was freaking out about never having grandkids since, as you know Jess is an only child.”

I excused myself and left. I didn’t feel anger, didn’t feel anything. I was numb all over. How had she played me for a fool? How the fuck had I let this happen? It would be too easy to go to her place now and throw her out the window. No, this called for planning and execution.

But wait a minute. Maybe Melissa’s wrong. Didn’t Jessica say in one of her million calls that she’d seen a doctor and he’d confirmed it? I need to find out who he is. There was only one way to do that and I was sure Jessica wasn’t going to tell me.

I turned around and went back inside. I’d forgotten the damn pills anyway. I saw Melissa still in line and walked over to her. “Sorry about that I just remembered something I’d left in the car. So listen, this quack doctor that told her she’s pregnant. I would hate to think there’s something seriously wrong. I mean why would a doctor make such a gross misdiagnosis?”

“You mean Dr. Bartholomew? Quack is right if he’s the one who told her that. But I don’t see how. The way she was drinking last night I don’t think she’s pregnant. Maybe he told her different after the first diagnosis. Maybe that’s why she was celebrating. Jess is not exactly the mothering type.” She gave me a look that said she was, and she knew just who she wanted to give them to her. Like hell.

My mind was working as the line moved. I said goodbye to her when she was done, filled the prescription and headed out to the car. It’s a good thing I wasn’t driving because my mind was working overtime. First I had to see this doctor that she said confirmed her pregnancy. Maybe that was another lie.

23

Solomon

I rushed home to be there when she awakened. Everything else will have to wait. I didn’t want Melissa talking to Jessica though before I had a chance to make my move, so I had my team do some digging for me. They were still working on the White Rabbit situation.